Hurricane Milton is currently gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico and heading to Florida’s West Coast. As it does so, it is being constantly surveilled from the air by aircraft of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a US federal agency which conducts research on weather phenomena and the oceans.
Indeed, on October 8, 2024, NOAA posted a video on its social media channels showing the cabin of one of its WP-3D Orion aircraft as it flew into the eye of the massive Category 5 hurricane.
The aircraft in question is ‘Miss Piggy’ (registration N43RF), one of the agency’s two Lockheed Martin WP-3D Orion, both based in Lakeland, Florida. These aircraft are specially modified versions of the veteran maritime patrol aircraft, fitted with a broad array of instruments and scientific equipment to conduct atmospheric research.
In fact, it was announced in early October 2024 that, by the end of the decade, NOAA will be replacing its already decades-old WP-3D Orion aircraft with two new Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules. The converted military transport aircraft will be fitted with all the necessary instrumentation to become flying labs and will replace the current Orion fleet like for like.
In addition to the Orion aircraft, NOAA also operates a Gulfstream IV-SP aircraft for higher altitude weather data collection in proximity to hurricanes and other types of storms and weather phenomena.
