Interesting warbirds at Internation Airport, Tehran, Iran

[Connery]

I was bored at work today and just started checking different out locations using Google Maps. I started with Tehran, Iran since I lived there back in the late 70's. I focused on the International Airport and found an Air Park at the far northern edge that has a C-47, what appears to be a B-25 and other warbirds and miscellaneous planes. You can see them here:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115372921593118100923.000437e8b1b6c3aabfc37&ll=35.714031,51.292253&spn=0.002779,0.003809&t=h&z=18&om=1

I also looked around the entire area and didn't find a single F-14 sitting in the open, although I did find many of what looks like C-130's and a single F-4 Phantom at the southern part of the area. There are also many AH-1 Cobras scattered around the area and several near what used to be Bell Helicopter where my dad worked.

Looking at NAS Ft Worth (former Carswell AFB) I found what looks like a B-29 sittng on the tarmac

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115372921593118100923.000437e8b1b6c3aabfc37&ll=32.782036,-97.436213&spn=0.001439,0.001904&t=h&z=19&om=1

Also a cannibalized F-14 sitting in the grass just off the ramp.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115372921593118100923.000437e8b1b6c3aabfc37&ll=32.772308,-97.430668&spn=0.001439,0.001904&t=h&z=19&om=1

Across the runway at Lockheed, it looks like there are three aircraft on the roof of different buildings. One of them looks like an F-35. Just north of the F-35 is something strange, like half a plane on the roof. Then another tail-less plane sitting on another roof to the far south of the F-35

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115372921593118100923.000437e8b1b6c3aabfc37&ll=32.78267,-97.446464&spn=0.001439,0.001904&t=h&z=19&om=1

[Steve Nelson]

Don't know about the others, but the plane on the Carswell ramp appears to be a B-50.

SN

[T J Johansen]

Since you used to live in Tehran I guess you're the guy to ask. Bell Helicopter used to have an executive A-26 in Tehran back in the 70s. Do you remember that a/c? What it looked like and so on. By the way, that's the large olive drab twin in the middle of the photo facing NW. The place is called the Tehran Aerospace Exhibition Center.

Here is the A-26.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0898119/L/

T J

Last edited by T J Johansen on Fri Aug 17, 2007 5:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Don't know about the others, but the plane on the Carswell ramp appears to be a B-50.

SN

I think it's a C-97. The fuselage is larger and the tail looks different. A B-50 shouldn't cast such a large shadow at that time of the day.
Jerry

[Old SAR pilot]

Mike Henninger's Visuals site ID's it as a C-97..

[Ztex]

That was a KC-97 at Carswell...I think it was scrapped a few years ago...some small parts still exist around Ft. Worth...

The "airplanes" on the roof at Lockheed (General Dynamics / Consolidated) are F-22 and F-35 RADAR test articles

If you'll notice just south east of the F-35 test stuff, on the north side of a building is the B-36 wing center section...that is now at Pima...

Zane

[JBoyle]

The KC-97 was at Carswell when I last looked a couple of years ago. Since Carswell is a military field, I believe it was a museum airframe, so unless some disaster has befallen it, I don't think it has been scrapped...and I haven't read that it was.

[RickH]

The A-26 was probably the A-26 known as Reynolds Bombshell. It was on an Around the worl speed record attempt when it cracked a spar. It was abandoned and it's been in Tehran ever since.

[Steve Nelson]

think it's a C-97. The fuselage is larger and the tail looks different. A B-50 shouldn't cast such a large shadow at that time of the day.

Ah..I was going by the wings (which are the same on both aircraft) and didn't notice the fuselage.

SN

[muddyboots]

*assumes looks ofr cluelessness*

This. This is why I hang out here!

[Asterperious]

I don't know about the others, but at the lockheed plant those are F-35 radar cross section models mounted on various roof top pintels for running different tests. There was a production mock-up there for a while too.

Up near the north end of the taxiway in a little storage area is an F-16 that used to be parked on the ramp next to the Block 60 final fitment facility. I have the tail number at work.

[Bust*A*Stitch]

I looked this up on the real google earth and just east of this airport this another runway, and there are 5 aircraft there one is a dc3/c47 and a dart and a f-86?

The funy thing is there are absolutly no other aircraft at this facility that can be seen.

[aviosaurus]

Bust*A*Stitch,

"I looked this up on the real google earth and just east of this airport this another runway, and there are 5 aircraft there one is a dc3/c47 and a dart and a f-86?"

I was also based in Tehran late seventies/early eighties (but on the civil side) and I seem to remember that this is the "old" airport (Doshan Tapeh???). At that time, it was a military base, mainly VIP helicopters.

However, occasionally, there would be an exercise using C130s - not a couple, five or even ten, but twenty-plus !!, and all within half an hour! - and without pre-notification or co-ordination with anyone. The carnage, not only at the main civil airport but also on the military (south) side of Meherabad (operating F4s, 707s and 747s) was hysterical to behold, as long as you weren't involved in sorting it out.

Aviosaurus.

I think I've been in this business since before the Dead Sea reported sick.

[T J Johansen]

The A-26 was probably the A-26 known as Reynolds Bombshell. It was on an Around the worl speed record attempt when it cracked a spar. It was abandoned and it's been in Tehran ever since.

Yes, it is the Reynolds Bombshell. However your info regarding the around the world speed attempt warrants further questions. This plane actually completed two around the world flights, setting records. It was then sold off, configured as an executive Invader, and operated by several owners prior to ending up in Iran. Are you saying the plane was on another record flight when it ended up in Tehran? Do you have any info regarding that as I would really love to see it. As far as I knew the a/c was operated as a business transport at the time.

T J

[Connery]

Ok, so the aircraft I thought was a B-25 (due to the horizontal that look like the leading and trailing edges are parallel) is an A-26. There is also a slightly smaller twin just to the north of it point northwest as well. Anyone have any idea what it is? Also I think there is an AT-6 to the west towards the bottom of the row of aircraft.

I wish I had known about that airpark when we were there, even though I was only 9-12 years old, I was still nuts about airplanes.

We left the country about a month before the hostages were taken. We took a taxi to the airport, dad bribed an airport official with what amounted to about a years salary for the official (weeks pay for dad) and the tower called a Luftansa 747 back that was about to take off. They drove a set of stairs up to the back door, we ran up and then took off. Interesting times. Years later when I was in the Air Force, I met a guy that was stationed at one of our listening posts in the northern part of the country. When they got word that the Embasy has been taken, they snuck out of the base and walked to Turkey.