Boeing EC-135H 'Silk Purse' - Air Fete '86
Head-on view of the same aircraft shown in the previous post. Boeing EC-135H 'Silk Purse', on static display at Mildenhall Air Fete '86. Designated 'Silk Purse', there were relatively few of this EC-135H variant built, because they had a particular mission during the cold war years to provide airborne command and control, one remaining airborne 24 hours a day to provide this. Like the KC-135 variants, these aircraft were equipped with an air-to air refuelling boom, but also had an additional refuelling line with a drogue type line of the type required for use by both US Navy and NATO aircraft. The pod containing the drogue line can be seen under the fuselage, approximately level with the main landing gear in this photograph. I am not certain, but I think this aircraft (10291) was the same one (then 610291?) used for the final airborne display of the type at Air Fete '91 - a very interesting account of which can be found at the following link www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36089/heres-how-an-ec-135-c...
This photo was taken much earlier in late May 1986 on Kodak VR 100 colour negative film rated at 100 ASA using a Nikon F301 35mm SLR. I think I had by this time acquired a Sigma 24mm f/2.8 super wideangle manual focus lens to go with F301. Scanned to DNG raw file using a Plustek 8200i film scanner and processed from the DNG file using Capture One Pro 23. As with the previous Mildenhall Air Fete '86 posts, I have used Topaz Labs Denoise AI 3.7 to moderate the film grain.
Boeing EC-135H 'Silk Purse' - Air Fete '86
Head-on view of the same aircraft shown in the previous post. Boeing EC-135H 'Silk Purse', on static display at Mildenhall Air Fete '86. Designated 'Silk Purse', there were relatively few of this EC-135H variant built, because they had a particular mission during the cold war years to provide airborne command and control, one remaining airborne 24 hours a day to provide this. Like the KC-135 variants, these aircraft were equipped with an air-to air refuelling boom, but also had an additional refuelling line with a drogue type line of the type required for use by both US Navy and NATO aircraft. The pod containing the drogue line can be seen under the fuselage, approximately level with the main landing gear in this photograph. I am not certain, but I think this aircraft (10291) was the same one (then 610291?) used for the final airborne display of the type at Air Fete '91 - a very interesting account of which can be found at the following link www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36089/heres-how-an-ec-135-c...
This photo was taken much earlier in late May 1986 on Kodak VR 100 colour negative film rated at 100 ASA using a Nikon F301 35mm SLR. I think I had by this time acquired a Sigma 24mm f/2.8 super wideangle manual focus lens to go with F301. Scanned to DNG raw file using a Plustek 8200i film scanner and processed from the DNG file using Capture One Pro 23. As with the previous Mildenhall Air Fete '86 posts, I have used Topaz Labs Denoise AI 3.7 to moderate the film grain.