{"id":233827,"date":"2026-04-03T18:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/233827\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T18:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:26:09","slug":"secret-air-force-plane-spotted-at-amarillo-airport-following-artemis-ii-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/233827\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Air Force plane spotted at Amarillo airport following Artemis II launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) \u2014 A secret US Air Force jet was spotted at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.<\/p>\n

ABC 7 News shot video of the NT-43A Radar Test Bed, also commonly referred to by the callsign RAT55, at the airport on Friday.<\/p>\n

The NT-43A is a modified T-43 trainer which is believed to be used for evaluating the radar signatures of stealth aircraft.<\/p>\n

It played a role in Wednesday’s launch of Artemis II which is taking four astronauts on a 10-day mission around the moon and back. It’s NASA’s first moon trip since 1972.<\/p>\n

\"Flight<\/p>\n

Flight path of the NT-43A{ } on April 1, 2026, during the Artemis II lunch (Source: Flight Aware)<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter decades of flights supporting the Air Force in various roles, the NT-43A Radar Test Bed is being transitioned to start the next phase of its career,\u201d an Air Force spokesperson told The War Zone<\/a>. \u201cBeginning with data collection during the launch of Artemis II, the NT-43A Radar Test Bed will continue its legacy of excellence in supporting some of our nation\u2019s most important and technologically advanced capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

TWZ said the RAT 55 is understood to be based at the Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada, and has been seen at Area 51.<\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n

The plane was previously spotted in Amarillo in May 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) \u2014 A secret US Air Force jet was spotted at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-233827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}