Lockheed Warning Star At Andrews AFB

[CTarana45]

A Lockheed Warning Star At Andrews AFB! :pilot:

 

Christopher Tarana

[BillD22]

Great shot of a historic aircraft Chris. This was the predecessor to modern day AWACs airplanes.

 

As it turns out I have several personal RW connections to EC-121s and to the very VT-86 aircraft in your shot. I never flew in it but often saw this specific airplane on the flight line at Glynco Naval Air Station in Georgia while I was attending a Navy school there "back in the day." This airplane was subsequently transferred to VW-4 - one of the original hurricane hunter squadrons - and is now in the Naval Aviation Museum collection in Pensacola.

 

Here's a shot of the real airplane at the museum in Hurricane Hunter markings.

 

 

My other connection to EC-121s is thru my dad who was a career Navy pilot and the CO of the largest squadon of EC-121s in the Navy - something like 30 airplanes. The original Navy designation was WV-2 (called "Willie Victors") before getting swtiched over to EC-121.

 

Thanks for the memories!!

Edited July 20, 2022 by BillD22

[Downwind66]

Very nice screenshot Chris! She's got legs like my ex-wife!, but, she's a whole lot prettier (the plane)!!

 

Thank you, Bill, for your comments on this beautiful aircraft!

 

Rick :cool:

[darrenvox]

nice one there chris

[CTarana45]

I'm studying the history of the Hurricane Hunters. :pilot: Apparently the whole thing started with a Bet? I have both the CalClassic's and Mike Stone's Lockheed C-121 Warning Stars! I also have some Lockheed C-130's installed including Mike's! Mike's PC-3 Orion is onboard also!

 

Christopher Tarana

[Rupert]

Nice shots Chris and Bill.

 

I have to say the P-3, though not exactly the same thing is my favorite of that type of slow moving, long legged, patrol aircraft. Mainly because I flew across country in a P-3B Orion in the 60's.

 

During war time a lot of strange things can and do happen. Imagine if you will, a plane full of chopper pilots, none of which had ever even boarded a P-3 before. We were all type certified for various fixed wing aircraft including some turbo props. But none of us had ever even walked around inside a P-3.

 

We all needed to get to Philly to pick up new H-46s and ferry them back to So. Cal. Things were heating up in Vietnam and the weeks to ship planes through the Panama Canal would take too long so several of us started ferrying them direct from Philly.

 

On this occasion several 46's were ready to ferry West at the same time but needed ferry pilots to fly them. And this P-3 had just been re-certified after a major refit at North Island and was urgently needed for duty on the East Coast with no one type certified available to ferry it there.

 

So the obvious answer was we'd save a lot of time and effort for both the Marines and the Navy by jumping onto a bus to North Island and ferrying it East ourselves. The FAA would probably have spit a brick if they were told, but hey we were at war and needed to get it done. Don't ask, Don't Tell!! We planned for only one takeoff at North Island one landing on the East Coast, nothing to worry about.

 

We had all the standard P-3 pilot manuals that told us all the vitals such as turbo-jet gauge settings and limits, aircraft rotation speed, stall speed etc. All we had to do was jump in and fly it. Which we did.

 

During the flight I'll admit we all took turns in the seats because the flight time was so long it was truly boring. And yes, we did demand a straight in landing at our destination as no one aboard had actually flown it in a pattern and we thought that to be a needless risk. But we got it there and landed without incident.

 

Michael

Edited July 22, 2022 by Rupert