Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star

The Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star is an American airborne early warning and control radar surveillance aircraft used in the 1950s by both the United States Navy and the United States Air Force. It was the military version of the L-1049 Super Constellation, carrying two large radomes, a vertical dome above and a horizontal one below the fuselage, to supplement the Distant Early Warning Line, and it replaced the Navy's TBM-3W. It was introduced in 1954 and phased out in 1978, with one specially modified aircraft staying in Navy service until 1982. The Navy versions were the WV-1, WV-2 and WV-3, orders totaled 142 PO-2W aircraft based on the Super Constellation, and in 1962 the WV-2 became the EC-121K. Some were converted for electronic intelligence and weather reconnaissance. In Vietnam the Air Force Warning Stars monitored electronic sensors and foreshadowed the Boeing E-3 Sentry, and North Korea shot down a Navy EC-121 in 1969 with a crew of 31 on board.