22 February 2008

Someone Important is in Town

| lemaChet
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So, as I was leaving the Stacks at the airport on my way home this evening (I don’t normally park up there) I noticed a very big, very fat, very white plane, over on the Fairbairn side of the airport.

It has United States of America plastered down the side.
If it’s not Airforce 1, it’s someone else rather important. But it’s been very quiet, nothing has been heard about this at all.
There was also nothing on the trip home that suggests an important convoy had been past…

I neglected to take a photo, due to the priority of beer being at home.

Anyone know anything about it ?

[UPDATE: This would most likely be the US defence bigwigs who just arrived in town.]

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It was indeed an high level American delegation, But they were actually here to meet AussieGirl83 in an attempt to get to the bottom of recent reports of outrageous queing practices at Academy nightclub.

West_Kambah_4eva9:01 am 25 Feb 08

Apprently it’s MICHAEL JACKSON

gun street girl5:11 pm 24 Feb 08

I knew nothing about the road closures/delays (or indeed, the arrival of these people) until we were backed up to Fyshwick, trying to make it to the airport in time for a 5.30 flight out. I daresay there were a lot of empty seats on quite a few outgoing flights as a result…

Are you saying the US Sec of Defense is into gerbilling to while away the hours on those long trans-Pacific flights?

Air scoop…okay…yeah…not for electronic gizmos then…maybe it was to run the spa-bath…or extra air-cooling for the pet hamsters 😉

captainwhorebags10:03 pm 23 Feb 08

I’m pretty sure it’s an E-4B. Have a look at the wiki for “NEACP”. The Secretary of Defence is part of the national command authority, so he needs somewhere to help launch the nukes from.

The E-4B has a hump on top of the top floor which has is an antenna for communication with military satellites. It does looks like a scoop. The plane is pure command and control stuff.

It’s distinct from Airforce One, which has a designation of VC-25 and is fitted out for presidential comfort (as well as communications).

John,
It was an air scoop, not a blister. I could imagine the uses of a blister. This thing would ingest bulk air – hence my query.

The 747 sounds like an “E4B” which is a 747 airframe modified for use as a command-centre. Air Force One and all that. The ‘air scoop’ is actually housing for some sort of special communications equipment. Under the ‘blister’ are some antennaes for various radio frequencies not normally carried on aircraft…means they don’t need to rely on local infrastructure and can communicate directly back to home.

One for the aircraft experts.

WIN just showed footage of the 747 landing, I guess at Sydney.

Can anyone explain the huge additional air scoop above the top floor of the 747?

Ahh, that explains all the cops yesterday, thanks. Govvie emails went out saying there would be “traffic delays” but no detail.

The US defence (sorry defense) sec. and assistant sec of state have come with 4 planes.

They have a C-32 (thats a 757-200).. a C-40 (737-700), a C-37A which is Gulfstream that can reach 51,000 feet and the big one which is a E4B…. thats the 747-200..

They have 4 of those… but you can read more about it, and the others here..

http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=99

They’re here for the regular US/Australian ministerial level talks. This time around, it’s defence.

there were cops standing around on the roundabouts coming from the airport. For a crazy moment, I thought they were there to stop cars queuing across the roundabouts and gridlocking everything for miles, but no, they were doing National Security work.

I heard them talking about it on 666 this arvo, they were just saying that at some point between 4.30 and 5.30 some roads would be closed to allow a motorcade of foreign delegates to move from the airport to the embassy

Its apparently the US Secretary of Defence

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