Beaker’s gutted skeleton sits on the flightline outside of Hangar 5 at MacDill Air Force Base, a shadow of its more famous stablemates. Unlike its fellow WP-3 Orion four engine propeller planes nicknamed Miss Piggy and Kermit, Beaker never flew into a single storm.
5 Months Ago
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As the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center gets ready to open this summer at its new home in Lakeland after more than two decades at MacDill, there is no place for Beaker, which was named after the annoyingly incoherent red-topped lab assistant Muppet character.
"Unfortunately the aircraft has reached its structural limit and we can’t afford to re-wing like the other two," said NOAA Capt. Michael Silah, who runs the NOAA operation. "But we’re in great shape with Kermit and Miss Piggy."
The clock is ticking. Getting rid of Beaker is just one more step in a strenuous effort to set up a hurricane hunting operation 40 miles to the east before the start of the next season. The move is on target and well under budget, Silah said.
Beaker has been listed on a Government Services Administration scrap auction, that expires 11 a.m. Feb. 22.
The sales pitch is not exactly out of Mad Men.
"The aircraft is in a non-flyable state as its engines, flight control surfaces, avionics, and numerous other parts have been permanently removed," reads that ad. Small amounts of residual fuel, oil or other fluids remain in the aircraft, oxygen tanks empty."
The opening bid for an aircraft that cost $36 million when it rolled off the assembly line in 1981 was just $1,000
There were no bidders as of Saturday night.
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Like Beaker the Muppet, Beaker the aircraft suffered for the good of the whole. Essentially an airplane-shaped spare parts warehouse, it has been largely stripped clean over the years.
Beaker’s four 4,600 horse power Allison T-56-A-14 turboprop engines, for instance, were installed on Kermit and Miss Piggy, to get them through several seasons of problems with their own.
Still, there were enough parts left over that the operations center recently turned over $1.5 million in parts to U.S. Customs, Silah said.
What remains is unwanted. Like many people packing up years of accumulated stuff, Silah decided to bid adieu to the empty husk.
"I don’t want to leave the plane at MacDill or transport it to Lakeland," Silah said.
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After nearly 24 years and scores of storm flights at MacDill, the next journey into the sodden skies will be from Lakeland, as the old Orions lumber down the runway at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport.
The move was required because MacDill needs Hangar 5 to accommodate eight KC-135 Stratotanke aerial refueling jets, that will join the existing fleet of 16 shared by the 6th Air Mobility Wing and the 927th Air Refueling Wing.
The Aircraft Operations Center employs about 95 people and directs Orions as well as six environmental monitoring planes. Kermit and Miss Piggy fly into storms, collecting information about track and intensity. A Gulfstream IV jet, known as Gonzo, flies above storms collecting data. The center has been at Hangar 5 since 1993.
The move is not only on time, but well under budget, Silah said.
In December, Lakeland Linder was awarded a 10-year, $13.5 million contracted that included building out an existing hangar shell. There is a government option to leave after five years. Only one other location competed, Silah said — St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.
MacDill was never in the running, because it had no money to build a new hangar couldn’t meet construction deadlines, he said during a December news conference to announce the move.
"It should be about 50 to 60 percent of the original estimate," he said. "The bid was very competitively priced and the project has been exceptionally well managed. The city manager and team at Lakeland Linder have done a great job. We wouldn’t be there without them."
Just like the days when he flew into hurricanes, Silah has passed through the most turbulence and is headed for what he said will be a smooth landing.
"Relocation has been exhausting, but things are going well," he said. "We’ll be ready in Lakeland for hurricane season."
That’s more than can be said for Beaker.
Which will probably be in pieces on the scrap heap by then.
Contact Howard Altman at haltman@tampabay.com or (813) 225-3112. Follow @haltman.
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