Recycled Viking

There’s still one S-3B in active flight status.

…one S-3B is still flying in hostile conditions. Its next mission? Venture into hazardous weather to study a phenomenon that has caused more than 100 commercial aircraft engines to fail, stall or temporarily lose power.Engineers from NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Boeing and the Navy have combined forces to transform the S-3B into a state-of-the-art NASA research aircraft. Last month, NASA Glenn unveiled the modified plane in Cleveland.

I don’t remember making too many ventures into known icing conditions but I vividly remember meeting the top of a thunderstorm at 29,000 feet over Albuquerque, NM.  We were on a weekend cross-country from VS-41 in San Diego to Atlanta. Never made it. Hail the size of baseballs hammered the plane and shattered the multi-layered canopy over the pilot. Explosive decompression at FL290 was not fun.  The pilot (instructor) passed out from the shock of the blast, the student NFO recovered the aircraft and made an emergency decent.  Meanwhile in the back, without any communication from up front and forward visibility partially blocked by loose panels and debris, myself and the NFO instructor were preparing to eject unaware that anyone up front was alive and in control.  Thankfully the IP started coming to, the SNFO yelled above the wind blast and we aborted the ejection.  Upon landing we discovered that in addition to the missing pilot’s canopy, the nose and the radar behind it were gone, all leading edges caved in, and the right side canopy had delaminated shedding the outer layer.

Flying into an embedded thunderstorm is probably not in the program for “ice crystal research” but still, deliberately flying a Hoover into icing conditions sounds only a tad more attractive than flying into the eye of a hurricane.  It is comforting to know that the Viking platform will be conducting research that will help avoid future disasters.  Plus if NASA needs spares there’s plenty out at Davis-Monthan.

That sporty paint job has me wondering if some of the other airframes might be demilitarized and made available for civilian purchase.  It really was a great cross-country bird – just needed a weather radar!

H/T to B2 over at chez Lex

**Update**

B2 sends more!

Two S-3B Viking aircraft from recently deactivated VS-22 took off from NAS Jacksonville Feb. 5 and flew to their new home with Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 30 at Naval Air Weapons Station, Point Mugu, Calif.

The aircraft will be used to confirm that the Pacific Missile Test Range is clear prior to launches among other duties perfectly suited to the platform. Nice to see parts of our government still function in a fiscally responsible manner.