Aircraft, awful and awesome:
“Roots”

***image1***Lockheed P-3 “Orion,” regular visitors to Ramstein, are long-range maritime search aircraft originally designed for the U.S. Navy to hunt Soviet submarines during the Cold War. The most striking visual aspect of the relatively normal looking “Orion” is the long tail boom − called a “stinger” and visible in the picture above − part of a Magnetic Anomaly Detection system used to detect submerged submarines by their disturbance of the earth’s magnetic field. The standard P-3 also carries a variety of anti-submarine ordnance, including homing torpedoes, as well as sonar buoys that can be dropped when a submarine is detected and used to track the submarine by its sound. As one might expect, the “Orion” has very long range and, for extra loiter time, routinely shuts down one engine to decrease its fuel consumption. While it does not have an air refueling capability, one “Orion” flew a mission of more than 21 hours.

The U.S. Navy is not the only user. P-3s are used by many NATO nations – the Royal Norwegian Air Force, the German Navy, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, the Portuguese Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Spanish Air Force − and thus the P-3s that visit Ramstein can be seen in a variety of color schemes and insignia. P-3s are also flown by a number of Asian militaries as well as, ironically, the Iranian Navy.

During the Cold War, versions of the versatile “Orion” regularly flew on clandestine operations, and today P-3s are still used in a variety of roles, including weather reconnaissance (Ramstein’s own Capt. Erin Dorrance, 86th Airlift Wing public affairs officer, flew through a hurricane in a P-3), electronic intelligence gathering as the EP-3 (an EP-3 was forced down in China in April 2001), U.S. Homeland Security for anti-terrorism patrols, and a host of other missions. 

The P-3 has proved to be an extraordinarily successful design, but interestingly the original model for the P-3, the Lockheed “Electra” airliner was, in terms of flying safety, one of the most unsuccessful airliners ever built. While the “Electra” and the “Orion” look almost like twins, the “Electra,” which first flew in 1957, had a disastrous accident record caused mainly by structural failures. Shortly after it came into service, in a little over one year three “Electras” were destroyed in flying accidents, killing 159 passengers and crew. While the problem seemingly was solved, the “Electra’s” reputation never recovered, and the death knell came a few years later when an “Electra” disintegrated over Dallas, Texas, killing all 85 on board. Current reports suggest 57 of the 144 “Electras” built were ultimately destroyed in accidents.

Fortunately for the Navy, while the prototype P-3s were based on the “Electra” airframe, the fuselages of the P-3 was considerably shortened and lightened, and additional structural strength built in for the turbulence at the low altitudes where the P-3 flies. The result of these changes was the Navy had no problems with structural failure on its P-3s.

One other unique thing about the P-3. A close look at the thin, high aspect wings and four turbo-prop engines will show another part of the P-3’s ancestry. The baseline design for the “Electra”/P-3 wing and engine combination came from none other than another Lockheed product − Ramstein’s flagship C-130 Hercules.