Lincoln Lab/MIT Boeing 707-Hannah was her name.

I flew for LincolnLab/MIT of Boston for appx 3 years on several projects. We had PhD and Military folks all over the back. I call it grown men playing with their toys.I wonder what that white stuff is. Wow it gets cold up north.
The Boeing 707 being used, formerly a commercial airliner, was pulled out of the aircraft bone yard in the 1980s and turned into a flying laboratory in 2001 by workers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. It is being used to test and experiment with airborne battle management, command, control and communication technology and concepts. Though the plane is maintained and flown by lab workers, the aircraft and everything on it belongs to the U.S. government.“It’s part of a contract we have,” said Dr. Joe Chapa, associate group leader at the lab. “Everything bought or developed for this aircraft belongs to the government. Our main mission is to be a learning organization and then transition the lessons learned to the government.” The Paul Revere is just one application of the aircraft. Many initiatives are being, and have been, tested aboard the 707 with the help of Task Force Paul Revere.“We like to think of this flying laboratory as a Mr. Potato Head,” Dr. Chapa said. “We can put a different nose or a different eye on.”Dr. Chapa said the airborne laboratory was first requested by the Air Force chief of staff and secretary of the Air Force for use on airborne battle management and command and control for time-critical targeting during JEFX 02. In 2002, a single data link was used and found to be inadequate. This year the laboratory is back to test multiple data links to help the air and ground forces see and communicate with each other reliably.“We have a lot of academic freedom,” Dr. Chapa said. “This is advanced research and we won’t work on something that has already been done.”Though the aircraft and the concept of high bandwidth of aircraft information output is the same as it was in JEFX 02, some of the applications are different for JEFX 04 initiatives. Task Force Paul Revere is a team made up of electronic specialists from the Electronic System Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., aircraft maintainers and operators from MIT’s Lincoln Lab, and operations experts from the Air Force Command and Control ISR Center, Air Combat Command and Air Force Space Command.
posted by Randy @ 8:41 PM 2 comments