Lockheed P-2 Neptune

The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (designated P2V by the United States Navy prior to September 1962) is a maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft.

Development of a new land-based patrol bomber began early in World War II, with design work starting at Lockheed's Vega subsidiary as a private venture on 6 December 1941.

On 19 February 1943, the U.S. Navy signed a letter of intent for two prototype XP2Vs, which was confirmed by a formal contract on 4 April 1944 with a further 15 aircraft being ordered 10 days later.

The Convair B-36, several Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, Fairchild C-123 Provider, North American AJ Savage, and Avro Shackleton aircraft were also so equipped.

In normal US Navy operations, the jet engines were run at full power (97%) to assure takeoff, then shut down upon reaching a safe altitude.

The jets were also started and kept running at flight idle during low-altitude (500-foot (150 m) during the day and 1,000-foot (300 m) at night) anti-submarine and/or anti-shipping operations as a safety measure should one of the radials develop problems.

Before the P-3 Orion arrived in the mid-1960s, the Neptune was the primary U.S. land-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft, intended to be operated as the hunter of a '"Hunter-Killer" group, with destroyers employed as killers.

Several features aided the P-2 in its hunter role: As the P-2 was replaced in the US Navy by the P-3A Orion in active Fleet squadrons in the early and mid-1960s, the P-2 continued to remain operational in the Naval Air Reserve through the mid-1970s, primarily in its SP-2H version.

At the end of World War II, the US Navy felt the need to acquire a nuclear strike capability to maintain its political influence.

It was replaced in this emergency role by the North American AJ Savage (transferred to the Pacific Fleet in October 1952) the first nuclear strike aircraft that was fully capable of carrier launch and recovery operations; it was also short-lived in that role as the US Navy was adopting fully jet powered nuclear strike aircraft.

The Neptune was also utilized by the US Army's 1st Radio Research Company (Aviation), call sign "Crazy Cat", based at Cam Ranh Air Base in South Vietnam, as an electronic "ferret" aircraft intercepting low-powered tactical voice and morse code radio signals.

Next year, an air defense radar mapping mission was also flown by 34th Squadron's RB-69A/P2V-7U aircraft into North Vietnam and Laos on the night of 16 March 1964.

These aircraft helped escort the fast transport HMAS Sydney from Australia to South Vietnam on several occasions in 1965 and 1966.

During these sorties the Neptunes warned American aircraft operating over North Vietnam of Vietnamese surface to air missile launches.

Armament included two torpedoes, mines, depth charges, bombs carried internally plus unguided rockets mounted under the wings.

[20] Australia also acquired Neptunes to supplement and then replace the aging Avro Lincoln in the reconnaissance and anti-submarine role.

In August 1953, the rear and front turrets were removed and replaced with a MAD boom and a clear Perspex nose for observation.

[citation needed] The 320 Squadron of the Royal Dutch Navy retired its last seven Neptunes in March 1982 as they were being replaced by the Lockheed Orion.

A truce ended the conflict in September 1962, with Dutch New Guinea passing to UN control before becoming part of Indonesia, and the P2V-7s returned to Europe.

[29] The third production P2V-1 was chosen for a record-setting mission, ostensibly to test crew endurance and long-range navigation but also for publicity purposes: to display the capabilities of the US Navy's latest patrol bomber, and to surpass the standing record set by a Japanese Tachikawa Ki-77.

[30] Loaded with fuel in extra tanks fitted in practically every spare space in the aircraft, "The Turtle" set out from Perth, Australia to the United States.

With a crew of four (and a nine-month-old gray kangaroo, a gift from Australia for the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.) the aircraft set off on 9 September 1946, with a RATO (rocket-assisted takeoff).

XP2V-1 prototype in 1945
P2V-2 of VP-18 over NAS Jacksonville , 1953
Aero 9B nose turret from the Neptune at the National Naval Aviation Museum , Florida, 2007. Mostly the one foot longer Aero 9C turret was installed.
A P2V takes off from USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1951
Side view of RB-69A, the first converted P2V-7U
OP-2E Neptune formerly of VO-67, in AMARG storage at Davis-Monthan AFB , c. 1971. The camouflage is green for low level operations over Vietnam.
The Argentine Navy SP-2H that tracked HMS Sheffield
Neptune Aviation Services' P-2V Neptune drops Phos-Chek on the 2007 WSA Complex fire in Oregon.
P2V-1 "The Turtle" in 1946
VP-5 P2V-3 in 1953
P2V-5 with nose turret in 1952
VO-67 OP-2E in 1967/68 over Laos
VP-7 P-2V
Restored French P-2H in Australia
US Navy VAH-21 AP-2H
AP-2H of Heavy Attack Squadron VAH-21
Minden Air's Tanker 55, formerly an SP-2H, at Fox Field
RB-69A of the CIA in USAF markings at Eglin AFB , Florida in 1957.
US Army AP-2E also designated RP-2E used in SIGINT/ELINT operations in Vietnam. The Burbank Boomerang is on display at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Novosel , Alabama.
A RAAF SP-2H with a USN P-5 and a RNZAF Sunderland in 1963
A Neptune MR.1 of 217 Sqn Coastal Command RAF in 1953
SP-2H Neptune of Flotille 25 Aeronavale, French Navy, in 1973
Aero Union P-2 Tanker 16 at Fox Field in 2003, without jet engines
Neptune Aviation Services' Tanker 44 takes off from Fox Field to fight the California wildfires of October 2007
Ex-Portuguese Air Force P2V on display at the Museu do Ar in Sintra.
3-view line drawing of the Lockheed P2V-4 Neptune
3-view line drawing of the Lockheed P2V-4 Neptune