Plane built to rescue Iran hostages goes to New York museum

GLENVILLE, N.Y. – A rocket-boosted military transport plane built to rescue 52 American hostages in Iran is making its way piece-by-piece to an upstate New York museum.

The fuselage of the Lockheed YMC-130H was hauled to the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville on Friday. It had been at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

The plane is one of three highly modified C-130 transport planes intended to rescue the hostages who were held for 444 days after students supporting the Iranian Revolution seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The planned rescue was terminated when an agreement to release the hostages was signed in January 1981.

The plane will be reassembled in September at the museum in Glenville, 24 miles west of Albany.