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The Lockheed W2V-1 was a design for an airborne early warning aircraft to be based on the Lockheed Model 1649 Starliner. Two examples were ordered early in 1957, but then cancelled a few months later.
The first Lockheed WV-2 was modified to test out the radar equipment that was to be used on the W2V-1. It was given a large rotating dish radome mounted above the fuselage, holding the antenna of the APS-82 radar and known as a rotodome. The WV-2E made its first flight with the new antenna on 8 August 1956, but the W2V-1 project was then cancelled. The WV-2E was accepted by the US Navy on 1 March 1958, and went to the Naval Air Development at NAS South Weymouth, for evaluation. In 1962 it was redesignated as the EC-121L.
The W2V was known as the CL-257 during the preliminary design phase and the Lockheed Model 84 later. It would have had the low mounted wings of the Starline, with dihedral that meant that the wing tips were level with the top of the fuselage. It was to have been powered by four Allison T56-A-7 propeller-turbines and two wingtip mounted Westinghouse J34 turbojets, for a total of six engines. It would have carried the dorsal radome of the WV-2 and the rotodome tested out on the WV-2E. It would either have had the standard three vertical fins and rudders of the Model 1649 Starliner or a larger twin vertical surfaces.
Two W2V-1s were ordered in the spring of 1957, but the Air Force’s budget was then cut, and the project was cancelled in July 1957. A more advanced CL-344 was suggested as a successor for the RC-121, but the Air Force wasn’t interested.
Engines: Four Allison T56-A-7 and two Westinghouse J34 turbojets
Wingspan: 151ft
Length: 116ft 8in
Height: 30ft 3in
Loaded Weight: 175,000lb