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EC-121 /
WV-2 Warning Star
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Photo: Robert Deering 1986 National Museum of Naval Aviation NAS Pensacola (NPA) Pensacola, Florida |
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The Lockheed EC-121 "Warning Star" is a variant of the C-121 transport aircraft. Utilized for airborne early warning, it employs a radome height-finding radar antenna (called the "camel back") on top of the fuselage and a large radome under the fuselage for a 20' search radar. It was powered by four Wright R-3350-34 turbo-compound engines. The fuselage was pressurized to accommodate electronic technicians and their associated mission equipment at high altitudes. Of the 142 C-121s ordered by the Navy, several in the transport version fulfilled the Navy's obligation to the Military Air Transport Service while the balance in flying Early Warning Barriers over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A portion of this role ended in 1965, when an advanced radar system assumed the responsibility over the northern approaches to the North Atlantic - a mission previously assigned to Navy EC-121 squadrons for ten consecutive years. This "Jack of all Trades" aircraft was also employed as both a weather, electronic- and photo-reconnaissance aircraft.
During Vietnam the EC-121 was employed by both the Air Force and Navy in a variety of roles ranging from aircraft command and control and early warning to electronic surveillance. Called "Connies" by the pilots who flew them, a replacement for them in these roles was never found. The "Warning Star" also operated in a more peaceful mission in the form of a Navy C-121J nicknamed the "Blue Eagle" that served as an airborne radio and television transmitter for the armed forces network in South Vietnam. While this particular model served as a transmitter of news, another "Warning Star" became a maker of news on 14 April 1969 when a Navy EC-121 was shot down over the Sea of Japan by North Korean aircraft with the loss of the entire thirty-one man crew. This attack prompted the United States to deploy Task Force 71 to Asian waters in protection of future flights. |
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