US Army C12 at Mildenhall

[Macclad51]

What a difference a week makes!!

15-01584 by Steven Sutcliffe, on Flickr
1st photo 15-01584 landing at Mildenhall last weekend

15-01584_2 by Steven Sutcliffe, on Flickr
2nd photo same aircraft landing today. I couldn't help notice the difference in antenna locations. Upper VHF and Satcom antennas are further forward on the upper photo. There is an extra HF wire antenna on the second shot and the two small antennas forward of the VHF antenna have disappeared on the 2nd shot. There is also a change to the antenna to the right of the dorsal fin (by the serial) on both aircraft.

Quite a bit of work has been carried out in the week it was away, or is it the same aircraft that went west last week???

[SamP]

Incredibly interesting to see such a difference so soon after it went westbound. I thought it unusual for it to head back east just a week later anyway!

Does anyone know where this went, destination wise after Keflavik last week?

[Punkrunner62]

Quick change artist?,nice shots.
Cheers.

[slogen51]

Even the painting of the serial looks different to me

[Bucky P]

I would say the cheat lines where they end on the nose are different too! The first shot appears to show they curve down at the end while in the second shot they appear straight!

[paddyboy]

Nice shots, Steven

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[POL]

Incredibly interesting to see such a difference so soon after it went eastbound. I thought it unusual for it to head back west just a week later anyway.

Does anyone know where this went, destination wise after Keflavik last week?

Makes you wonder if it's the same airframe...

[Freeman Lowell]

Main wheel centre boss, amount of black paint on main undercarriage doors, point at which the cheat lines cross the nose avionics cooling vent. How many differences are we looking for?
Freeman

[Bucky P]

Nobody else has actually said it yet but I think it's a different aircraft!

[AK01]

Checked the ADSB data, this arrived at Ft Bragg on the 17th around 20.30Z. Next plot was on the 18th at 00.08Z.
So only 4 hours to modify this aircraft before departing back en-route to Iceland.......

Some further info. N71885 (hex A99D53) is registered to Powel and Simpson LLC.
They have 3 other Beeches registered in the FAA register, for all three i can't find any actual sightings or pictures.
The four are : N73380 (FL-480) hex A9D989, N37084 (FL-482) hex A43758 and N36988 (FL-488) hex A4314C.
Pieter,

[BOLLO]

Looks very much the same as it did when he passed through last year ..

US-Army-C-12-15-01584-R5158 by Paul Callaghan, on Flickr

[eagle driver]

Nobody else has actually said it yet but I think it's a different aircraft!

Just had a look at these two photos on the big screen here at home and unless they can respray a aircraft while fitting the aerials in as had been said 4 hours then its two different aircraft.

[SamP]

Main wheel centre boss, amount of black paint on main undercarriage doors, point at which the cheat lines cross the nose avionics cooling vent. How many differences are we looking for?
Freeman

I'm convinced this is a different aircraft now. On closer inspection, the differences detailed above are irrefutable. The most obvious as solgen has already pointed out is actually the serial itself. The gap between the end of the wavy lines on the tailplane and the start of the serial is about 4x wider on the aircraft that went through yesterday compared to the the aircraft that went through last weekend. To compensate for this, the font and text size on the latter aircraft are smaller allowing it to fit further forward on the leading edge flaring of the fin ahead of the new blade antenna.

Plus, 4 hours on the deck at Ft Bragg to facilitate all these changes is just not possible!

[POL]

Take a look at the vent on the nose, the wavy lines are totally different.

Will be interesting to compare Bollo's photo with the two above...

[f106dart]

Take a look at the vent on the nose, the wavy lines are totally different.

Will be interesting to compare Bollo's photo with the two above...

Differnt side of the AC

[Macclad51]

Thanks for all the comments. I too was convinced these were two different airframes, just wanted to throw it out there.


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