Boeing WC-135 Constant Phoenix

what is it?

The WC-135 Constant Phoenix is a special-purpose aircraft derived from the Boeing C-135 Stratolifter and used by the United States Air Force. Its mission is to collect samples from the atmosphere for the purpose of detecting and identifying nuclear explosions. It is also informally referred to as the "weather bird" or "the sniffer" by workers on the program and international media respectively.

🔎How to recognise it: 8 jet engines · 39.9 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 648 km/htop speed
• size 136.3 tmax take-off weight
• built 14made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🏎️Top speed is 5.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 39.9 m: about 9 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 23 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

—

introduced

1965

status

still flying

number built

14

role

atmosphere testing related to nuclear incidents

makers

Boeing

engines

8× Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-9 (WC-135C) / Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-5 (WC-135W) / CFM International F108-CF-100 (WC-135R)

crew

4

length

42.7 m

wingspan

39.9 m

height

12.8 m

max take-off weight

136.3 t

top speed

648 km/h

range

—

ceiling

12,192 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family