P2V Neptune fire bomber
Lockheed found a good business in maritime patrol planes when the British came over desperately looking for aircraft in 1938. Lockheed was already building the Electra, a twin-engine medium size transport already made famous with record runs by Howard Hughes and Amelia Earhart. Up until this point Lockheed was a relatively small manufacturer in Burbank, California. Designer Kelley Johnson hastily redesigned the Electra to carry a gun turret, bomb bay, and bombardier, and the British delegation promptly ordered 200 of the new Hudsons. This was Lockheed’s largest single order to date and abruptly put them into the upper ranks of aircraft companies. Just a year later Hudsons were being delivered to England. They served in a variety of roles for the British, including hunting and attacking submarines. The US Navy didn’t have the same requirement for a land based patrol bomber before WW2, relying instead on float and seaplanes for that duty. Seeing the success the British were having with theirs, they did buy some Hudsons of their own. As the larger Lockheed Lodestar transport grew out of the Electra, so too did the PV2 Harpoon evolve from the larger Lodestar. The US Navy purchased a large number of them for land-based anti submarine and costal defense service. Land planes being faster than seaplanes it relegated the older design floatplanes to transport or air-sea rescue service. The Privateer and Harpoon were hastily converted from a civilian aircraft and did a good job, but wartime experience showed the need for a maritime patrol aircraft designed for that role from the start. Lockheed’s innovative design team tackled the project, based around a mid wing two-engined layout, using the new powerful Wright 3350’s as fitted to the emerging Constellation. The P2V Neptune was specifically designed for long range and to carry both defensive and offensive weapons. It also needed short field capability for use on Pacific islands. And speed was required to cover lots of territory quickly. A slender fuselage was mated to high aspect ratio wings, with a large vertical stabilizer. The distinctive ‘stinger’ tail section housed part of the later models anti-submarine electronics. During the 1950's P2V Neptunes stationed out of Moffett Navel Air Station formed the backbone of the cold war anti submarine patrols for the entire US Pacific coast. The Wright engines pulled big 4 bladed props, and jet booster engines were added to later P2V-7’s to assist with take off and combat maneuvering. These features created a handsome and distinctly unique looking airplane. They were capable of longer-range missions, flew faster, and carried more armament than the 4-engined B-17. The P2V-7 had a endurance cruise speed of 188 mph and a max of 324. P2V’s went into service just as WW2 was ending, but they saw extensive action in Korea and Vietnam. A unrefueled distance record was set in 1947 when a P2V-1 flew nonstop over 11,000 miles from Perth, Australia to Columbus, Ohio. Early aircraft were outfitted with bunks and a small galley to serve the 10-man crew on long missions. Over time the weapons were exchanged for electronics, and in the anti-nuclear submarine role the Neptune served with a number of different countries worldwide for over 20 years. As turboprop aircraft such as the Lockheed P3 replaced Neptunes, a large number went into storage in the late 1970’s. With solidly constructed airframes and reliable engines, they were soon picked up in the civilian market for specialty roles like aerial mapping, atmospheric sampling, and crop spraying. They also turned out to be very good fire bombers. Several aerial tanker companies put retired Neptune’s to work, including aptly named Neptune Aviation and Aero Union. Each company has distinctly different paint schemes and all of their aircraft are expertly maintained. Our subject is Minden Air Service’s Tanker 48, a SP2-H model Neptune. It’s the last development of the P2V Neptune with the additional jet engines, built in the early 1960’s. Tanker 48 is based in Nevada, and is one of several P2V’s that have been certified by the US Forestry Service for continued operations after the WW2 era bombers were all forcibly retired in 2004. ‘48’ is often seen in the Southern California area, hard to miss in her bright yellow high visibility paint scheme. This is necessary when you have smoky skies and a number of aircraft in the area. We see her depicted here doing a practice drop. While about a dozen Neptune’s continue in this service today, they are about the only flying examples left. They are expensive to operate for a privately owned warbird, and few are in museums. Lockheed’s replacement for the P2V Neptune was the P3 Orion, still in Navy fleet service. Some earlier P3’s are now fire bombers themselves, so it’s likely we’ll see the big Lockheeds in the smoky skies of the west for some time to come. But each time the P2V’s go to work it’s a special occasion, and fans with cameras from around the world can be seen at western tanker bases each fall. |
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