The aircraft was built in 1958 as L-27A Blue Canoe serial 58-2137, (redesignated U-3A in 1962), and initially retired to the (then) MASDC "Boneyard" at Tucson in September 1968, but later returned to service only to be finally retired there in March 1971. Later civilianised as N6086, sadly it was looking rather neglected when photographed and was cancelled from the US register on 25th April 2013.