The Historical Aviation Restoration Society (HARS) is to be gifted an ex-RAAF Lockheed AP-3C Orion, Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Leo Davies is to announce on Friday.
The Orion will join a HARS collection of more than 20 former RAAF aircraft, including examples of earlier RAAF maritime patrol aircraft including the PBY Catalina and SP-2H Neptune.
While the Orion is still in service, and has joined overseas operations as well as the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the fleet is progressively being replaced by the Boeing P-8A Poseidon.
The federal government has ordered 12 P-8As with a likely top-up order expected to take the fleet to 15. The first P-8A arrived in Australia in November 2016.
Members of the public are invited to attend the handover ceremony, which begins at 1100 at HARS’s Illawarra Regional Airport site.
