P2v Neptune
It was developed for the United States Navy by Lockheed to replace the PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon, and being replaced in turn with the P-3 Orion. Designed as a land-based aircraft, the Neptune never made a carrier landing, although a small number of aircraft were converted for carrier use and successfully launched.
The type was successful in export, seeing service with several armed forces.
Design and development
XP2V-1 prototype in 1945
A P2V takes off from the USS Franklin D. So it was not until 1944 that the program went into full swing.
A major factor in the design was ease of manufacture and maintenance, and this can be said to have been a major factor in the type's long life and worldwide success. Production began in 1946, and the aircraft was accepted into service in 1947.
It was one of the first aircraft to be fitted in operational service with both piston and jet engines.
The Convair B-36, several Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, C-123 Provider, and Avro Shackleton aircraft also achieved that distinction; it leads naturally to an unusual sound during overflight.
Operational history
Vietnam War
During the Vietnam War, the Neptune was used by the US Navy as a gunship and patrol airplane. Army's 1st Radio Research Company (Aviation), call sign 'Crazy Cat,' located at Cam Ranh Bay.
Falklands War
The Argentine Navy had received at least 16 Neptunes in different variants since 1958 including 8 ex-RAF for use in the Escuadrilla Aeronaval de Exploración (English: Naval exploration squadron).
They were intensively used in 1978 during the Operation Soberania against Chile including over the Pacific Ocean.
During the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas) in 1982, the last two airframes in service (2-P-111 and 2-P-112) played a key role of reconnaissance and aiding Dassault Super Étendards, particularly on the May 4 attack against HMS Sheffield. The lack of spare parts, caused by the US having enacted an arms embargo in 1977 due to the Dirty War, led to the type being retired before the end of the war; Argentine Air Force C-130 Hercules took over the task of searching for targets for strike aircraft.
In 1983 the unit was reformed with Lockheed L-188 Electras modified for maritime surveillance and in 1994 these ones were replaced with P-3B Orions.
Other military operators
In Australia, the Netherlands, and the US Navy, its tasks were taken over by the much larger and more capable P-3 Orion, and by the 1970s, it was only in use by US reserve units.
By the 1980s, it had fallen out of use in most purchasing nations, replaced by newer aircraft.
Neptune Aviation Services' P-2V Neptune drops Phos-Chek on the 2007 WSA Complex fire in Oregon
In Japan, the Neptune was license-built from 1966 by Kawasaki as the P-2J, with the piston engines replaced by IHI turboprops. Neptune proposes to replace them with Bombardier Q200 and Q300 aircraft which are estimated to have a service life of 80,000 hours.
"Truculent" Turtle
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 Navy's latest patrol bomber.
With time, the aircraft has come to be called "Truculent Turtle," but, in fact, its nickname was simply "The Turtle," which was painted on the aircraft's nose (along with a cartoon of a turtle smoking a pipe pedaling a device attached to a propeller).
P2V-1 Turtle in 1946
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 Washington, D.C zoo) the plane set off on September 9, 1946, with a RATO (rocket-assisted takeoff).
Two and a half days later, the Turtle touched down in Columbus, Ohio, 11,236.6 miles (18,083.6 km) from its starting point. It was the longest unrefueled flight made to that point—4,000 miles (6,400 km) longer than the USAF's B-29 Superfortress record.
This would stand as the absolute unrefueled distance record until 1962 (beaten by a USAF B-52 Stratofortress), and would remain as a piston-engined record until 1986 when Dick Rutan's Voyager would break it in the process of circumnavigating the globe.
Variants
P2V-3 of VP-5 in 1953
P2V-5 with nose turret in 1952
An OP-2E of VO-67 in 1967/68 over Laos
P-2H of VP-56 in 1963
Restored French P-2H in Australia, 2004
US Navy AP-2H of VAH-21
Minden Air's Tanker 55, formerly an SP-2H, at Fox Field
RB-69A of the CIA in USAF markings
Lockheed produced seven main variants of the P2V. Model names after the 1962 redesignation are given in parentheses.
XP2V-1
Prototype, one produced.
P2V-1
First production model, 15 built.
P2V-2
Second production model, 81 built.
P2V-2N "Polar Bear"
Modified Neptune with ski landing gear and early MAD gear, 1 built.
P2V-3
Upgraded powerplant, 83 built.
P2V-3C
Carrier-based Neptune, 11 built.
P2V-3B
Conversions from other P2V-3 models, including P2V-3C and -3W, fitted with the ASB-1 Low Level Radar Bombing System, 16 converted.
P2V-3W
Airborne Early Warning variant, APS-20 search radar, 30 built.
P2V-3Z
VIP combat transport, 2 built.
P2V-4 (P-2D)
Upgraded powerplant and fuel capacity, 52 built.
P2V-5
Replaced solid nose with turret, APS-20 and APS-8 search radars standard, jettisonable wingtip fuel tanks.