E-6 Mercury
The E-6 Mercury is a command and control aircraft manufactured by Boeing. It was codenamed as “Looking Glass”. The name Looking Glass is another name for mirror for it mirrors the abilities of Cheyenne Mountain to control nuclear forces.
The E-6 Mercury is adapted from Boeing’s 707-320 commercial airliner. Currently, there is only one version of the E-6 that exists, the E-6B, which is an upgraded version of the E-6A. In August 1989, the first E-6A was accepted by the US Navy and 16 were delivered up to 1992. In December 1997, the first E-6B was accepted and as a result, all E-6 fleet was modified to the E-6B standard. Final delivery of the aircraft took place on December 1, 2006. During the later years of the Cold War, E-6 Mercury “Looking Glass” was said to be airborne 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with one plane taking off to replace another landing during the later years of the Cold War.
The E-6 Mercury has a crew of 22. It has a maximum speed of 522 knots and a range of 6,600 nm. It incorporates four CFMI CFM-56-2A-2 engines. There’s a total of 16 E-6 Mercury’s built.
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