By Scott
Schwartz
Known to aircrews as
the “Willy Victor”, the WV-2 became the EC-121K in Navy parlance, after
aircraft designations became standardized among the services in 1962. One hundred, forty two of these aircraft were
ordered for the Navy, and the first of them were delivered in 1953.
Thirteen of the
EC-121K’s were converted into EC-121M “electronic intelligence” aircraft, while
another nine were modified to become WC-121N weather-reconnaissance machines. Other EC-121’s were used by Navy training
squadrons- and one of these aircraft served until 1982.
For its part, the USAF
received eighty four EC-121’s; the first of these came from the Navy contract,
with deliveries to the Air Force beginning in 1953. Ten of these aircraft- RC-121’s – became
TC-121C trainers. Most of the remainder
were used as electronic-monitoring or as radio-broadcast aircraft for use in
psychological warfare.
The reader should
consider that the WV-2/EC-121 aircraft were operated primarily during an era
when satellite surveillance was in its infancy or was non-existent.
So, it makes sense that
the Navy put its WV-2/EC-121’s to use in conjunction with “picket” destroyers
for nine years, beginning in 1956.
Flying missions which lasted as long as twenty hours, the aircraft
extended the “eyes” and “ears” of the destroyers in the hope of detecting
incoming Soviet missiles or bomber aircraft.
Squadrons of EC-121’s covered both the Pacific and Atlantic “barriers” –
the operation being known as “Barrier Force”- with operations winding down by
1965.
But, that wasn’t the
end of Navy EC-121 operations altogether, as the aircraft was put to use in
hurricane-hunting and intelligence-gathering operations, as well as for
training Electronics Warfare Officers.
As for the United
States Air Force; the war in Viet Nam found that service making good use of its
EC-121’s in connection with its Operation Rolling Thunder and with the
Linebacker I and II operations. Prior to
the war, Air Force EC-121’s were used as adjuncts to land-based radar that was
set up along both coasts of the United States.
Cruising three hundred miles off shore, the EC-121’s plugged the holes
in early land-based radar coverage.
Once the war in Viet
Nam began, however, EC-121’s were used to direct American fighters engaging in
combat, as well as to track enemy aircraft.
Since the EC-121’s were
designed to detect targets flying over water, terrain and buildings tended to
“clutter” the images received on its radar.
EC-121 radar operators, however, drawing upon their experience in
tracking aircraft over Cuba, were able to bounce their radar signals off the
water. This enabled them to detect enemy
aircraft (those that weren’t flying too high, or too low, that is) up to one
hundred, fifty miles away. The tracking EC-121 flew as low as fifty feet above
the water, while a back-up EC-121 cruised at 10,000 feet, some distance away.
These EC-121’s made up
the Big Eye task force.
Despite the EC-121
radar operator’s ingenuity in tracking North Vietnamese aircraft, most of the
MiG’s being detected were far beyond the range of the EC-121’s “height-finder”
radar, which meant that the radar operators could not tell U.S. fighter pilots
how high the enemy aircraft were flying.
This shortcoming severely limited the EC-121’s usefulness as a fighter
director aircraft.
Because the relatively
slow EC-121’s were vulnerable to interception by enemy aircraft; therefore,
they were protected by F-104’s flying MiG Combat Air Patrol (“MiGCAP”). So serious was this threat, that EC-121
missions would be canceled if the F-104’s weren’t available.
As if the threat of
being shot down wasn’t enough, the heat generated by the radar equipment
rendered the on-board air conditioning all-but useless.
Despite these
challenges, an EC-121 assisted in the shooting down of two MiG-17’s, by
providing airborne radar warnings to two F4-Phantom
fighters, on July 10, 1965. This was the
first interception to be controlled by an EC-121.
Beginning in March of
1967, Big-Eye became the College Eye task force, and EC-121 crews
took on the additional tasks of directing attack aircraft, as well as helping
to keep American Aircraft clear of Chinese air space. This latter item was in response to a protest
by Chinese, after an F-105 entered Chinese air space while in pursuit of a MiG.
August of 1967 saw the
addition of Vietnamese-speaking crewmen to one EC-121K, which became known as Rivet Top.
The equipment aboard this aircraft enabled the crew to listen in on
the communications between enemy pilots and their ground-controllers. This may sound like an ideal arrangement,
except for one problem; the bi-lingual intelligence specialists flying aboard
the EC-121’s weren’t provided with radar screens, because the radar worked in
conjunction with then-top secret equipment that could “read” enemy
transponders. Consequently, the
intercepted communications could not be matched to specific enemy flights; this
severely limited the system’s usefulness assessing threats to American
Aircraft. Even after these restrictions
were lifted (in 1972!), American fighter pilots receiving reports were not told
where the information was coming from.
What’s more, the poor quality of the radio transmissions from the
EC-121’s required other aircraft to provide radio-relay services- which often
did not work. As a result, many fighter
pilots were suspicious of the information provided by the EC-121’s, when they
received it at all.
These problems were
never completely resolved; nevertheless EC-121’s did manage to aid in the
shooting down of twenty five MiGs between 1965 and 1973.
Operation of the EC-121
by the Air Force ceased altogether by September of 1978. By that time, the aircraft had been
transferred to the Air Force Reserve, which used them as advance-early-warning
aircraft.
There are roughly
twelve EC-121’s in existence today; one of these is EC-121T -serial number
53-0548- which is owned by the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, CA.
Leaving Air Force
service in 1979, “0548” was stored at Davis-Monathan Air Force Base, where it
sat for five years until it was purchased by Wayne’s Aviation. The aircraft wound up at Camarillo Airport, in
Camarilo, CA where it stayed until January of 2012.
Wayne’s Aviation flew
the aircraft to several airshows, but the organization lost its momentum- at
least as far as the EC-121 was concerned-and the aircraft sat until it was
purchased by the Yanks Air Museum in 2004.
At that point, Yanks
Museum Manager Frank Wright and his team of fellow mechanics had their work cut
out for them. Over nearly eight years, the
aircraft was slowly brought back to life.
Not surprisingly,
corrosion was a big issue. The type of
aluminum utilized by Lockheed in the construction of the aircraft tends to
actually peel away in layers as it corrodes.
So, portions of the outer wing panels had to be patched up. On top of this, the fabric on the rudders had
to be replaced, the stainless steel fuel lines had to be carefully inspected
(they tend to crack), and, of course, there was the FAA’s extensive list of
items that needed to be inspected and/or repaired.
Still, the big aircraft
was ready for the ferry flight to its new home on January 14, 2012. The FAA stipulated that only essential crew
could be on board for the flight, and after completing several orbits over
Camarillo in order to make sure that there were no mechanical problems,
“0548” departed the area, detouring over
the Mojave desert (in order to avoid populated areas-another FAA
stipulation). Ninety minutes later, the
EC-121 touched down at Chino Airport.
According to Mr.
Wright, the museum has a few other projects to complete, before it can focus on
the EC-121. The plan, though, is to keep
the EC-121 airworthy. There are a couple
of challenges involved- an Airworthiness Directive involving leaking propeller
hub seals has to be complied with, but, Mr. Wright asserts that the real
problem lays in finding pilots and flight engineers who are qualified to fly
this aircraft. Many of those who are
currently flying aircraft like the EC-121 are in their late seventies. So, it will probably come down to these
pilots being able to pass their skills on to a younger generation.
For now, though, “0548”
is in good hands.
EC-121 Data:
Length: 116 ft., 2 in.
Wing span: 126 ft., 2 in.
Empty weight: 69, 210 pounds.
Engines: Four Wright R-3350 turbo-compound units,
eighteen cylinders each. The engines
were originally rated at 3400 HP each, but “0548’s” engines are “de-rated” to
2800 HP, because 145 Octane fuel is no longer available.
Top speed: 299 mph.
“0548” cruised at 200 mph during its ferry flight to Chino.
Service Ceiling: 25,000 feet.
