History
In the early 1960's, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) realized that the lunar missions
of the Apollo program would require a worldwide network of tracking and
telemetry stations, many positioned in remote regions of the world. The
Department of Defense (DoD) was also faced with similar considerations for
its unmanned orbital and ballistic missile reentry test programs. Since land
stations are obviously limited by geographical constraints, and
instrumentation ships cannot be moved quickly enough to cover different
positions during the same mission, it soon became evident that large gaps in
coverage would occur. To fill these gaps, a new concept in tracking stations was
developed - a high-speed aircraft containing the necessary instrumentation to assure
spacecraft acquisition, tracking, and telemetry data recording. The same aircraft could
provide coverage of translunar injection and recovery for NASA's manned space flight
operations, as well as events of interest in the DoD orbital or ballistic missile reentry
tests.The airborne station concept became a reality in the
Apollo/Range Instrumentation Aircraft (A/RIA). This highly mobile station was to operate
worldwide, to receive and transmit astronaut voices, and to record telemetry information
from both the Apollo spacecraft and other NASA and DoD unmanned space vehicles. To
implement the concept, NASA and DoD jointly funded the modification of eight C-135 jet
transport/cargo aircraft. The A/RIA, designated EC-135N, became operational in January
1968, having been modified at the basic cost of $4.5 million per aircraft.
The management responsibility for the initial modification
program was shared by both civilian and military agencies. NASA participated in all phases
of development and simulation testing. DoD developed policy considerations and assigned
overall responsibility for procurement to the Electronic Systems Division of the USAF. The
Air Force Eastern Test Range (AFETR) was selected to operate and maintain the system in
support of the test and evaluation (T&E) community. McDonnell-Douglas Corporation and
Bendix Corporation were the contractors for the design, aircraft modification, and testing
of the electronic equipment.
In December 1975, after 7 years of operation by the
Eastern Test Range, the ARIA (redesignated Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft
following completion of the Apollo program) were transferred to the 4950th Test Wing,
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as part of an Air Force consolidation of large T&E
aircraft. The 4950th Test Wing provided test support, personnel, and resources for the
operational use of, and modifications and improvement to, the ARIA fleet.
After arriving at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, the ARIA fleet underwent numerous conversions, including
re-engineering of EC-135N ARIA to EC-135E and the acquisition and conversion
of used Boeing 707 commercial airliners to ARIA. In 1994, the ARIA fleet was
relocated to Edwards Air Force Base, California, as part of the 452d Flight
Test Squadron, in the 412th Test Wing.
Past equipment
used by ARIA includes the
Sonobuoy Missile Impact Location System (SMILS). Today it is no
longer used by ARIA, but the equipment still resides in some aircraft.
The ARIA program came to a close August 24,
2001 as the EC-18 aircraft, tail number 81-0891, touched down after its final mission at
Edwards AFB. |
