The three helicopters on the ramp near the C-130s don't show a lot of detail. They appear to have relatively narrow fuselages and 4 bladed rotors. Since they're parked near military transports, I'm making the working assumption they're military, too. They wouldn't likely park civilian helicopters near military transports. Of course, there are civilian owned Hercules (L-500) transports but not very many of them.
There aren't that many US military helicopters with 4 bladed rotors. Some that come to mind include the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, the Apache, and the Blackhawk variants. Since Moffet was a Navy base, those could be the Seahawk. The Coast Guard also operates both C-130s and HH-65 Dauphins.
Matching the photo with other info sources, the C-130s and helicopters appear to belong to the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard. That unit operates the MC-130P and HH-60G Pavehawk helicopters. This appears to match what is shown on the image.
The 4th helicopter is on the taxiway to the right of runway 14R near the intersection of the main taxiway, the cross taxiway, and what appears to be a closed taxiway (the X marking). From the little detail provided, it appears to be the same type of helicopter as the others parked near the C-130s.
There are other aircraft in the image. For example, near the large wind tunnel, there is a plane with high aspect ratio wings. It appears to be a U-2. I visited NASA Ames back in 1988 and they had several static display aircraft including an early model U-2. There is at least one other plane parked next to it but very little detail is visible. If I had to guess, I'd say it's an F-104. NASA used to fly those. There may also be a lifting body aircraft nearby.
Above the airship hangars (up is approximately southeast on these images, about 160 degrees magnetic) are two static display aircraft. One is a P-3 Orion anti-submarine patrol craft. They were based at Moffet for many years. Nearby, there appears to be a twin engined plane that might be an earlier patrol plane like the P2V Neptune. The engines look like they're mounted close to the fuselage and the wings have a pretty high aspect ratio that seems to match the P2V.
Yesterday, I only looked at the ramp where the C-130s were parked. I didn't have the time to examine all of the image for other aircraft.
Space/Science » in reply to Re: Looking at the flight line...
There isn't much detail in those helicopter images
The whole thread (22 posts)
- QuickBird offers 2-foot resolution images
- Re: QuickBird offers 2-foot resolution images
- 2-foot resolution?
- Holy cats! I can see my house from here!
