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May 25, 2006

C-141, designed in Marietta, ends 43-year career

MARIETTA — It served as a massive air ambulance, a troop transport and as the plane that brought the first American prisoners of war out of Vietnam.

The C-141 Starlifter — the first plane ever designed and produced by Lockheed-Martin’s Marietta plant — has been retired after a distinguished 43-year career. The cargo plane’s career included service in every military operation from Vietnam to Iraqi Freedom.

“This is an extremely historic airplane,” Lockheed spokesman Jeff Rhodes said.

From 1963 to 1968, a total of 285 C-141 planes were built at the plant. Of the surviving planes, 13 are now in museums, NASA owns one and 251 already have been retired.

In its most upgraded form, the C-141B, the airplane could carry 200 troops, 155 paratroops, 14 aeromedical attendants and a maximum cargo of 68,725 pounds. It had its own oxygen lines for patients and could be used as a massive ambulance for wounded.

“The C-141 was the first jet-powered logistical transport we had,” said Bob Ormsby, former president of Lockheed Marietta. “It’s service to the nation was really incredible.”

C-141s flew 10.6 million service hours for the United States. The four-engine plane even flew Apollo 11 astronauts to Houston after they returned from landing on the moon.

But the plane’s most famous mission was in 1973 when a C-141 carried the first 40 American POWs out of Vietnam.

A total 124 POWs who flew the “Hanoi Taxi” or other rescue planes gathered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton base earlier this month for two flights, with 62 aboard each. That plane was painted in its 1973 color scheme as it looked during the POW rescues.

The C-141 Air Force Reserve transport plane, the last in service, was retired May 6 after landing near the National Museum of the United States Air Force on the base. Some of the veterans and pilots wept when the engines were shut down, Rhoades said.

Ormsby said a C-141 should be permanently displayed at the proposed Marietta Aviation Museum.

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