Lockheed L-188 Electra variant
Lockheed L-188 Electra YP-3A Orion
Aerodynamic testbed for the future P-3 Orion: a single Electra with the fuselage shortened by 7 feet (2 m). It is the link between the airliner and the maritime patrol aircraft that became the airframe's greatest success.
- August 19, 1958
- First flight
- 1
- Units built
History
The bridge to the Orion
In 1957 the United States Navy issued a requirement for an advanced maritime patrol aircraft. Lockheed proposed a development of the Electra and, to explore the new aircraft's aerodynamics, modified a single airframe with the fuselage shortened by 7 feet (2 m). That testbed was designated YP-3A Orion.
The development went into production as the P-3 Orion, with a fortune radically different from the aircraft it came from: the Orion has stayed in front-line service for more than fifty years, while civil Electra production ended in 1961 after 170 airframes.
Census criterion
The YP-3A is recorded here as a variant — not as a separate type — because it was a modified Electra airframe with no commercial designation of its own. The production P-3 Orion, by contrast, is a DERIVED TYPE with its own designation, mission, structure and customer: it warrants an independent sheet, not a row in this census.