Boeing 757 Flying Testbed, E-3C Sentry, and P-8I Poseidon
This picture, taken through the fence at the Museum of Flight in Seattle in 2014, shows off a number of aircraft undergoing finishing touches, upgrades, or temporarily in storage.
The Boeing 757 in the foreground is a flying testbed for the F-22 Raptor, and carries a wing above the cockpit that roughly approximates the F-22's wing layout; hidden behind the structures at the front of the fuselage is the extended nose, which is essentially a Raptor nose grafted onto the nose. Not only does it make the aircraft distinct, this is also the prototype 757. More than likely, it will end up at the Museum of Flight at some point in the future.
In the background are two E-3Cs; the first one is LX-N90459, an AWACS assigned to the NATO Airborne Early Warning unit based at Geilenkirchen, Germany. Because the NATO E-3s are flown by mixed crews, they are registered to Luxembourg and represent Luxembourg's entire air force! The other E-3 is a USAF example, likely assigned to the 552nd ACW at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma.
Rounding out the picture is a single P-8I Poseidon, destined for the Indian Navy's 312 Squadron, based at Rajali. I got a better picture of one of her sisters, elsewhere in my photostream.
Because of the position of the hills in the distance, I unfortunately didn't get Mount Rainier in this shot, as it was "out" that day.
Boeing 757 Flying Testbed, E-3C Sentry, and P-8I Poseidon
This picture, taken through the fence at the Museum of Flight in Seattle in 2014, shows off a number of aircraft undergoing finishing touches, upgrades, or temporarily in storage.
The Boeing 757 in the foreground is a flying testbed for the F-22 Raptor, and carries a wing above the cockpit that roughly approximates the F-22's wing layout; hidden behind the structures at the front of the fuselage is the extended nose, which is essentially a Raptor nose grafted onto the nose. Not only does it make the aircraft distinct, this is also the prototype 757. More than likely, it will end up at the Museum of Flight at some point in the future.
In the background are two E-3Cs; the first one is LX-N90459, an AWACS assigned to the NATO Airborne Early Warning unit based at Geilenkirchen, Germany. Because the NATO E-3s are flown by mixed crews, they are registered to Luxembourg and represent Luxembourg's entire air force! The other E-3 is a USAF example, likely assigned to the 552nd ACW at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma.
Rounding out the picture is a single P-8I Poseidon, destined for the Indian Navy's 312 Squadron, based at Rajali. I got a better picture of one of her sisters, elsewhere in my photostream.
Because of the position of the hills in the distance, I unfortunately didn't get Mount Rainier in this shot, as it was "out" that day.