Chance Google.earth Photo at Tinker AFB

[jdvoss]

Although this is not a classic Warbird Forum subject (modern military A/C) I was doing google.earth photo search of WWII era A/C factories of the Mid-west. When looking at the former Douglas Aircraft Plant in Oklahoma City (now Tinker AFB) I noted a mass takeoff of Boeing E-3 AWACS captured on the google photo. Although there are seven E-3's airborne the attached photo only depicts four. They cast a neat silouttee (sp?) on the ground!! Pull up TInker AFB on google.earth and note the entire group takeoff on the N-S runway. It's a remarkable chance photo.

Let me apologize once again (to the purists) but I really was doing WWII aircraft factory research when I was lured into modern aircraft technology. It won't happen again.

[BK]

Although this is not a classic Warbird Forum subject (modern military A/C) I was doing google.earth photo search of WWII era A/C factories of the Mid-west. When looking at the former Douglas Aircraft Plant in Oklahoma City (now Tinker AFB) I noted a mass takeoff of Boeing E-3 AWACS captured on the google photo. Although there are seven E-3's airborne the attached photo only depicts four. They cast a neat silouttee (sp?) on the ground!! Pull up TInker AFB on google.earth and note the entire group takeoff on the N-S runway. It's a remarkable chance photo.

I'm pretty sure what you are seeing is the same plane. Even in MITO (Minimum interval takeoff) planes aren't that close together. Also, note the radome is in the same position on each plane. I believe how google earth works is to use several photos in quick sequence to get 3D.

[dusttinbound]

I do aerial mapping for a living. The way the cameras usually work is they will take a picture so many miles (the ones we use will take one every 1/4 mile). If you get an aircraft or something moving fast the same direction then it can appear in multiple frames. When the pictures go to post production and they put them together you can get what you see here.

[agent86]

Its still a cool picture

[jdvoss]

Duped again!! But thank you so much for clarifying modern satellite / aerial photographic techniques to me. When reviewing the original image I thought that the takeoff spacing between the A/C seemed a bit too close. But I must admit that I would have never had the figured out that it was the same A/C !!

Serves me right for swaying from warbirds to the modern stuff.

Thanks again

[The Inspector]

Is that a stripped -135 hulk sitting @ the end of the ramp to the right of the BONE?

[bdk]

I think that Boeing is moving its B-1 & C-130 programs to OKC so you may start to see more activity there.

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1361

[McCollum11]

It actually may be exactly what it appears. I was driving cross country this past June and happened to pass through OK City. Driving though town on the highway I happened to see some of the Air Force hardware giving quite a show. People were even lining the sides of the road around the end of the base to watch. What looked to be 3 to 6 different aircraft (don't exactly recall) were running a racetrack patter of low approaches. I have no idea what the event was but was able to see several circuits of the aircraft flybys. All KC-135, E-6B type that I saw. Hope this offers another possible explanation.

[jdvoss]

A point of interest regarding the subject photo:

If indeed it is the same aircraft photographed seven times over the course say of 50 +/- seconds then I would expect that I would see the images of various identiifable vehicles (e.g. semi-trucks, buses, et.al.) repeated along the Interstate Hwys. I do not see that. Further, I would expect to see the image to reflect various vehicles superimposed on top of each other as they traverse the various hwys around the base. I do not see that either. I pulled up the full google.image of the area for my analysis and do not see the repetition of any vehicular traffic along any given hwy.

The mystery deepens...

[RareBear]

If you look at the photo of the EA-6B flight line, you will see that the stripe on the radomes are almost all oriented in the same fore-and-aft position. It's entirely possible that the take-off position of the dome would have the stripe oriented in the same position.

Walt

[CAPFlyer]

The E-3's rotodome actually is almost always rotating as long as the aircraft is powered up, whether or not the radar is operating. If you look closely, the rotodome on the departing aircraft turns very slightly (about 5 degrees) during the entire sequence. This is consistent with a single aircraft. There is a camera looking at the rotodome that allows them to "spot" the location when parking it at shutdown, but I doubt many do that.

This also isn't the only place where you see a single aircraft captured multiple times. There are also occasions of more than one car being captured, although this is more rare since a car is typically traveling less than 60mph whereas a departing jet aircraft is already traveling well over 100 mph.

Finally, the KC-135 at the ramp is gone in the aerial pictures when you zoom in, but several others in similar shape are found on the OC-ALC ramp in various status of rework, so I doubt it's a "hulk" and just an "in process" airframe.

[Randy Haskin]

the EA-6B flight line

Unless something has significantly changed at Tinker in the last month, there are no Prowlers stationed there.

[RareBear]

Sorry about that, Randy. The Navy part of my brain was in gear rather than the Air Force part. I knew it was an E something, and the first thing that popped out was the EA-6B.

Walt

[Paul Krumrei]

Actually, it would be the E-6 TACAMO aircraft there, not the EA-6 ( A being the Attack )

The TACAMO's were just taking over the Offutt AFB EC-135 Looking Glass birds when I was at Offutt.

[Paul Krumrei]

The E-3's rotodome actually is almost always rotating as long as the aircraft is powered up, whether or not the radar is operating. If you look closely, the rotodome on the departing aircraft turns very slightly (about 5 degrees) during the entire sequence. This is consistent with a single aircraft. There is a camera looking at the rotodome that allows them to "spot" the location when parking it at shutdown, but I doubt many do that.

This also isn't the only place where you see a single aircraft captured multiple times. There are also occasions of more than one car being captured, although this is more rare since a car is typically traveling less than 60mph whereas a departing jet aircraft is already traveling well over 100 mph.

Finally, the KC-135 at the ramp is gone in the aerial pictures when you zoom in, but several others in similar shape are found on the OC-ALC ramp in various status of rework, so I doubt it's a "hulk" and just an "in process" airframe.

I would have to say that this is the same aircraft taking off, being that close, with the jet wash, I would say I highly doubt they would get them off in that close of a formation.

Cool picture otherwise, funny, cause I was just looking up Tinker on Google and was amazed the detailed closeups. You can almost see the rivets on the Bone they are stripping down.

Did Boeing move operations from Greenville to Tinker for those mods?