Originally Posted by
TonyC
No, the KC-135 windows are just like the B-707 windows which are just like the B-727 windows which are just like the B-737 windows. No windows in the back.
I concede there may have been windows there at some time, but I seriously doubt their purpose could have been navigation. And that brings us back full circle to the eyebrow windows of this thread -- again, not for navigation.
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Umm, they used to.
Each one of my squadron's 16 KC-135R's has two old window "areas" next to the sextant port in the roof of the central cockpit area. The windows have been removed and the holes have been blocked off.
Many years ago, but less than 30 years ago, one of these windows on some KC-135 blew out, and an unlucky boom operator was killed in an extremely gruesome fashion when he filled the hole with his head and upper torso. Our now retired chief boom knew the gentleman who lost his life.
I can post a pic of the sealed off windows if you need proof of their prior existence. It's my understanding that the windows provided the nav with a little "SA" as he used the the sextant....so he could see a broader portion of the sky than just the very limited view through the instrument itself.
The sextant port is now occasionally used as a receptacle for a rather humorously shaped satphone antenna (on Block 30 jets only since Block 40 jets have a dedicated Satcom system.