Lockheed S-3 Viking Flying Laboratory
With flaps and tail hook extended, the last airworthy Lockheed S-3B Viking performs one of its final public displays at the 2018 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Now retired entirely, the S-3 was originally designed as an aircraft carrier-based antisubmarine aircraft, capable of locating and engaging with submerged submarines.
The S-3 fleet was retired from the US Navy in 2009, but this particular S-3 was utilized by NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio until its own retirement in 2021. During that time, it was used as a platform for a variety of research programs, from flight-communications research to monitoring the growth of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.
Today, this S-3 is on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in San Diego, California.
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