Last night I heard on my airband scanner "GIANT 8523" climbing through 270 for 280. Since I live in Northern Virginia I was curious to know from where this flight originated and where it is heading. A quick peak at FlightAware showed it was departing Langley AFB for PANC and it was a 747-300! (See: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI8 ... /KLFI/PANC)
News to me. I didn't know Atlas had any -300s and the GC website shows the same.
Planespotters.net shows AA has one -300: tail N355MC (See: http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Atlas-Air)
Neat looking aircraft. (See: http://www.planespotters.net/Aviation_P ... pe=747-300)
Is the fact there are no corporate markings intentional since AA flies into military operations areas and they are observing a bit of OPSEC? I check this morning on FlightAware shows this flight is continuing on to Kadena AB. (See: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI8523)
As a former USAF guy that worked extensively with the F15 community the first thing I thought of was some sort of deployment logistics flight in support of one of the two fighter wings (1st FW at Langley and 18th Wing at Kadena).
Any insight from the insiders?
r/w GTI8523 747-300
Moderators: Staff, HR, Flight Ops
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yoni63
Re: r/w GTI8523 747-300
I have no idea but I did post that route on the Atlas Board last night. 
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Covert53
Re: r/w GTI8523 747-300
For those interested I did see on another trustworthy milair website that the F-22s at Langley are indeed deploying to Kadena AB. Hence the loggie flight.