MIT Lincoln Laboratory announced that the LL Flight Test Facility flew aircraft N404PA Boeing 707 will be retired. The laboratory said on its tweeter account, that the aircraft will fly for “its final data collection mission” The aircraft will enter into “disposition status” in preparation for final transfer to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.
This aircraft is a Heavily Modified B707-321B carrying civil registration N404PA. It was recently renamed “Sashambre” after “Hannah” and “Paul Revere”.
N404PA is an experimental aircraft owned by the Air Force Systems Command and operated by a joint venture between the Air Force’s 350th Electronic Systems Wing and M.I.T.’s Lincoln Labs.
“Sashambre” is one of the seven aircraft that research teams at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Labs Flight Test Facility’s staff can employ to test their prototype airborne systems: MIT researchers routinely schedule flight time with aircraft that range from the light C-152 to the heavy B707 “to evaluate new antennas, imagers for air surveillance, aircraft collision-avoidance tools, and long-range RF and laser communication systems,” as well as for data collection missions.
The B707 is used for testing airborne battle management, command, control and communication technology and concepts under the radio call sign “Research 4 Papa Alpha”,
