Kelly: SAC mainstay 'Looking Glass' on course for place of honor in museum

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/columnists/kelly-sac-mainstay-looking-glass-on-course-for-place-of/article_5b59c774-6e15-11e4-be0b-272ea0a8af4a.html

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Alfred Buckles and the EC-135 “Looking Glass” plane outside the Strategic Air & Space Museum last week. Buckles, a SAC communications officer on the Looking Glass for 15 years, said he hopes Omaha’s longtime association with SAC will prompt donations to restore the plane.


POSTED: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 1:00 AM
By Michael Kelly / World-Herald columnist

Kelly: With new Cold War emphasis, SAC may rejoin museum
* * *

The old “Looking Glass” is looking lonely and forlorn.

The airplane, its wings clipped and lying off to the side, sits outdoors on the back lot of the Strategic Air & Space Museum near Ashland. The EC-135 was part of the old Strategic Air Command’s 29-year, round-the-clock airborne command post.

Few ever see it. But officials say that will change.

The museum, pondering a name change to SAC Museum, plans to move the plane indoors in the spring, hoping to raise $200,000 to restore it.

FULL story at link.

[longship]

1. I know the 135 series intimately.

It was also known as the Boeing 707. One can always tell. There's the unmistakable antenna sticking out from the front of the vehicle stabilizer.

My experience with this plane was when the Air Force and Boeing decided to re-engine and re-skin the fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers. You know, like the refueling airplane during the opening credits to Stanley Kubricks's brilliant Dr. Strangelove. Well in the 1980's I worked at Boeing in Wichita, KS. I did all the sonic testing on the renewed KC-135R. The new GE CFM-56 engines were not only quieter, but they had nearly twice the thrust. The renewed plane was a real rocket. It popped off the McConnell AFB runway like there was no gravity, compared to the older version. And believe me, it was demonstrated for everybody to see.

Interestingly, some are still flying. They are really great airplanes, one of the best ever designed. And there is not a square inch of it that I don't know.

Thanks for the post.

R&K