I think it was a Learjet. It had no trim or markings of any kind. It landed at Hilo, Hawaii on Friday morning, 2/18/2010 and parked in front of the CAP hangar, 100 feet from the National Guard hanger.
Within a short period of time two National Guard UH-60s spun up and did three touch-and-goes, in formation, inside the pattern and probably no more than 300’AGL maximum. Maybe two minutes a hop. They landed after a total of about ten minutes of engine time and shut down.
When I returned to the airport about an hour later the Lear was gone. We see a lot of AF1-type blue and white livery here because we are the best fuel stop between the mainland and Guam if you don’t want to be noticed. But I never saw an aircraft without markings before. I guess that someone with a lot of stars and his aide wanted their annual helo qual.
Standard National Guard OD green. We do have some black helicopters here, though. sunshinehelicopters.com/ The ‘black helicopters’ to which you refer probably exist only in Washington.
I made no implication that the aircraft was serving in a covert role. ‘Covert’ ops take great pains to make sure their aircraft don’t look like covert aircraft or appear at all out of the ordinary.
I merely mentioned it because I have been a pilot for forty years and I have never before seen an aircraft flying interstate…or anywhere at all…without a registration number or stars and bars or some other identifier. I presume that someone with a lot of horsepower picked up his new government-issued personal jet and was cruising enroute to his A/C paint shop.
Or a Grumman Goose. It looked very much to me like a Lear 55B but I was not able to divert my attention for more than a few seconds and most of that was spent wondering where the tail numbers were. It did not have a registration (N) number. It was parked in a military-restricted area. I did not have the opportunity to examine it closely. It was likely a Bombardier-Lear but I have not tried to cross-check their production numbers. It’s not that important; just an airplane that hadn’t been painted yet. Just like automobiles, special dispensation can be given to deliver or fly an aircraft without registration numbers; I had just never seen one before.
What you’re seeing is one of the “white tails” operated by the military which feature only the last three digits of their bureau number. They are typically assigned to an obscure unit or department of one of the branches. Now, don’t ask any more questions or the black Tahoes will show up at your house.
