Need help identifying this plane

[bucky74]

Back in 1989 an aircraft flew over my house in South Florida with a configuration I've never been able to locate either in books or online. From the bottom it appeared to be either a 707 or DC-8 - narrow body, four engines on the wing, same size - but the rear of the fuselage came to a point right before the horizontal stabilizer. It didn't look right, and as I watched it pass overhead I was soon able to get a better view from the back. It turns out it had a T-tail, but it was not a C-5 or a C-141 - it was smaller and did not have the wing at the top of the fuselage. I soon sent a letter to Airliners magazine with a description, but neither the editor or any readers could offer an explanation. Since then I've asked pilots and ground crew about it as well as searched through tons of literature, but have come up with nothing. Does this plane sound familiar to anyone?

 

[Byeman]

Occam's razor would say that you misidentified a feature (like the lack of high wing) and the plane was C-141 or BAE 146.

 

[SOC]

My initial thought was a BAe 146 as well. Otherwise I haven't been successfuly trying to dig up any sort of T-tail modification to something like a C-135 or 707.

Sure it was 1989? In 1990 there was an Il-76 flying about in the USA supporting the MiG-29 demo (I saw it at the Dayton airshow). That's another high-wing jet, but that fact might've been missed for the weirdness of seeing a Soviet transport above the US. Not sure if they went anywhere near Florida, though.

 

[bucky74]

I'm sure about the low wing. Besides that, the BAe 146 would be too short and the nose is too pointy. And a C-5, C-141 or Il-76 would have been too big. I lived near Opa-locka airport and we had those coming in on a regular basis - those were unmistakable. The only thing I can think of is someone modified a 707 or DC-8 for a flight test, but I've never been able to confirm it.