page_title: Hurricane hunters
section_title: VW-4
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane hunters / History / VW-4
caption_attribution_description: English: Lockheed WP-3A 150496 MH-4 of Weather Reconnaissance Squadron VW-4 at NAS Jacksonville Florida in 1974.
context_page_description: Hurricane hunters are aircrews that fly into tropical cyclones to gather weather data. In the United States, the organizations that fly these missions are the United States Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Hunters. Such missions have also been flown by Navy units and other Air Force and NOAA units.
  Manned flights into hurricanes began in 1943 when, on a bet, pilot-trainer Colonel Joseph Duckworth flew a single-engine plane into a category 1 storm near Galveston, Texas. Since then, six military weather reconnaissance planes have gone down, at a cost of 53 lives.
  In the past, before satellites were used to find tropical storms, military aircraft flew routine weather reconnaissance tracks to detect formation of tropical cyclones. While modern satellites have improved the ability of meteorologists to detect cyclones before they form, aircraft are able to measure the interior barometric pressure of a hurricane and provide accurate wind speed information–data needed to accurately predict hurricane development and movement.
context_section_description: The United States Navy's VW-4 / WEARECORON FOUR Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Four, "Hurricane Hunters" was the seventh U.S. Navy squadron dedicated to weather reconnaissance. They flew several types of aircraft, but the WC-121N "Willy Victor" was the aircraft most often associated with flying into the "eye of the storm." The squadron operated WC-121s between late 1954 and 1972. VW-4 lost one aircraft and crew in a penetration of Hurricane Janet, and another to severe damage in a storm, but the severely damaged Willy Victor (MH-1) brought her crew home, although she never flew again. During 1973–1975, VW-4 operated the turbine-propeller Lockheed WP-3A Orion.
caption: Lockheed WP-3A Orion weather reconnaissance aircraft of VW-4 Squadron at its NAS Jacksonville Florida base in 1974
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