Greetings Folks, I return from Rock heaven... More on that later, I'll just say I was 8 feet away from Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy fame I was was back in the 70's! Anyway, this edition (for Blinkings coz I said I would), is not the Boeing 737 as such, its the E-7A Wedgetail coz its so damn weird.. But it works so... Taken at RAF Waddington in 2013 it unfortunately did not fly unlike the NZ attendee.. The Boeing 737 AEW&C is a twin-engine airborne early warning and control aircraft. It is lighter than the 707-based Boeing E-3 Sentry, and mounts a fixed, active electronically scanned array radar antenna instead of a rotating one. It was designed for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) under 'Project Wedgetail' and designated E-7A Wedgetail.. Australia now has 6 of these I believe with another on option.. All Australian aircraft are to be operated by No. 2 Squadron RAAF and will be based at RAAF Base Williamtown with a permanent detachment at RAAF Base Tindal.. On 1 April 2014, the first operational sortie occurred with the air control of maritime patrol aircraft taking part in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 off the coast of Western Australia.. On 1 October 2014, a Wedgetail conducted the first Australian sortie over Iraq supporting coalition forces conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (IS). In January 2015, the Australian E-7A performed the longest Australian command and control mission in a war zone during a 16-hour, 18-minute combat mission over Iraq; the aircraft required two air-to-air refueling to stay aloft. Australian Wedgetail crews routinely perform 13-hour missions. There you go.. As you could see access was allowed, which was rather cool Comments started today and will continue tomorrow sorry for delays.. Enjoy Rob