Aircraft With Weird Looking Modifications

Winged Chinook – Boeing Vertol Model BV-347 is an experimental aircraft built by Boeing Vertol from a converted CH-47A Chinook.

RC-12 Guardrail is an airborne signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection platform based on the Beechcraft King Air and Super King Air aircraft.

NASA TF-8A suprecritical wing testbed aircraft. NASA selected a Vought F-8A Crusader as the testbed aircraft (designated TF-8A) to install an experimental Supercritical Wing (SCW) in place of the conventional wing. The unique design of the SCW reduces the effect of shock waves on the upper surface near Mach 1, which in turn reduces drag.

Kawasaki EC-1 electronic warfare training aircraft

Gloster Meteor F8 Prone Pilot. A heavily modified Gloster Meteor F8 fighter, the “prone position/prone pilot” Meteor, was used by the Royal Air Force in 1954 and 1955 to evaluate the effects of acceleration/inertia-induced forces while flying in a prone position.

F-5E Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration aircraft. The NASA Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration, also known as the Shaped Sonic Boom Experiment, was a two-year program that used a Northrop F-5E with a modified fuselage to demonstrate that the aircraft’s shock wave, and accompanying sonic boom, can be shaped, and thereby reduced.

Convair NC-131H – This one-of-a kind aircraft was an important in-flight simulator primarily used to study how an aircraft would handle before building an expensive, full-scale prototype.

C-130K Snoopy – Used by the Meteorological Research Flight (MRF) from 1973-2001 for a range of atmospheric research measurements. It had a long nose probe, causing the radar to be relocated to the top of the aircraft, making it instantly recognizable and leading to its nickname of Snoopy.

Boeing 747 Dreamlifter – This outsized aircraft, known as the Dreamlifter, was designed to transport Boeing 787 Dreamliner parts between Italy, Japan, and the U.S.

Avro Lincoln testbed G-37-1

Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy was a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built in the United States and used for ferrying outsized cargo items, most notably components of NASA’s Apollo program.