Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft

" Initially the 6550th Operations Squadron used C-54 aircraft for range support in the 1950s, but the C-54s were replaced with eleven C-130s in 1961 and 1962 to provide greater speed, longer range and higher altitudes for telemetry reception. As the APOLLO program got underway in the 1960s, there was a requirement for more capable Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft (ARIA). The ARIA were developed to support the APOLLO program initially, but they were also used on Defense Department missions. The Air Force Eastern Test Range accepted the first of eight C-135A aircraft for the ARIA program in January 1966. Those aircraft were modified by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1967, and they were returned to Patrick later in the year. Each ARIA carried a steerable telemetry antenna in a "droop snoot" housing at the front of the aircraft. The 6549th Consolidated Aircraft Maintenance Squadron maintained the ARIA at Patrick AFB until the aircraft were transferred to the 4950th Test Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio in December 1975. The ARIA were reassigned to the 452nd Test Squadron at Edwards AFB, California in the early 1990s. Despite those organizational changes, the ARIA continued to support Eastern Range missions throughout the period."

This was borrowed from the The 45th Space Wing: Its Heritage, History & Honors 1950-1998,  Development of the Eastern Range, Located at Patrick AFB, FL : (These are excellent sites, with lots of information on the Eastern Test Range and its history).

Also it should be noted that the ARIA while supporting Eastern Test Range missions is also a range support asset for the Western Test Range and has and continues to support Department of Defense, commercial, foreign, and NASA space missions launched from Vandenberg AFB, CA. Click on the following links to learn more about 30th Space Wing, The Western Test Range, and Vandenberg AFB, CA and its history. 

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Last Updated 21 Feb 2000

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