The newest exhibit for the Yanks Air Museum, Lockheed EC-12it Warning Star 53-0548, arrived at Chino airport on 14 January. Originally delivered to the USAF in August 1955, 53-0548 was actually built as an RC-121 D airborne early warning version of the Super Constellation. However, the aircraft was converted into an electronic reconnaissance EC-121T variant in May 1970. It served with the 552nd Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing at McClellan AFB, California from 1955 until it moved on to the US Air Force Reserve at Homestead AFB, Florida in March 1976. The last EC-121T to be retired from service at Homestead, the Constellation then went into storage at Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona in October 1978. However, instead of being scrapped, it found a new home as a static exhibit at the nearby Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson in September 1981. Eventually surplus to Pima's requirements, it was then purchased by V\&yne Jones in December 1994. Subsequently, the Global Aeronautical Foundation was set up to operate the EC-121T which, registered as N548GF, was ferried from Pima to Tucson on 14 April 1995, and thence to a new home at Camarillo, California the following day.
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