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Images of the MC-130H Combat Talon during flight test at Edwards. Many of the test organizations experienced name changes during my second tour at Edwards between 1988 and 1993. In the case of the Special Operations C-130s, they started out as the Special Operations Combined Test Force, or SpecOps CTF. Around 1989, a squadron structure was added to the CTFs. in the case of SpecOps, this was the 6518th Test Squadron. The 6518TS identified the Air Fore Systems Command contingent in the CTF working beside AFOTEC (operational test contingent), and the Lockheed/Raytheon (or was it still Hughs back then?) contractor test contingent. In July 1992, Systems Command was merged with Logistics Command to form AF Materiel Command and all the unit numbers changed. The 6518TS became the 418th Flight Test Squadron, the parent 6510th Test Wing became the 412th Test Wing. USAF s/n 84-0475, 1988... Not usually a fan of showing my air show pictures. You never know what's going to show up on the ramp in California - and I'm not referring to the aircraft. But these show the best nose detail from the images I have. What are those kids doing inside the ropes? 1989 and I got to fly in a safety chase for one of their test missions Opus was the call sign for the MC-130H at Edwards, a reference to its "beak" and the similarity to the penguin (?) character in the comic strip Bloom County. to complete the reference, the control room for MC-130 missions used the call sign "Bloom County". Normally, mission control rooms used the aircraft call sign and the word control, e.g. Zoom Control for an F-16 mission, so it imparted a bit of whimsy when you herd Bloom County over the air. 1990 saw the addition of a second test bird, 83-1212. Here is '475 moving into pre-contact position from the tanker '1212 front right quarter '475 front right quarter '475 rear quarter '1212 rear quarter '475 making a pass down the Rogers lakebed tower fly-by line. Tower fly-bys were used to calibrate the pitot static system at lower altitudes. There was a sighting grid in the tower used to determine the actual altitude above the lakebed and those numbers were compared to what was indicated in the cockpit. 1991, '475 Thanks for looking, Sven