Procured to protect American airspace by carrying out radar picket missions to warn against Soviet bombers, the USAF’s RC/EC-121s carried out a much different role in Southeast Asia, functioning as airborne warning and control for tactical forces. The NMUSAF’s EC-121D, 53-555 Triple Nickel, carried out the first AWACS controlled kill of an enemy aircraft, a North Vietnamese MiG-21, in October 1967.
No EC-121s would be lost to enemy fighters, but the operating orbits of the College Eye mission put the lumbering Super Constellations within reach of both North Vietnamese and Chinese interceptors, and the introduction of MiG-21s to the theater prompted the USAF to deploy F-104Cs to protect the vulnerable EC-121s.
Photo from underneath, showing the distinctive triple tail of a Lockheed Constellation
EC-121 Constellation engine nacelle photo
Underside of EC-121 nose
EC-121 Bibliography
Martin Streetly World Electronic Warfare Aircraft p.76-77: WV-1, EC-121K, EC-121D, EC-121H, and NC-121K side view drawings.
Jim Winchester American Military Aircraft: A History of Innovation p.235 color profile of C-121A 48-616
Gerry Manning Military Aircraft of the 1970s p.97-98: Photos – EC-121T 54-2307, EC-121T 52-3417/79th AEW&C, EC-121K BuNo 145939/VAQ-33
David Donald Spyplane p.49: color in-flight shot of an EC-121K in overall gray; p.58: color photo of a VQ-1 EC-121 at Da Nang
Photos: Underside view of an RC-121D, close-up of the radomes Flight 8 June 1956 p.741
Photo: EC-121T 54-2307 of the 79th AEWS Air Pictorial November 1978 p.429
George A. Larson “Lockheed WV-2/EC-121K Warning Star” Combat Aircraft Vol.4 No.3 Includes a 3-view and a large map detailing the various EC-121 barrier operations.
Photo: EC-121K BuNo 141292 at Florence, SC FlyPast March 1998 p.9
Ralph M. Pettersen “Help Save the Electric Connie” Warbirds International June 2014 p.64 the effort to save EC-121T 52-3417