The Lockheed L-188 was a civilian version of the Lockheed P-3 Submarine chaser and was built starting in 1957. It unfortunately had a rather spotty safety record early on, and was replaced by jet aircraft after only 170 were built. Compare this to 757 total built for the P-3.
This aircraft has a special place in my past as I flew on the NASA Electra N429NA when I was in high school. I had volunteered to work at the NASA Ames research center in the atmospheric research group. They used to put exerimental platforms onboard U-2 aircraft, but also onboard planes like the Electra. We would fly around collecting samples of the atmosphere at different altitudes and bring them back to the lab for analysis. It was a boat load of fun!
Last I heard...this aircraft was converted into a fire fighting aircraft by Neptune Aviation in Montana. Here is another picture of the airplane during its conversion process.
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