 Tail Numbers Gold Coast Terminal, Las Vegas, NV Distance ~ 1 mile 5:27 p.m. |
| FLIGHT TRACKING : THE PLANES : THE BASES : UNUSUAL MOVEMENTS : FLIGHT PROCEDURES |
| THE 737S : THE BEECHCRAFTS |
| N4529W Serial Number: 20785 Built in 1973, this aircraft was first owned by the Canadian company Pacific Western Airlines until EG&G gained operational control over the plane in 1983. Curiously, the plane was first sold to a Panamanian company called “Aircraft Trading and Services, Inc.” who immediately sold the plane to “American Leasing Investors V-A” from whom EG&G leased the plane. With EG&G flights beginning in 1983, this plane is the longest-running 737 in the Janet fleet (most of the other planes began flying as Janets in the mid 1990s). It is also an unusual Janet because, unlike the others, it has always been a “real” 737, unlike the others originally built as T-43A trainers for the Air Force. Moreover, the plane’s ownership history tells a remarkable story. The planes’ owners, “American Leasing Investors V-A” was a partnership between Selig A. Zises, Jay H. Zises, and Arthur H. Goldberg, a collection of New York financers. Selig Zises was the chairman of Integrated Resources, Inc., a financial services company known for creating tax shelters and a part of junk-bond king Michael Milken’s “daisy-chain” of clients. When Milken’s pyramid scheme fell apart in the late 1980s, the Zises brothers left Integrated Resources. A few months later the company defaulted on its loans and collapsed. In 1991, Goldberg and the Zises brothers cancelled their lease with EG&G Special Projects, and ownership of the plane changed to the First Security Bank of Utah. EG&G in turn began leasing the plane from the bank. On December 7, 1995, First Security Bank sold the aircraft to the Department of the Air Force. EG&G Special Projects still operates the aircraft. In recent years, Jay Zises has been the president of “Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces,” a close friend of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a major contributor to Senator Joseph Lieberman, George Bush, the Republican National Committee, and to the Club for Growth. His brother Selig Zises is now a major investor in Xenonics – a company that sells lighting systems and night vision equipment to the military and whose stock value increased many times over with the US invasion of Iraq. Selig maintains intimate ties to Washington, contributing large amounts of money to both Democratic and Republican candidates. Arthur H. Goldberg is on the board of Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum. N5175U Serial Number: 20689 This plane was manufactured in 1974 and was used by the 323rd Flying Training Wing at Mather Air Force Base as a T43-A trainer for several decades. In May 1992, control over the plane was transferred to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio (headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command). Later that year, the plane was certified by the Department of the Air Force in Utah, who still own the aircraft. |
 737 operating for Keyway Air Transport Co. Photo Credit: JC, A Scottish Spotter, 1989 |
N5176Y Serial Number: 20692 This aircraft has an almost identical history to N5175U. Both spent decades as T43-A trainers for the 323rd Flying Training Wing at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, California before being transferred to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1992 and certified by the Department of the Air Force in Utah. N5177C Serial Number: 20693 This aircraft has an extremely interesting past. Like most of the other Janets, this plane was originally a T43-A Air Force Trainer. However, in 1987, the plane was transferred to an outfit called “Keyway Air Transport” for whom it flew using the tail number N99890 at first and later using the tail number N57JE. From 1987 until 1992, the plane was largely based in Frankfurt, Germany. German planespotters active in the late 1980s and early 1990s were familiar with the unusual plane: they suspected it of flying for either the Central Intelligence Agency or for the National Security Agency. In researching this plane’s history, I found a Scottish planespotter who had photographed the plane in Frankfurt, Germany. When I asked “J.C” (he asked me not to reveal his name) about this photograph and why he thought the plane was attached to the CIA, he told me the following: “As you may realise, T-43's are quite scarce in the UK, especially as I stay in Aberdeen on the North East Coast of Scotland. At the time [the photo] was taken, N99890 was my second T-43. I'd seen my first at Fairford the previous month in USAF scheme. -J.C., a Scottish Spotter Registration documents on file with the Federal Aviation Administration for this aircraft go only as far back as 1992, when the Department of the Air Force (re)acquired the plane. |
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| N5294E Serial Number: 20691 Like most of the other Janet 737s, this plane was used by the Air Force as a T-43A trainer from 1974 until 1994, when it acquired new life as one of EG&G Special Projects’ shuttles. The plane is owned by the Department of the Air Force and operated by EG&G Special Projects. N5294M Serial Number: 20694 This plane was used by the Air Force as a T-43A trainer from 1974 until 1994, when it became one of the EG&G Special Projects’ shuttles. The plane is owned by the Department of the Air Force. It is operated by EG&G. |
| FLIGHT TRACKING : THE PLANES : THE BASES : UNUSUAL MOVEMENTS : FLIGHT PROCEDURES : SITE CREDITS THE 737S : THE BEECHCRAFTS |
| ©2006 Trevor Paglen |