AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 222 / 291

Plate 222 of 291 · Cold War · Electronic-intelligence aircraft

Boeing RC-135W Airseeker

Airseeker R1 (RC-135W Rivet Joint), ZZ664, painted as ZZ664, a Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint of the Royal Air Force’s No. 51 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, the first of the RAF’s three Airseeker R1 electronic-intelligence aircraft, converted from a former US Air Force KC-135R tanker by L-3 at Greenville, Texas: a four-engined jet with a low swept wing, a narrow fuselage, a tall fin and four CFM56 (F108) turbofans in nacelles on pylons under the wing, the black ‘hog nose’ radome, long cheek fairings along each side of the forward fuselage holding the listening antennas, rows of blade aerials above and below the fuselage, a dome on the spine, a long-wire aerial from the spine to the fin, a dome on the fin tip and HF probes at the wingtips: white upper fuselage and fin and light grey below a thin dark cheat line, grey wings and nacelles with a red line round each fan cowl, dark grey ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ titles over the wing root, a small red and blue roundel and ‘ZZ664’ on the rear fuselage, a white shield with a red St George’s cross below each windscreen, the doors outlined in yellow, and the red goose of No. 51 Squadron and a small fin flash on the fin, as photographed between its delivery in 2013 and 2022 (side view taken from a side-on photograph of ZZ664 scaled to the published length and wheelbase, plan from a published RC-135V three-view; the temporary centenary fin markings it wore in 2016 and the small stencils are left off, and no photograph shows its upper wing, so it carries no roundels there).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZZ664, a Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint of the Royal Air Force’s No. 51 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, the first of the RAF’s three Airseeker R1 electronic-intelligence aircraft, converted from a former US Air Force KC-135R tanker by L-3 at Greenville, Texas: a four-engined jet with a low swept wing, a narrow fuselage, a tall fin and four CFM56 (F108) turbofans in nacelles on pylons under the wing, the black ‘hog nose’ radome, long cheek fairings along each side of the forward fuselage holding the listening antennas, rows of blade aerials above and below the fuselage, a dome on the spine, a long-wire aerial from the spine to the fin, a dome on the fin tip and HF probes at the wingtips: white upper fuselage and fin and light grey below a thin dark cheat line, grey wings and nacelles with a red line round each fan cowl, dark grey ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ titles over the wing root, a small red and blue roundel and ‘ZZ664’ on the rear fuselage, a white shield with a red St George’s cross below each windscreen, the doors outlined in yellow, and the red goose of No. 51 Squadron and a small fin flash on the fin, as photographed between its delivery in 2013 and 2022 (side view taken from a side-on photograph of ZZ664 scaled to the published length and wheelbase, plan from a published RC-135V three-view; the temporary centenary fin markings it wore in 2016 and the small stencils are left off, and no photograph shows its upper wing, so it carries no roundels there). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.8 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Airseeker R1 (RC-135W Rivet Joint)); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Airseeker R1 (RC-135W Rivet Joint), ZZ664 modelled here.

History

The Airseeker R1

In 1954 the US Air Force ordered a jet tanker from Boeing, based on the company’s Dash 80 prototype, to refuel the bombers of Strategic Air Command. The KC-135A Stratotanker first flew at Renton, near Seattle, on 31 August 1956. It looked like the 707 airliner developed alongside it, but its fuselage was narrower and shorter and it was built to a different, military structure. More than 800 aircraft of the C-135 family were built by 1965, and the tankers are still flying, re-engined with CFM56 turbofans as the KC-135R.

From the early 1960s Strategic Air Command converted C-135s into reconnaissance aircraft, designated RC-135, to fly along the borders of the Soviet Union and record its radars and radio traffic. The main signals-intelligence version became known as Rivet Joint: the RC-135V and RC-135W, flown by the 55th Wing from Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. Each carries a long, blunt ‘hog nose’ radome, cheek fairings along the forward fuselage holding its antennas, and a cabin of operators and analysts who find, identify and listen to signals from far beyond the border, passing what they learn to commanders as it happens. RC-135s have flown on almost every American operation since the Vietnam War.

The RAF had listened in the same way since 1974 with three Nimrod R1s of No. 51 Squadron, and with the Nimrods nearing retirement the Ministry of Defence agreed in March 2010 to buy three RC-135Ws instead, converted from former US Air Force KC-135R tankers, under a project called Airseeker. RAF crews trained and flew alongside the 55th Wing from 2011, the last Nimrod R1 retired that June, and the first Airseeker, ZZ664, was delivered late in 2013. ZZ665 followed in 2015, seven months early, and ZZ666 in 2017. As the Airseeker R1 they fly with No. 51 Squadron from RAF Waddington, and since 2014 they have flown over Iraq and Syria and, after 2022, along the eastern edge of NATO.

This airframe

Airseeker R1 ZZ664

ZZ664The airframe modelled

ZZ664 is the first of the RAF’s three Airseeker R1s, delivered late in 2013 and flown by No. 51 Squadron from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire; in 2020 it returned to Waddington after a cockpit upgrade in the United States. No Airseeker is in a museum, so the model shows a serving aircraft, and ZZ664 was chosen because it is the most photographed of the three: on the ground side-on at RAF Waddington, from below in flight, and in the Ministry of Defence’s own photographs. The model shows it as those photographs do: white above and light grey below a thin dark cheat line, the black ‘hog nose’ radome, grey wings and nacelles with a red line round each fan cowl, ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ over the wing root, a small red and blue roundel and ‘ZZ664’ on the rear fuselage, a white shield with a red St George’s cross below each windscreen, the doors outlined in yellow, and the red goose of No. 51 Squadron and a small fin flash on the fin. Its shape was taken from a side-on photograph of ZZ664 scaled to the published length and wheelbase, which puts the top of the fin a little lower than the published height, and from a published RC-135V three-view. The large fin markings it wore for the squadron’s centenary in 2016 were temporary and are left off, as are the small stencils; no photograph shows its upper wing, so it carries no roundels there.

Where to see one

Not on charge

All three RAF Airseekers are in service with No. 51 Squadron at RAF Waddington, and none is in a museum.

All 291 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.