Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation / EC-121

I flew as a Navy aircrewman (ACW) in Willie Victors from 1959 thru 1962. I served in VW-11, VW-15, VW-13, and AEWTULANT. Flew in approx 250 barrier patrols, a nd in the latter squadron Wallops Island rocket shoots, search and rescue, and was on the recovery team for Col. Glenn's Friendship 7 orbit (boy am I getting old). A great aircraft and great comrades. FLY NAVY

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Had a most memorable trip in one of these, starting in Freetown with the launch trip across to the airport there to catch an Air France DC3 to Conakry, Guinea. At Conakry embarked upon a Super Connie, next stop Dakar in Senegal, then the long haul to Paris - except we never got there. Some time that night the port inboard engine caught fire, it was soon extinguished and with prop feathered we turned and headed back to Dakar. Then a magical 24 hours in a luxury hotel by the beach courtesy of Air France..."sigh". Eventually reached Paris there to transfer to London...

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Had a most memorable trip in one of these, starting in Freetown with the launch trip across to the airport there to catch an Air France DC3 to Conakry, Guinea. At Conakry embarked upon a Super Connie, next stop Dakar in Senegal, then the long haul to Paris - except we never got there. Some time that night the port inboard engine caught fire, it was soon extinguished and with prop feathered we turned and headed back to Dakar. Then a magical 24 hours in a luxury hotel by the beach courtesy of Air France..."sigh". Eventually reached Paris there to transfer to London...

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My first posting in the early "70s as a Canadian Air Force pilot was on the CF100 (not to be confused with the F100). The "Clunk" worked the Electronic Warfare role and we spent a couple of weeks on the west coast of Canada working "towlines" against the Voodoos based in Comox (CYQQ).
One of our exercises was controlled by AWACs which turned out to be the Super Connie. After that day's work we formed up on his left wing before he left for home. I'm pretty sure the radome on top was the full circular disc. Would anyone know the model we worked with and where she may have been based???

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Just an observation. I think the weights section may be in error.
WEIGHTS
Take-off weight 4õ3400 kg 9 lb
Empty weight 33119 kg 73015 lb
I am fairly certain that the take off weight was more than 9 pounds.

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Fflew as ATW /AT1 aircrewman in VW-13 and VW-11 (Argentia, NFLD), VW-1 (Guam, P.I. & Viet Nam) and PMR (Pt.Mugu, CA). Was always associated with guitar playing. Unfortunately, all the old VW-bases are ALL gone now (Glynco, Argentia, Guam, Barbers Point, Midway, PMR, etc.).

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I was an aircraft maintenance officer with VW-13 stationed in Argentia in 1963-1964. Deployed to Keflavik 30 days at a time. Enjoyed the cold weather and comradship with fellow Navy men. No more cold now though!! lol Does anyone know the where abouts of my close friend Paul Vetter..please let me know if you do. Thanks.

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I served 3 years at McClellan from 1962-1965 as a radar technician on the EC-121-D, and logged 1,250 flight hours. I recall flying on triple nickel occasionally, and was there when she made a belly landing at McClellan. Never thought she'd fly again, but she did. A fellow technician and I recently visited the AF Museum at Dayton, Ohio, and as we looked at this same bird we had both flown on, a lot of memories came to the surface.
I recall many 24-hour-long flights off the West Coast, and occasionally we would have to fly higher (with shorter flight time) due to "radar inversions." When I think of looking at the APS-95 thyratron to adjust the capsule voltage, and sticking a probe in the APS-45 waveguide, later upgraded to the APS-103, while the radar was firing… I shudder a bit, and think of our good friend Joe Town.

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I was part of AEWRON-13 from 1959 till 1964 Electronic Tech. I was radioman for "Wild Bill" Elliott's crew on duty flying the Atlantic DEW line. Wild Bill ordered us into "survival gear" two hrs after t /o from Azores Island. A Russian Bear bomber had it's gun control radar sweeping our butt for 3hrs. We found out AFTER a safe landing @ Argentia 20 minutes was max to live if ditched in the ocean. We did S&R's for many P2V's which hit icebergs & vanished. Five grtgrnd children now. Thank you all for serving. Pap

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Completed Flight Engineer's School with AEWBARRONPAC in 1964 @ Barber's Point HI. Flew both the transport and the AEW "Willie Victors" as a student engineer. Long hours in a comfortable A /C (as long as you were in the bunk) Was looking forward to many "two week honeymoons" between Barber's Point and Midway, but the Barrier was decommisioned and I was transferred to VP-4 on the other side of the Hanger.

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I piloted the first Connies at Otis AFB in 1955. Logged over 3000hrs. Great weather platform. Icing over the winter North Atlantic like you've never seen. Both pitot heads iced up...no airspeed indicators. Flew Climb power with 4.5 degree deck angle until on top at 11,000 ft. altitude.Ice luckily broke off. Works good...lasts a long time!

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I was in VW-13 from October 1962 till July 1964 flying the EC121-K on the Icelantic Barrier. I was copilot for Tom Moxley and Dick Knapton and eventually as Aircraft Commander.
I flew about 2300 hours in the Connie during this period and enjoyed every flight.
We were stationed at the Naval Station at Argentia, Newfoundland and we would fly to Iceland and fly 7 12 hour patrols and back to Argentia in 16 days. 26 days later we would repeat our Icelandic "vacation".
One time we flew the 12 hours (13 hours of fuel) and arrived back in Iceland and the weather was below landing minimums and Prestwick, Scotland was our alternate airport (4 1 /2 hours away). When we got to Prestwick the weather was below landing minimums and we made 2 GCA aproaches and the 3rd time around we told the GCA unit to put us on the runway as we were almost out of fuel (18 1 /2 hrs in fligh.) Real exciting.
What a beutiful airplans.

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I flew the RC-121D for the 963rd AEW&C Wing at McClellan '61 to '63. Perhaps they dropped it back later, but our Max Takeoff Gross Weight in those days was 152,500. We too had a lot of engine failures for the R3350-99W. This was probably because they were being stressed beyond their original design to get the 3500+ horsepower they produced. Never happened to me, but we did have a few come back with two engines out. I do recall that if we were painting unknowns or running intercepts, we remained on station if all we had out was one engine.

The airframe that was the first to be deployed to SEA came from McClellan, and I flew it many times. Old "Triple Nickel" is now on display at the AF Museum at Wright-Patterson. 555 was a real "Hanger Queen" at McClellan; so, it was no surprise that she was chosen by the Chief of Maintenance to fill that levy.

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I spent a year in VW-11, Argentia Newfoundland ('60-'61)and was a young airman fixing radars (APS-20 and APS-45) as well as ECM gear on these WV-2 Navy aircraft. Tough aircraft!

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I flew a couple of thousand hours in the EC-121K that was modified for ELINT training while I was an instructor at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Glynco, Ga 1966-67. Then to VQ-2 in Rota Spain where I flew another couple of thousand hours in the EC-121M (Some with Dave Laney, see above), while also flying in the EA-3B SKYWARRIOR 1967-1970. We often referred to the EC-121 as either the "Shuddering Shithouse" or "250,000 spare parts flying in close formation." Nevertheless, I still have a soft spot in the heart for the old gal, because like Dave said above, it always got us home (Many times with one engine at parade rest).

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I flew the EC121M, R7V, and other variations of The Super Connie for about 10,000 hours in four different Navy squadrons, VW-3 & VW-1 on Guam, VQ-1 at Nas Atsugi,Japan and Danang AFB, S. Viet Nam and VQ-2 in Nas Rota, Spain.I had a few tense moments but I had total confidence that "Connie" would always bring me home!

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I was in the 960th AEW&C squadron at Otis AFB from 1955 to 1958. I have over 3000 hours in the RC-121 (mostly the D model but some time in the C model), and I'd be willing to bet that at least 1000 of those hours was on 3 engines. We made a lot of RON landings at Kindley AFB in Bermuda due to fog at Otis.

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After Navy flight training in 1959 my first assignment was VW-11 in Argentia New Foundland. If anyone remembers the "Rock" they will know the weather conditions there.We flew the WV-2 1049H model on the Dew Line extension between New Foundland and the Azore Islands. We flew at 5000' eastbound and 6000'westbound.Probably in the worst weather possible.But the Connie performed superbly a great flying machine. Sometime in the summer of 61 we changed the patrol to Iceland another jewel of a place, and flew between Greenland and Iceland up to the Artic circle and between the Farro Islands and Iceland, again at those low altitudes in the ice all the time. So if anyone remembers the "Barrier" drop me a line.

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served with VW-13 64 to 65 worked in the airframe shop lot of memories of this greatb old airplane !

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I flew more times than I wanted on this big vibrator. First landing in Iceland all I could see was us skidding down a slick runway in December (Keflavik). I filled in as ground crew to run up engines, crew chief engaged prop pitch and I almost got sliced and diced. I remember lots of fire and smoke at startup. Not really fond of the old birds!

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