CLEVELAND — NASA announced on Thursday the retirement of a S-3B Viking aircraft that the agency dubs as a “research workhorse.”
The S-3B Viking has been conducting nearly daily flights out of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland since 2004. The aircraft was the last S-3B Viking aircraft flying anywhere in the world, NASA said.
The fleet was retired by the Navy in 2009, but NASA continued to operate its craft out of NASA Glenn. It was originally built as an anti-submarine warfare aircraft, but was retrofitted with civilian avionics, GPS, and satellite communications systems to conduct flight communications research.
NASA said the craft helped define communications standards that the Federal Aviation Administration applied to the unmanned aircraft systems for safe operation in U.S. airspace.
The craft is being retired as replacement parts for repairs are no longer available.
“This old aircraft has been a huge part of ushering in the future of aviation,” says Mike Jarrell, lead of NASA’s Command and Control project. “The S-3B has been a perfect match for our research. It has a nice flat bottom where we can mount a variety of antenna; it flies steady and goes low and slow so we can communicate with ground stations.”
As Lake Erie has encountered harmful algae blooms in recent years, NASA said the aircraft has been able to document and monitor the spread of blooms in the lake.
“The S-3B gave us the flexibility to fly at different altitudes to image large swaths of Lake Erie and other bodies of water,” says Roger Tokars, an elliptical and optics engineer with NASA Glenn. “The other advantage was the aircraft’s inertial navigation system that helped us calibrate our equipment for better geo-referencing data.”
The S-3B Viking had a 30-year history of being used by the Navy, starting in the 1970s. In 2003, an S-3B Viking aircraft transported President George W. Bush to the USS Abraham Lincoln where he delivered the infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech.
Around the time of Bush’s speech, the S-3B Viking began being phased out of service by the Navy. The Navy said it completed its retirement of the craft in 2009.
The craft is on its way to the San Diego Air and Space Museum in California for permanent display.
