KC-135A 55-3126 'Speckled Trout' I

[DanBeeden]

Hi all,

A longshot and possibly in the wrong part of the forums but wasn't sure where to put it.

I was sent a very nice old slide yesterday - a welcome addition to the collection. KC-135A 55-3126. It doesn't look like a KC-135A as you'd normally think of it as there is no boom. Its in the C-135 VIP scheme of white top, blue serial, blue cheat line and highly polished underside. It's the original 'Speckled Trout' aircraft and was used primarily as a test bed for autopilot and autoland systems, as well as being used to transport the Chief of Staff and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It flew for the last time on 31st July 1975.

I'm trying to work out roughly when the slide was taken. We know it must be pre July '75 of course. The shot is taken in the UK, a sign in the foreground says 'London Airport South'. But what really caught my eye was what was in the background - a pair of Comets. I can't tell the airline due to the angle although I suspect Dan-Air due to what I can see of the colour (angle is almost nose-on). One of them is either flaring before landing or just rotating, the other appears to be taxiing.

It's an interesting slide and I wondered if anyone could hazard a guess at when it may have been taken??

Look forward to seeing any suggestions!

Dan

[nigelblake]

Is the slide an original image in a mount? If it is there may be a processing date printed or embossed on the mount, with some processing labs this may have been mixed in with other letters and numbers. If not, there should be a date the film was manufactured printed along the edge of the film beside the film transport holes, you will have to take the slide out of the mount to see this though!

[DanBeeden]

Hi Nigel,

I should have clarified that - the slide has been remounted so no clues on the mount. I took it out of the mount to see if there were any clues on the film itself but couldn't see anything like a date on there. Just a number which I think correlates to which exposure on the reel it was. I will check again later in case I missed it though.

Thanks,

Dan

[graham luxton]

Hi Dan,
I'm not sure but I think 53126 may have visited Heathrow more than once but was certainly reported there on 4 April'67.
Hope that helps,
cheers,
Graham

[DanBeeden]

Graham,

Many thanks for the confirmation of at least one date it was in the UK - I'm going to see if Comet out of service date yields any additional clues.

Best wishes,

Dan

[Precinct7]

Dan


This 135 was also noted at Heathrow 19 September 1966
If there are Comets in the background then they are almost
Certainly BEA Comets, don't know there out of service date
but they would have been around in the mid 60's

[rh226]

Dan,

This may not be much help other than to set a "not before" date for your photo.

I saw this beauty on 1st June 1962 at Heathrow. My memory may be playing tricks after so many years, but I have a feeling that it may have had a Dayglo tail on that occasion. It was parked on the South side apron outside the then Pan American hangar near the A30 - which is where it sounds like your photo was taken.

As far as the Comets are concerned, the following were operating them around that time:

- BEA
- BOAC
- Aerolineas Argentinas
- Middle East Airlines
- United Arab Airlines
- Olympic Airways
- Kuwait Airways

Dan-Air did not start to get theirs until 1966 and were making do with Avro Yorks and Airspeed Ambassadors until then.

Regards,

rh226