What is on the tail of this 747?

[RedEye1]

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?...0&height=912&sok=&photo_nr=&prev_id=&next_id=

 

[fr8doggie]

Looks like the drouge for a trailing wire antenna.

 

[Boeingman]

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=837925&size=L&width=1200&height=912&sok=&photo_nr=&prev_id=&next_id=

My guess would be a VLF antenna. Submarine communications?

 

[Whale Rider]

I'm sure the secret service could tell you....but then they'd have to kill you.

 

[blzr]

Also looks like a fuel dump. And APU exhaust. But I'm sure it has to be some whizbang gadget used to monitor cool, unspeakable stuff that only people at area 51 know about.

 

[Stukadriver]

How about a rocket motor for that really cool escape pod from that Harrison Ford movie?

 

[skykid]

I've got insiders in the squadron, but this should have been obvious to you guys. It is a speaker that goes "beep, beep, beep" when that thing is getting pushed back. They normally pull up to gate just like anybody else so they push back all the time.

 

[kelbill]

I'm not 100% sure, but as someone else mentioned, it looks like the VLF antenna to contact subs to launch our counterattack in a nuke war. Not a secret, so I'm not spilling the beans. E4B based out of Offut, not the President's plane.

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

probably an apu exhaust and a flare dispenser of some sort to ward off SAMs
the thing below the big pipe looks like the device they've been putting on gulfstreams as part of the protection package i.e. anti SAM

 

[VaB]

This one is simple.

Chemgoo dispenser.

 

[ironwedge]

My guess would be a VLF antenna. Submarine communications?

That's my guess too. It's the end of a very long length of cable. Remember antenna theory class? Frequency propagation is proportional to the diameter of the loop antenna. Let's say you have the ability to take a VERY large loop antenna to anywhere in the world. You could talk to subs sitting under thousand foot sheets of ice without too much trouble.

Uhhh, like I said....just a guess

 

[Spooky 1]

Sub Communications

5 mile trailing wire antenna used to communicate with subs below the surface. Similar to the Navy B707 system.

 

[CapnVegetto]

It's a bullhorn so the pilots can yell 'GET OFF MY A$$!!!!!'

 

[Thedude]

Its the poop chute for the whale

 

[Inconceivable]

more interesting is the need for/use of FOUR a/c hoses!

 

[psycho]

I just happened to be working at the army/navy store when Colin Powell bought that stuff. It's a foghorn and a cannon. Used to confuse Allah's air forces into thinking they are being attacked by the polish navy. Colin also bought one of those crackpipe lighters for the fuse. Nice guy, even though I initially called him james earl jones.