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EC-121 Warning Star

EC-121 Warning Star
Lockheed EC-121D Thailand 1972.jpg
EC-121T Warning Star
Role Airborne early warning and control aircraft
Manufacturer Lockheed
First flight 9 June 1949
Introduction 1954
Retired 1982 (USN)
Primary users United States Navy
United States Air Force
Produced 1953–1958
Number built 232
Developed from L-749 Constellation
L-1049 Super Constellation
C-121 Constellation

The Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star was a United States Navy and United States Air Force Airborne early warning and control radar surveillance aircraft. A military version of the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, it was designed to serve as an airborne early warning system to supplement the Distant Early Warning Line, using two large radomes, a vertical dome above and a horizontal one below the fuselage. EC-121s were also used for intelligence gathering (SIGINT).

It was introduced in 1954 and retired from service in 1978, although a single specially modified EW aircraft remained in service with the U.S. Navy until 1982. The U.S. Navy versions when initially procured were designated WV-1 (PO-1W), WV-2, and WV-3. Warning Stars of the U.S. Air Force served during the Vietnam War as both electronic sensor monitors and as a forerunner to the Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS. U.S. Air Force aircrews adopted the civil nickname, "Connie" (diminutive of Constellation) as reference, while naval aircrews used the term "Willie Victor" based on a slang version of the NATO phonetic alphabet and the Navy's pre-1962 "WV-" designations for the aircraft type.

Since 1943 the Lockheed Constellation had been in USAAF service as the C-69. The use of the Constellation by the U.S. Navy for patrol and airborne early warning duties was first investigated in 1949, when the Navy acquired two Lockheed L-749 Constellations. First flown on 9 June 1949, the PO-1W carried large, long-range radars in massive radomes above and below the fuselage. As the radomes produced considerable more side area, the vertical stabilizers of the PO-1W had to be enlarged. After the PO-1W, which was redesignated WV-1 in 1952, had proved that it was possible to operate large radars on aircraft, the U.S. Navy ordered the WV-2 based on the L-1049 Super Constellation. The WV-1s were later transferred to the Federal Aviation Agency in 1958–1959.


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