AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018 - 37

BEHIND THE SCENES

SEVENTY-FIVE-year-old DC-3s still

continue to work hard for Texasbased Airborne Imagining. The
company also keeps a T-33 hard
at work, too.

Airborne Imaging
Cutting-edge tech on a classic fleet
BY CHALIE GALLIAND

THIRTY MINUTES SOUTH of Dallas, Texas, lies the Mid-Way
Regional Airport (JWY), aptly named for its placement
between Midlothian and Waxahachie. This is home to a company that tests some of the newest technologies on some of
the oldest flying aircraft around. Airborne Imaging has nine
permanent employees and about as many aircraft.
The Airborne Imaging fleet comprises fixed- and rotarywing, piston and turbine, vintage and, let's say, late twentieth
century. It is this fleet mix that makes the company flexible
and able to meet the needs of any customer. The fleet can
cover a significant range of the flight envelope in terms of
airspeed, altitude, and duration.
The mainstay of the Airborne Imaging fleet is its three
Douglas DC-3s. All three are more than 75 years old and
each can be configured to meet the need of the customer's
mission. The exteriors and airfames have been modified
with custom camera ports of different sizes. The Airborne
Imaging team designed and fabricated external mounts and
hard points to hold a variety of sensor balls, turrets, towed
arrays, or anything else the mission requires.
Airborne Imaging also operates two turbine aircraft for
high-altitude and high-speed missions. The first is N51SR, a
Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star sporting a gorgeous metallic
paint job. The company uses the T-33 primarliy for sensor
missions that require high altitudes or high speeds. With
a service ceiling of 48,000 feet and a maximum speed of
520 knots, the T-33 meets the need. The Shooting Star
also is used in a secondary role as a target or chase plane
for the company's other turbine aircraft, a Rockwell T-39
Saberliner. The Saberliner has been modified to host

relatively large sensors on
the belly of the fuselage
and, like the DC-3s, it will
accommodate more than
just the sensor operator.
Airborne Imaging supports the Department of
Defense, defense contractors, law enforment entities,
and private companies. It
has worked from Alaska to

Honduras and in between.
The most common business arrangement for Airborne Imaging is to
operate as a subcontractor to a prime defense contractor. For example, the
U.S. Air Force contracts with Raytheon for development or modification
of a sensor on an Air Force aircraft. In this case, it is much easier and more
cost-effective to test and evaluate the modification on the Airborne Imaging
DC-3 than it would be to sequester an aircraft for testing from the Air Force.
In some cases, the customer can contract with Airborne Imaging directly
for support.
Airborne Imaging sometimes works on its own for research and development of new technologies and capabilities. Unfortunately, not a lot can
be shared here about what those new technologies and capabilities do.
Suffice to say, they will probably be mounted on a dark gray aircraft orbiting above a hostile environment in the future. Just know the newest of
the new doesn't get fielded before it is flown on some of the oldest aircraft in the sky.
CHALIE GALLIAND is a major in the U.S. Air Force and a commercial-rated

pilot.

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018

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