Originally Posted by
sandiego89
A trivial question given the circumstances- curious about the lack of lower "chin" windows on the aircraft. Is that a legacy of the EC-130 TACAMO configuration? I looked at some EC-130 TACAMO pictures on line and it seemed some had the lower windows (down by the rudder pedals), some did not. Was the first time I had noticed a C-130 without these.
Despite not having block numbers, the 16 EC-130Qs built for the TACAMO mission (plus two conversions from KC-130Ts) were delivered in 3 separate batches, with differences in spec.
The last five aircraft, including the two that ended up with Coulson, were lighter and had improved pressurisation and ECS. It seems likely that they were built with blanked-off chin windows.