C-135 Family
ICAO C135The rarest members of the 707 military family: nuclear sampling, Open Skies and flying laboratories. Live C-135 positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No C-135 Family is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Boeing
- Role
- Special mission and test
- Class
- L4J — Landplane, 4 jet engines
- Crew
- Varies by variant
- First flight
- 1961
- In service
- 1961
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the C-135 Family
Beyond the KC-135 tanker and the RC-135 intelligence aircraft sits a handful of one-off and small-batch conversions that share the C135 designator, and they are among the more unusual aircraft in the sky.
The WC-135 Constant Phoenix samples the atmosphere for radioactive particles after a nuclear test or accident, and its deployments are reported precisely because they signal something. The OC-135B flew Open Skies treaty observation flights until the United States withdrew. NC-135 airframes served as flying laboratories.
Very few exist, so this page will usually be empty. When it is not, the aircraft is generally doing something worth reading about.
Callsign prefixes
- CPHX
- Constant Phoenix atmospheric sampling
- JAKE
- Shared with other 135-family aircraft
How to recognise it
- —A KC-135 airframe without the refuelling boom, or with unusual fuselage fairings.
- —The WC-135 carries distinctive engine-mounted air sampling scoops.
- —Four engines on a low swept wing — the 707 outline throughout.
Common questions
+ What is Constant Phoenix?
The WC-135 mission: flying through the atmosphere collecting particles to detect and characterise nuclear detonations or reactor accidents. Its deployments are closely watched because they indicate something has happened.
+ What was the Open Skies treaty?
An agreement allowing member states to fly unarmed observation flights over each other's territory. The OC-135B was the American aircraft for it; the United States withdrew from the treaty in 2020.
+ Why do these share a designator with the KC-135?
They do not quite — the tanker uses K35R and related codes. C135 covers the conversions that are not tankers and not Rivet Joint intelligence aircraft.