PAINT ONLY
PLANE NOT INCLUDED
In 1957, the year of the L-188 Electra's maiden flight, Lockheed was asked by the US Navy to design a new maritime patrol aircraft to replace its P2V Neptunes. The manufacturer reused the airframe of its civilian L-188 Electra model for this new aircraft, christened the P-3 Orion.
The first flight of the Lockheed P-3 Orion, a four-engine propeller-driven maritime patrol aircraft, took place at the end of 1959, and it entered service for the first time with the U.S. Navy in 1962. More than 750 were built.
Lovely little piece of history of the tanker operations — for 37 years — of Aero Union’s fleet, including its P-3 Orions flying out of Chico in northern California. The much-missed red/white P-3 ships were the last of a long line of Aero Union’s many airtankers, the red/white icons of aerial firefighting. Not many companies have a history so impressive.
