William,
If the 747-2J9F frieghters were converted to tankers it must have been
post
delivery. I have not seen any pictures of them. The only ones I have ever
seen are 747-131s converted to 747-100F and in the pictures they are
clearly
model 100s.

I'm not that good in finding out what is the 100F or what is the 131: I can
rather help you with an inventory of what I've seen on the photos, if that
would help.

5-8114, and 5-8115. The whereabouts of the last two are unknown to me;
the
5-8113, for example, has spent most of its career with the Saha - and
this
did not prevent it from acting as a tanker and a flying command post for
the
"H-3 Blitz" operation...

5-8114 and 5-8115 were last EP-SHA and EP-SHH. I don't understand what you
mean by 5-5113 though. It only spent a year as Iran Air EP-NHN in the
1980s
until finally becoming Saha EP-SHB in1991. Or are you saying that Saha
operated the aircraft with a military serial number?

For 5-8114 there is a photo showing it with the boom, sometimes in the 1970s
or so, and one without, at a much later date, but also without any markings
but fin flash. Almost the same can be seen for the 5-8115: there is a photo
showing it with the boom, and one showing it from the front, without any
markings but the fin flash.

Re. 5-8113: I don't know if the Saha was flying aircraft with military
serial numbers. To be honest: I never cared to find out. What I know is that
the plane was used for supporting specific combat missions, one of which was
the "H-3 Blitz".

Now, if that could ease the dillema, consider that there was a number of
occassions on which the Iranians (mis)used the Turkish airspace to bring
their tankers deep into northern Iraq. Also, bear in mind that during the
whole war the IRIAF had to keep at least one B707 and/or a B747 in tanker
configuration on permanent alert: either as tankers to support combat
operations, or to fly out and be able to pick up whatever kind of spares or
weapons for the IRIAF were acquired outside Iran. So, I actually find it
rather "normal" under the given circumstances that it happened that the
planes officially assigned to the SahaAir carried IRIAF markings, or the
other way around. Leagal or not: I don't find anything special in this.

Tom Cooper
Co-Author:
Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988:
http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php
and,
Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat:
http://www.osprey-publishing.co.uk/t...hp/title=S6585