Viking Departure

Early in 2012 we invited Code One readers and contributors to send us their best photos. We asked for recent, striking photographs of current Lockheed Martin aircraft to develop a “Best of Code One” theme for the 2013 edition of the calendar.

This Hercules packs a punch! Harvest HAWK is the armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance version of the Marine Corps KC-130J tanker that has proven very succesful in Afghanistan.

Collection of P-3 Orion videos.

Videos featuring the U-2 Dragon Lady

Rather than replace its aircraft, US Customs and Border Protection decided to keep its P-3 fleet flying through the P-3 Mid-Life Upgrade, or MLU, program. CBP is currently on contract to have twelve of its P-3s go through the MLU program. MLU provides replacement structural parts that will keep the aircraft flying for up to another twenty-five years of service.

The German Navy received P-3 aircraft from the Netherlands in 2005 and 2006. By 2007, they were flying operational missions with the Orion for NATO.

Collection of photos of A-12, M21, and D-21 aircraft.

Origins of the SR 71 date back to the late 1950s when legendary Lockheed designer and Skunk Works founder Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson proposed a high speed, high altitude alternative to supplement the Lockheed-built U-2 subsonic reconnaissance plane that would soon become vulnerable to Soviet missiles. As a result, the Blackbird family was initiated with the A 12, which first flew in April 1962. The single-seat A-12s were the smallest of the Blackbird series. Designed for reconnaissance missions, the A-12 spawned a two-place, armed version designated YF-12A, which was proposed as an interceptor. Although never adopted for this role, the YF-12s made important contributions as research aircraft, serving for more than a decade with NASA. It was the first aircraft capable of sustaining speeds above Mach 3.

The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft continues to serve as America’s Sentinel of Peace. Current U-2s are equipped with the latest, most advanced signals intelligence, measurement and signature intelligence, and imagery intelligence sensors in the Air Force inventory.

The US Navy retired the last S-3 Viking carrier-based multimission aircraft from fleet service in ceremonies at NAS Jacksonville, Florida, on 30 January, closing out the aircraft's operational career.