Behind The Scenes: 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 rotary-wing, 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.
