The Blackbird Park in Palmdale should be on you list of things to see; SR-71, A-12, D-21, J-58 and Chevy powered start cart. Addtionally, Palmdale Airpark has about a dozen aircraft on display and there are several Lockheed aircraft on display in front of the Lockheed plant.

Palmdale is a little over an hour north of downtown LA.

Looks a bit like Betty Boop to me..

I think your close: To me it looks like a “can-can dancer”. She is bent over looking from the back to the front. You can make see her high heel shoes, the lower leg (calf) and ruffeled underwear and head dress.

I cannot imagine why India turned down an offer of such advanced technology.

On the other hand, you could write a neat alternate history about reviving the Skylancer as a US-India codevelopment, with the J79.

Advanced technoligy? Production of the F4D-1 (F-6) ceased in 1958 and all were removed from service by 1964.

And again the cost of civilian certification?
Its not just paperwork that needs to be submitted.
The aircraft would have to be retested to ICAO standards, have all new pilots manuals written as well takeoff and landing charts, maintenance manuals, weight and balance, c of g redone as all the military equipment is removed….

For such a small number of aircraft it would be almost cost prohibitive…
I believe the AN124 was certified to close to ICAO standards when it was built as aeroflot was its end user so it would need to meet ICAO standards in order to operate in its “civilian” disguise….

What IACO “standards” would a civilian C-5 have to meet?

The C-5 was built in the United States so it has to meet FAA “standards” not IACO.

The C-5’s AFM, MM, IPC, WD, flight test data, fatigue and static test data and all the substantiating data still exist. It would not be hard to dig it out of the vaults in the B-1 tunnels.

Many different Lockheed ex-military aircraft including F-104’s, T-33’s, P-3’s, C-130’s and P2V’s are currently on the civilian registry that do not have full FAA certification a fact they share with the AN-124.

Whatever the “data plate” is for it is not a B17-F, which weighed slightly more than 267 lbs.

It most likely a part built under licence by Bell for a B-17F that was being built by Douglas (listed as customer). Douglas was part of the BVD group building B-17’s during WWII.

BVD = Boeing, Vega, Douglas.

Vega was a subsiduary of Lockheed.

The “radome” is nothing more than a fairing that covers the radar antenna. It is made from fiberglass with a honeycomb core. It can be painted with any approved aircraft paint and can be any color.

Many airlines painted their radomes black so they could be interchanged between airframes and not have to worry about any mis-alignment of the liveries. For the same reason many operators painted their radomes gray with only the very tip painted black. In most cases this black paint covered the rubber erosion boot that is bonded on to some radomes.

No A-4s – or any other US jets – until the French cut off supplies after the 6 Day War, refusing to deliver the 50 Mirage V on order. First A-4 delivered in 1968, F-4E in 1969.

I worked on the A-4 production line from July 69 to June 70. At that time we were building A-4’s for the IAF a long with the USN and USMC A-4’s.

I remember reading a LA Times article about the surplus USN A-4’s that were being sold to the IAF. Those surplus aircraft were new builds right off the production line?

The “world’s first flapless plane”? Didn’t the Wright brothers beat them to it?

I don’t remember any flaps on the SR-71’s (or the YF-12 or A-12’s) but maybe I was mistaken?