Tomorrow, Dec. 17, marks the 119th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903. Exactly 60 years from that date, at Marietta, Ga., in 1963, the Lockheed C-141 StarLifter, the world’s first turbofan-powered transport, was flown for the first time with company test pilot Leo Sullivan at the controls. A total of 285 C-141As were built and the StarLifter fleet would accumulate more than 10.6 million flight hours doing just about everything—airlift; airdrop of cargo and paratroopers; aeromedical evacuation; final flights for the honored war dead; Antarctic resupply; and much more. But the StarLifter’s most prominent missions were as “Freedom Birds,” to repatriate former U.S. POWs held by the North Vietnamese during Operation Homecoming in 1973. The C-141 contract was also the mechanism company officials used to integrate the Marietta plant in 1961. In the 1980s, 270 C-141As were significantly modified and redesignated C-141Bs. In the 1990s, the StarLifter received a digital cockpit and other upgrades. The C-141 closed out a 43-year career in 2006.
Air Combat Command will hold its distinguished William Tell Air-to-Air Weapons competition in March after it was postponed last year.
