![]() The P2V’s last combat operation took place in May 1982, when an Argentine Neptune radar-guided a Super Etendard through a heavy overcast to sink the British destroyer Sheffield with an Exocet missile during the Falklands War.Ī P2V-7 of VP-18 flies past the Soviet freighter “Okhotsk,” searching for nuclear weapons during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. in two wars-Korea and Vietnam-and was one of the nation’s busiest aerial resources during much of the Cold War. The Neptune flew combat missions for the U.S. ![]() military aircraft until 1970: too late for World War II and ultimately overshadowed by its successor, the four-turboprop P3 Orion. Few will remember that Lockheed had substantial skin in the game with the Cold Warrior P2V, which first flew in 1945 and remained operational as a U.S. Ask casual aviation enthusiasts to trace the history of the modern American bomber and they will almost certainly go full Boeing, with maybe a nod to the B-24: first the B-17, then the B-29 and B-50, leading directly to the B-47 and B-52. “When we used to take our Neptune to airshows,” Strine says, “people didn’t know what it was. Make-do patrol bombers such as the PB4Y-2 and the Royal Air Force’s Avro Shackleton were both based on airframes intended to fly at far higher altitudes. I remember I had to look up to see the stack on a Russian trawler.” The Neptune was designed to absorb the low-altitude turbulence that was inevitable during maritime surveillance and sub-hunting. “The wings were flexible, which was a big help down low in turbulence. “The P2V was very forgiving,” says Ron Price, a sonobuoy operator with 2,500 hours in Neptunes between 19. “I always felt that I was strapped to the PB4Y and that the P2V was strapped to me,” he comments. Navy’s single-tail version of the B-24, before spending 4,500 hours in four different versions of the Neptune. ![]() Richard Pickering started his patrol-bomber career flying the Consolidated PB4Y-2, the U.S. “We didn’t get there fast, but we always got there,” says P2V-7 radioman Richard Boslow, who flew in Neptunes from 1965 through 1967. “It” is the Lockheed P2V Neptune patrol bomber, and that opinion comes from Russell Strine, who flies the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s fully restored P2V-7 (which is currently inactive, since airshows can no longer afford the amount of fuel it burns). ![]() It has great handling qualities it’ll do what you want it to do when you want it. Sea Sentinel: The Lockheed P2V Neptune Close ![]()
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