"Extraordinary, unique!" Attorney General Dick Thornburgh exclaimed of the drug-fighting airplane proudly displayed last week by the U.S. Customs Service. A dazzling new aircraft? No. It was a used Lockheed P-3 Orion, designed in the 1950s. The $31 million turboprop has just one major innovation: a 360 degrees radar dome capable of spotting smugglers' low-flying planes as effectively as the $48 million Grumman E-2C Hawkeye, which Customs had been using. The Lockheed can stay aloft twelve hours -- three times as long as the Hawkeye, which must refuel after four hours.
Customs could have had its plane sooner, but for more...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
