Doomsday Plane
A flying Pentagon on 24/7 alert, shielded against a nuclear pulse
Tail numbers 73-1676 · 73-1677 · 74-0787 · 75-0125
Doomsday Plane (E-4B Nightwatch) 73-1676
One of only four E-4B National Airborne Operations Centers — a flying Pentagon built to run a nuclear war from the air. One is on alert around the clock, every day, and has been for fifty years. The dorsal hump behind the cockpit hides a communications array that can reach anything, anywhere.
The E-4B keeps analog flight instruments on purpose — they survive an electromagnetic pulse. It's also hardened against the flash of a nuclear blast.
Doomsday Plane (E-4B Nightwatch) 73-1677
One of the original three delivered as E-4As in the mid-1970s and rebuilt to the hardened B standard in the 1980s. Home is Offutt AFB, Nebraska, but when the President travels overseas one of these travels too, parked within reach at a nearby airfield — the shadow of Air Force One.
An E-4B burns roughly $160,000 for every hour it flies — the most expensive aircraft in the Air Force to operate.
Doomsday Plane (E-4B Nightwatch) 74-0787
Another of the four-strong Nightwatch fleet out of Offutt AFB, Nebraska. When you catch one, it's usually a training sortie, a SecDef trip, or a repositioning flight — the actual alert bird doesn't advertise. Fewer than a handful of people have ever flown every seat of its three decks.
An E-4B can carry a battle staff of 112 people and trail a five-mile-long wire antenna to talk to submarines.
Doomsday Plane (E-4B Nightwatch) 75-0125
The youngest of the four and the only one born an E-4B — delivered in 1980 while its three sisters were still E-4As waiting for the rebuild. It wears the same white-and-blue 'United States of America' scheme as Air Force One; the dorsal hump is how you tell them apart. The Secretary of Defense rides this fleet on overseas trips.
The replacement is already ordered: the E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Center, built from second-hand 747-8s, is due to take the watch in the 2030s.
Quick answers
What are the tail numbers of Doomsday Plane?
73-1676 (Boeing E-4B Nightwatch), 73-1677 (Boeing E-4B Nightwatch), 74-0787 (Boeing E-4B Nightwatch), 75-0125 (Boeing E-4B Nightwatch).
What kind of aircraft is Doomsday Plane?
Boeing E-4B Nightwatch.
Are they still flying?
4 of 4 are active.
The type
More government
Will Doomsday Plane cross your map?
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