july 2018 AH 39PREVIOUS SPREAD: LOCKHEED MARTIN; ABOVE: GETTY IMAGES; ABOVE RIGHT: U.S. NAVY
ton were both based on airframes intended to fly
at far higher altitudes.
“When we used to take our Neptune to air-
shows,” Strine says, “people didn’t know what it
was. It’s a forgotten airplane.”
Indeed it is. 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. Few will remember that Lockheed had sub-
stantial skin in the game with the Cold Warrior
P2V, which first flew in 1945 and remained opera-
tional as a U.S. military aircraft until 1970: too late
for World War II and ultimately overshadowed by
its successor, the four-turboprop P3 Orion. The
Neptune flew combat missions for the U.S. in two
wars—Korea and Vietnam—and was one of the
nation’s busiest aerial resources during much of the
Cold War. 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.The Neptune was manufactured nonstop from
1946 through 1961—one of the longest unbroken
production runs of any military aircraft ever built.
As Aviation History contributing editor Walter J.
Boyne once wrote, “The Neptune signaled a new
era in which aircraft became platforms for other
technology and as such had a far greater longevity
than ever before....Few aircraft have succeeded so
well in doing so many tasks over such a long period
of time.”
Early in its career, the Neptune was a heavily
armed offensive weapon with turrets, a noseful of
fixed 20mm cannons and a big bay full of bombs,
torpedoes or depth charges. All but the depth
charges were eventually shed, when it became
clear that no Neptune would ever catch a Soviet
nuclear sub on the surface. P2Vs were briefly used
as gunships during the Vietnam War. Filled with
expensive electronics, however, they were too vul-
nerable and valuable to risk as truck-busters.
Lockheed had produced about 9,000 medium
patrol bombers for the Navy and the RAF during
World War II—the Hudson, Ventura and Har-
poon, all based on the twin-tail Model 14 Super
Electra and its derivative Model 18 Lodestar air-
liners. The Neptune was Lockheed’s first all-new
bomber. It was initially designed as a private ven-
ture of Lockheed’s Vega subsidiary in late 1941,
but the exigencies of war prevented serious work
being done on the project until 1944. The Navy
needed proven aircraft, not an all-new design. The
year after the war ended, Lockheed lost almost
$22 million, and even more in 1947 and ’48. Con-
sistent postwar orders for P2Vs, however, helped
to keep the inevitable postwar slump manageable.L
ockheed designer/engineer Kelly Johnson
played a key role in the development of
the Super Electra and its offspring, but it
apparently soured him on further patrol-
bomber work. Johnson had a famous list of 14
rules for how his Skunk Works team of iconoclasts
would operate. Those rules were published and
public, but a 15th never made it into official print.“FEW AIRCRAFT
HAVE SUCCEED-
ED SO WELL
IN DOING SO
MANY TASKS
OVER SUCH A
LONG PERIOD
OF TIME.”
CARRIER BLASTOFF With
help from a JATO rocket
pack, a P2V-3C launches
from USS Midway in 1949.