Now there are two mysterious USAF C-40C Clipper with no registration

Dooradmin

Last update: July 6, 2026

There are now two Boeing C-40C Clipper aircraft with no registration on the fuselage. Both wear the exact livery but the fuselage has some differences. Both are owned by a shell company called GWP LLC TRUSTEE.

21-0024:
The first C-40C appeared in 2022 and is known as 21-0024 (hex AE64CC). However an aircraft which looks exactly as 21-0024 appeared at Stuttgart twice and used 19-2404 in the flightplan. It used callsign RCH975 when it visited Stuttgart early June 2024.

21-0024 is now registered on paper as N972BJ and owned by GWP LLC Trustee. The previous owner was the USAF and previous registration 21-0024 according Planespotters. The new hex id is AD8B35. This does not show any flights on ADSBexchange.N972BJ is the registration of the aircraft before it was registered 21-0024.

19-2024:
The id of the second C-40C is 19-2024. It *could* be this is N235JF and former P4-KAZ. N235JF is registered to a company named GWP LLC TRUSTEE. This makes sense as 21-0024/N972BJ is also owned by GWP LLC, on paper that is. Latest activity on this aircraft which was stored since 2020 at Tucson is that it was acquired by a company called Gideon Winepress LLC in Austin Texas at February 21, 2023 . (source). After that the aircraft was modified by at least the hump on top of the fuselage.

There is no information on GWP LLC TRUSTEE and Gideon Winepress LLC which clearly makes this a shell companies.

How to identity the two aircraft.

Since 2026 21-0024/N972BJ has the American flag applied to the tail 21-0024/N972BJ has a so called TIOS radome which is mounted on the vertical stabilizer (tail fin).

Photo above by floggertwo @auga3ro


The window layout is also different. Count the tow of windows. Stating from the cockpit 21-0024 has a group of three windows. 19-2404 has a group of 2 windows.

The photo below shows 19-2404/N235JF. It does not have the TIOS radome on top of the tail but has a large hump on top of the fuslage.

Photo by SR_Planespotter on X

The 19-2404 registration was displayed at RadarBox when the aircraft flew Stuttgart-Tel Aviv on October 15, 2024. The data was taken from Eurocontrol.

My guess 21-0024 is the same aircraft as 19-2404. The USAF changed the registration.

On December 14, 2022 a mysterious and anonymous B737-700 BBJ landed at Vancouver airport in Canada. The aircraft livery is mostly white, with two blue stripes running along the fuselage. Unlike regular aircraft operating for airlines the aircraft has no titles. The most remarkable about this aircraft is there is no registration or military serial visible on the aircraft. An aircraft without such an unique identifier is extremely rare.

While the id of this aircraft is not confirmed yet, it is very likely USAF C-40C Clipper with serial 21-0024.

The aircraft is not trackable by public plane tracking websites. Even at ADSBexchange.com, which does not block aircraft on request of the owner, the landing and the departure could not be seen. The aircraft arrived at 1830 on the 14th and departed by 1100 on 15th. The callsign sounded like RAMBO or OBOE 05.

The photo below was made by Vernon Harvey at Vancouver.

What is this aircraft used for?

It is not known what this aircraft is used for , but we can do some guesses. The aircract is extremely likely based a Pope Field in North Carolina. Evidence is that tracking expert @Listenalot mentioned the aircraft left to Pope Field after doing touch and go’s at Huntsville (around 700 km from Pope) . The aircraft was spotted earlier doing touch and go’s at other airports relative close to Pope Field. For example at Tri-Cities airport (350 km from Pope) as this video shows. In December 2022 it did touch and go’s at Chattanooga (580 km from Pope).

Another clue is a source who stated this aircraft originated from Pope Field when it arrived at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy.

At Pope 427th Special Operations Squadron is based. This squadron is tasked with transport of special forces and CIA staff. This aircraft had a flightplan filed from Sigonella to Rwanda during the time US embassy staff in Khartoum, Sudan was planned to be evacuated. Flightradar showed a B737 which had a flightplan filed from Djibouti to Stuttgart using callsign ADORE24 days after embassy staff was evacuated. ADORE24 was also the callsign of the aircraft when it flew to Sigonella from the US. The Djibouti-Stuttgart flight was cancelled.

Later a flight using callsing ADORE24 was heared on ATC when the aircraft returned to direction Pope Field. (April 23 2023)

This particular aircraft until recently had a different livery and its serial could be seen on the fuselage as this photo shows. The last know hex code was AE64CC.

21-0024, if this is indeed the same aircraft as spotted at Vancouver, always has been a very shy aircraft.There are very few photos on the internet.

The previous identity of 21-0024 also is not clear. A Boeing 737 registered VP-BYA( (serial 29972) has exactly the same livery and window layout. This BBJ with exclusive interiour was feried from Basel to Brunswick in Florida at March 3 and 4, 2022 as N972BJ (hex AD8B35). The owner is registered as Lance Toland Limited. It went off the radar since March 4. On Internet there are no photos of N972BJ which is weird. Lance Toland is an aircraft insurance company. Only one other aircraft, a former Ethiopian Airlines B757 was registed on Lance Toland Limited.

The picture below shows VP-BYA left and 21-0024 right

21-0024 showed up on ADSBexchange at April 11, 2022 when it departed from Waco, using hex AE64CC. In April the aircraft did many flight which seems like training as the aircraft did severall approaches at airports.

However Planespotters.net says 21-0024 is former N712JM serial 40116. Also on Twitter people linked 21-0024 to the former all green N712JM

The aircraft spotted at Vancouver could be a sister of 02-0201 and 02-0202 seen below.

Likely, but not sure, this aircraft is the same aircraft as described in an article published by The Drive titled The Mysterious Case Of The Air Force’s New Strangely Modified 737 With A Puzzling Past

The article shows the aircraft in a green primer wearing civil registration N712JM and the number 4465 on multiple places on the fuselage. The Drives writes :

They show the aircraft with what appears to be wiring and sensors speed-taped all along the fuselage. The modifications cover nearly the entire length of the airframe and punch through the cabin windows in some areas.

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14 reacties

  1. Some extra info:

    When Boeing aircrafts are built, they are shiny green the numbers on the fuselage correspond with the so called Linenumber[last 4 digits]:

    for the 21-0024 the numbers are: Hex ID=AE64CC
    FAA shows:

    MSN Model LN Reg1 #1 Date #2 Expires
    40116 737-73W/BBJ/W 4465 N712JM 04/16/2020 04/30/2023
    Owner DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

    The VP-BYA his history:
    MSN Model LN Reg1 Reg2 Reg3
    29972 737-7AN/BBJ 642 N1786B VP-BYA N972BJ

    N1786B => Test?Factory reg
    VP-BYA =>Commercial reg
    Bermuda VP-BAA to VP-BZZ, VQ-BAA to VQ-BZZ. Colonial allocation VR-B.
    [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_registration_prefixes]

    Most Aircraft Companies sell their products via dodgy financial constructions, e.g. the:
    The Bahamas, Virgin Islands etc etc most of them are sold to leasing companies wich are located on (surprise!!) the Bahamas etc etc
    N972BJ => Final reg with HEX AD8B35

    This is a different airframe than the 21-0024

    for the 02-0201 and 02-0202 they share another story

    These two are part of a flock of C40s (B737) which swap the hexcode regularly, according to Scramble.nl are part of a certain Unit

    01-0015 = AE115D, also AE06F0, 65th AS
    01-0040 = AE0945, also AE0946, 1st AS
    01-0041 = AE11F6, also AE11F7, 1st AS
    02-0042 = AE11F8, also AE11F9, 1st AS
    02-0201 = AE1165, also AE1166, 201st AS
    02-0202 = AE1167, also AE1168, 201st AS
    02-0203 = AE11FA, also AE11FB, 201st AS
    05-0730 = AE17EF, also AE181F, 73rd AS
    05-0932 = AE189C also AE189D, 73rd AS
    05-4613 = AE189A, also AE189B, 73rd AS
    09-0540 = AE48D9 miscoded as B648D9, also AE4DDC, 73rd AS

    and there are a couple of C37(Gulfstream 5 mil specs) with the same habbits

    C-37s
    01-0029 = AE087F, also AE06ED,76th AS
    01-0030 = AE115E, also AE115F, 76th AS
    01-0076 = AE0978, also AE0979, 76th AS

    Credit: rh226 on Fighter Control forum

    There is also a story about a couple of 757s with changing hex codes and markings
    https://www.b757.info/u-s-air-force-mystery-757s/ for info

    All this info is based on OSINT

    Cheers,
    Omecees

    Beantwoorden

  2. I believe this plane was doing touch and go’s here in Chattanooga, yesterday December 20, 2022 but it had no markings of any kind. I got a few good pictures of it.

    Beantwoorden

    1. Strange. As with Vancouver I could not see this aircraft on ADSBexchange. I only saw an USAF C130 doing multiple approaches. I went to Dobbins air reserve base.

      Beantwoorden

      1. I’ve done a 24hr replay [dec 14th to dec 15th] of all inbound trafic @adsbX but not any sign of this aiframe, unless it used bogus hex/callsign. Ill try Chattanooga next

        Beantwoorden

          1. One of their tricks is to switch off Civil ADS-B and and use th Mil version of it, keep in mind thta tha ATC @ the airport always has Radar-Contact with the plane.

          2. A bit of background info on comms in aviation( if inappropiat, please delete)

            ADS-B Exchange mainly shows ADS-B and MLAT positions.
            Source ADS-B: ADS-B transponders broadcast the aircrafts location twice a second (and also send other data which includes everything a ModeS transponder sends).
            Source MLAT: ModeS transponders are the older technology and don’t broadcast location. To obtain the location the arrival time of a message received by at least 4 receivers is used to determine the location, this is less precise than ADS-B positions but large errors will usually be obvious looking at the flight path (jagged path).

            Secondary radar in general: https://www.radartutorial.eu/13.ssr/sr04.en.html
            ModeS: https://www.radartutorial.eu/13.ssr/sr20.en.html
            ADS-B / ModeS message formats: https://mode-s.org/decode/
            The ICAO 24 bit address for each aircraft, often called icao id / hex id or even shorter icao / hex:
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_transponder_interrogation_modes#ICAO_24-bit_address

            Note that transponders can be misconfigured and will then transmit the wrong identification.
            Military planes will sometimes use a bogus hex id or will deactivate their civilian transponders alltogether.

            Some older military planes only have a ModeC transponder installed, adsbexchange doesn’t display
            ModeC data as getting a position via MLAT would be unreliable and not worth the effort as the plane can’t be identified (no unique 24 bit hex id like ModeS has).
            And if you’re into videos, this explains a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkowxHF8g3M

            And most important: the ADS-B signal/messages are un-encrypted and transmitted on the 1090Mhz Freq, whihout any validity checks (like in networking) because its just a radio broadcast so if you want to introduce a Ghost-plane, just pick a smart programmer and let him do his work. eg Tracking Santa’s Sledge over the globe (as seen on most tracking sites)

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