Anorak
3B7773 is thought to be French C-135 574. However this appears to still be under question on the Mode S yahoo group, so I won't add it to our DB at this time. We will continue to monitor for positive confirmation of the tie-up.
Regards ACW367
ACW367,
Libhomeradar have 3B7773 as belonging to a KC135R c/n 18557 with the registration 574 with airline unknown. According to my own database c/n 18557 is indeed a KC135R registration 62-3574 but belonging to the USAF and currently in storage !
Ian
Anorak
It appears to be another example of people taking hypothesis and guesswork on the Yahoo Group and taking it as gospel. It then gets taken to be official. This is something we want to avoid with our DB because it gets distributed to all Airnav users.
The info I have seen is someone who studied the French 135 sequence in Nov 2009 against known visual confirmations. Whilst he identified 3B7773 as likely being 574, he had found no evidence of confirmation.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mode_S/message/139528The only other report on the Mode S group is three November 2010 reports of overflighs at 20-30,000ft of the Offenbach region, where obviously visual identification could not have occured.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mode_S/msearch?query=3B7773Consequently, I still consider it to be a dodgy tie-up, until someone lets some group know they have visually confirmed it. Turning to the airframe, disregarding the possible hex tie-up. CN18557 is indeed currently (or maybe formerly) with the French with code 93-CP
http://www.airliners.net/photo/France---Air/Boeing-KC-135R-Stratotanker/1359244/L/Would be very interested to know which DB you are using. I know aerodata has some very serious issues with the C-135 series. It identifies most RC- and EC-135 airframes which of course have ICAO C135 as KC-135E (ICAO K35E).