JORGE A. DIETSCH MEMORIAL COLLECTION
No. 7603. Lockheed 285 WP-3D Orion (N43RF c/n 285A-5633) US Department of Commerce "Miss Piggy"
Photographed at Brown Field, San Diego, California, USA, May 13, 1988, by Jorge Dietsch

Lockheed 285 WP-3D Orion

11/30/2010. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "In 1976 two P-3Cs were procured as weather reconnaissance aircraft for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the Department of Commerce. Produced under USN BuNo 159773 and 159875, these aircraft were fitted with special sensors (which replaced the ASW equipment) in a broader tail boom, a ventral radome, and boom projecting forward of the nose on the starboard side.

Designated WP-3D, and registered and named N42RF Kermit the Frog and N43RF Miss Piggy respectively, these aircraft are based in Florida and directed by NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center at MacDill AFB, Tampa. A third Orion, former USN P-3C BuNo 161330, was registered N44RF on May 24, 2006. Demilitarized, it is also lacking the broader tail boom, the ventral radome, and the nose boom."


Created March 31, 2008