AIR FORCE RETIRES `HANOI TAXI' C-141.

Byline: Daily News

PALMDALE -- The U.S. Air Force has retired its last Lockheed Martin StarLifter cargo plane to the Air Force's national museum.

A frequent sight into the 1990s over the Antelope Valley, where pilots flew it on training missions out of now-closed Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino County, the C-141 was the world's first jet-powered transport when it entered operational service in 1965.

``The C-141 has a noble record of achievement in its support of the U.S. military. Participating in every military operation from Vietnam to Iraqi Freedom, StarLifter crews have also performed humanitarian relief flights to nearly 70 countries on six continents,'' said Ross Reynolds, Lockheed Martin's vice president of air mobility.

Most recently, the StarLifter carried supplies to people affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The aircraft have served NASA, conducted Antarctic resupply flights for nearly three decades and flown scientific missions for two decades.

From 2003 until their last combat mission last September, C-141 crews flew more than 70 percent of the flights evacuating injured American military personnel from the Middle East and Afghanistan.

The Air Force now uses Lockheed Martin C-5 transports, which the company is upgrading with new engines and aviation electronic equipment, and Boeing C-17 transports, as well as Lockheed Martin's smaller C-130 transports.

The last Air Force C-141 aircraft was known as the ``Hanoi Taxi,'' because in 1973 it made the first flight into North Vietnam to retrieve American prisoners of war released by the North Vietnamese government. On that first flight the jet flew out 40 former prisoners, many of whom were present for a reunion in conjunction with the jet's retirement.

For its retirement, it was flown from one side of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the other, making several passes over its new home: the National Museum of the United States Air Force, formerly known as the Air Force Museum.

``This last aircraft to be retired has a particularly poignant past since this is the aircraft that carried out the first Operation Homecoming,'' said Reynolds. ``With the retirement of this aircraft, we remember and commemorate that important flight with great respect for all the missions of the aircraft, the crews who have flown it and the treasured passengers and cargo it has transported.''

The aircraft was first flown in 1967 and went through two major modifications. It was first brought up to C-141B standards in the late 1970s. In the early 1990s, the aircraft was equipped with digital avionics and became a C-141C.

After several weeks of preparation and preservation, the Hanoi Taxi will go on public display this summer in the museum's outdoor airpark. Counting the Hanoi Taxi, a total of 13 StarLifters are preserved as static displays at bases where the aircraft were formerly stationed or in museums around the country.

The StarLifter was the first production aircraft to be completely designed by engineers at the company's division in Marietta, Ga.

A total of 285 C-141 aircraft were built at the Marietta facility, from 1963 to 1968. One StarLifter was delivered as a commercial L-300 transport and was used as a company demonstrator. It was later used by NASA as an airborne observatory.

A total of 251 C-141s have been retired to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., where they eventually will be dismantled.

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The C-141 aircraft has served in every military operation from Vietnam to Iraq, on scientific missions in the Antarctic and carrying supplies in humanitarian missions for 20 years, most recently, to those affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.