S-3 Viking Illustrated

The Lockheed S-3 Viking was the first of the high-tech submarine hunters assigned to fleet aircraft carriers. It replaced the piston-engined Grumman S-2 Tracker as the first turbofan-powered carrier airplane. Those GE TF-34 high-bypass turbofan engines produced the nickname which operators used for the Viking. Unofficially, it became the “Hoover” or the more menacing “War Hoover”. The name may not mean much to post-millenial readers, but to an older generation who first heard the sound of those engines, it resonated as the sound of a vacuum cleaner, and since Hoover was the dominant manufacturer of that instrument, the name stuck. Though only 186 S-3s were built, it was a dominant airplane on the decks of carriers for the last quarter of the 20th century. As such, it performed a vital role in anti-submarine warfare when the emerging threat of the nuclear submarine had to be countered if the aircraft carrier was to remain a powerful instrument of foreign policy. It performed admirably in that role and later earned the “War Hoover” appellation in several theaters when it was assigned the surface warfare mission. That mission meant giving the S-3 attack capability with conventional and “smart” weapons. This is the history of the Hoover, told in over 200 color photos and illustrations. Read more