The 412th Flight Test Squadron was a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

squadron. It was assigned to the 412th Operations Group,

Air Force Materiel Command The Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) is a Major Command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). AFMC was created on July 1, 1992, through the amalgamation of the former Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and the former Air Force System ...

, stationed at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

, California.

Overview

Speckled Trout is the official name of a combined SAF/CSAF support mission and concurrent test mission. It was also the official nickname given to a modified C-135C, serial number 61-2669, that was used by the

Secretary A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...

and the

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

of the Air Force for executive transport requirements. Fully equipped with an array of communications equipment, data links and cryptographic sets, the aircraft served a secondary role as a testbed for proposed command and control systems and was also used to evaluate future transport aircraft design. The 412th Flight Test Squadron (412 FLTS) of the

(AFMC) at Edwards AFB, California operated the C-135 Speckled Trout airframe and managed its test mission. The name ''Speckled Trout'' applies to both the organization and the aircraft. The name was chosen in honor of an early program monitor, Faye Trout, who assisted in numerous phases of the project. The word "speckled" was added because Trout apparently had "a lot of freckles." Speckled Trout acquired the C-135C, serial number 61-2669, in 1974 and retired the aircraft on 13 January 2006. An interim aircraft was in use for the Speckled Trout mission until the 2008 delivery of the current aircraft, a modified KC-135R Stratotanker serial number 63-7980 with a more modern communications architecture testbed. The current KC-135R Speckled Trout also supports additional tests and air refueling requirements that the C-135C could not.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 412th Flight Test Squadron on 22 December 1993 : Activated on 1 January 1994 : Inactivated on 15 May 2015

Assignments

* 412th Operations Group, 1 January 1994 – 15 May 2015

Stations

, California, 1 January 1994 – 15 May 2015

Aircraft

* C-135 61-2669 1974–2006 * KC-135E 57-2589 "Casey 01" 2004–2007 * KC-135R 63-7980 2007–2015 * C-20E/K 70139 "Speckled Minnow" 2008–2009

References

Bibliography

External links

{{US Air Force navbox 411 Military units and formations in California