Warbird Information Exchange

A heard a very unusual sound around Northern Virginia late Saturday afternoon, Aug. 9 and went out side to see a very plain marked aluminum finish Convair 340/440/C-131 type flying over the Gainesville/Bristow area of Northern Virginia possibly on approach to the Manassas, Virginia Airport.

It's a sweet sound to hear those P&W R-2800's and a very rare experience these days. Anyone have any idea where this plane may be from or who owns it?

Arrived 20 Hrs. ago AIRBORNE IMAGES out of Texas.both pics are same aircraft.

Thanks, kenlyco. That is definitely the plane I saw. It has the unusual extended nose shown in the second photo you attached.

A former C-131B, here is a link to "Airborne Imaging's" website:

http://www.airborneimaging.net/

The Texas outfit has the C-131, a DC-3 and several other aircraft. I assume that they have been contracted to do some kind of imaging, chemical detection or other project up here.

Nice to see some of these old propliners still earning their keep.

I saw her parked outside the main terminal at Manassas on Saturday morning. It was definitely N131CR, as I made a note of the registration. Failed to bring my camera, rather frustratingly though. I talked with one of the guys there, and they said she was doing some "imaging" in the area. Quite what that meant remains a mystery to me. Any idea what sort of work these guys do?

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Interesting stuff. I love the "crack reporting" from MSNBC on the "vintage DC-3 jet". LOL!

http://www.airborneimaging.net/MSNBC%20 ... search.htm

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Rich Kolasa
www.crystalgraphix.com

That is pretty good, Rich.

Hopefully she'll be around the area for a while.