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conditionduetothedryclimateintheval-
ley and, considering how old it was, very few
corrosionissueswerefound.
ThebigHarpoonwasmovedoutofitshole
and new tyres, wheels, tubes and brakes
weresourcedandinstalled.Theaircraftwas
alsoputonjackssothelandinggearcouldbe
cycledanumberoftimestoensureitcould
beretractedfortheflighthome.Fullgear
testswererun,alongwithalloftheemer-
gencysystems,usingthehandpumpsothe
crewcouldfamiliarisethemselveswithitin
the event of an issue. Everything worked per-
fectly.Anumberofotherpartswerereplaced,
includingaboostpumpfortherightfuel
tank,andthelocalsquirrelsandwaspswere
evicted. The carburetors were rebuilt and
both engines ran properly. A few taxi tests
werealsoperformedaftertheunused5000-
foot (1524 metres) dirt strip was mowed.
Witheverythingreadytogo,andtime
quicklyrunningout,RameyreceivedaLet-
terofAuthorisationandaFerryPermitfrom
theSacramentoFSDOoffice(FAA)tofly
the Harpoon to Stockton Field. We arrived
atthedirtstripon3October2010inhis
Beech C-45 and dropped off Ramey and his
copilot,RickyClausen,forfinalprepara-
tions,andacoupleofmechanicstocheck
everythingoutandtorefueltheaircraft.
Withfourradialsrunningbetweenthe
Beech and the Lockheed, we finished with
photographs, jumped back in the Beech
flownbyJerryAnderson,andtookofftofly
asasafetychaseplanefortheHarpoon.
WhenRameywasreadytotakeoff,hecalled
us over the radio, and we flew around and
pacedhimdownthedirtrunwayandinto
theair.TheflapswerekeptupontheHar-
poon,andthegearquicklyretractedtore-
duce drag, as the single engine performance
on large twins like these is dramatically re-
ducedandthereweren’ttoomanyplacesto
putthebigbomberbackdownifnecessary.
As we tailed the Harpoon, everything was
workingwellsoweformedupandtookpho-
tos of the historic flight to its new home. The
uneventful flight, which took about forty
minutes,wasaround84miles(135km)asthe
crow flies, and Ramey set it down on thenumbersofthepaved10,650-foot(3246me-
tres)longrunwayatStocktonMetropolitan
Airport, a former USAAF airfield during
W.W. I I.
With the Harpoon safely home, plans were
putinplacetonotmakeashinyshowpony,
but to restore it as authentically as possible.
The Harpoon made a few more flights in late
2010 before the retardant tank was removed
and a pair of bomb doors installed and made
operational. Following this, the PV-2 was
strippedofits‘101’tankerpaintandthetail
conewasreworked.Themodernantennas
wereallremovedandreplacedwithanorigi-
nalAN-104-AXVHFmast,anADFloopan-
tennainitsoriginalposition,andanewas-
trodome. In February 2011, the FAA
inspected the Harpoon. It was removed from
theRestrictedcategoryandissuedaLimited
Certificate of Airworthiness.
On11February,theHarpoon,wearingits
barealuminumskinandasetofstarsand
bars,wasflowntoNavalAirStationNorth
Island in San Diego to participate in the US
Navy’s Centennial of Naval Aviation. It
shared space on the apron with a Consoli-
dated PBY4-2 Privateer that was still wear-
ing its fire fighting paint scheme.
TheHarpooncameoutofthefactorywith
adropnosethatheldeight0.50incalibre
machine guns, but these were obviously re-
movedwhentheaircraftwenttostorageso
the gun ports are plated over, but still visi-The Harpoon
wasinvery
good condition
duetothe dry
climate.