Aviation History - July 2018

JULY 2018 AH 45

OPPOSITE PHOTOS: U.S. NAVY; ABOVE: ALAMY

THE NEPTUNE’S

SWAN SONG

WAS AS A

FIREBOMBER,

STARTING IN

THE LATE 1960S.

The Neptune’s tail featured an unusual “vari-

cam,” a complex mechanism that altered the cam-

ber of the horizontal stabilizer, thus serving as an

especially powerful trim tab but with lower drag. It

was so effective that some pilots called it a super-

elevator. The varicam helped trim out the varying

center of gravity as Neptunes burned fuel on 10- to

13-hour missions, but its biggest benefit showed up

during landings.

P2Vs were typically nose-heavy, especially with a

forward CG at the end of a long mission, and more

than a few unwary pilots landed them nosewheel

first, which led to up-and-down porpoising on the

runway. Three or four porpoises usually resulted in

the nosegear collapsing. Proper P2V landing tech-

nique was to roll on increasing amounts of nose-up

varicam as the power came off in the flare. “It takes

all the control pressures off, and you can hold the

yoke back in your gut, and the nosewheel stays off

till you’re halfway down the runway,” says Strine.

Another Neptune characteristic was its some-

times-leaky, high-pressure hydraulic system. “It’s a

hydraulic airplane, no question about it,” explains

Strine. “Everything is hydraulic except the cowl

flaps: landing gear, flaps, spoilers, varicam, bomb

bay doors...it’s a 3,000-psi system.” One story has

it that when a pencil-size cockpit line sprang a tiny

leak, a new Navy copilot tried to stanch it with his

thumb. The spray of hydraulic fluid continued...

through his thumbnail.

The Neptune’s swan song was as a firebomber,

starting in the late 1960s. At one point there were

33 Neptunes operating as borate bombers in the

West—a high percentage of the approximately 40

P2Vs that survived military service (not counting

those left to molder away in the Davis-Monthan

Boneyard). The last seven firefighters were retired

in 2017, largely replaced by British Aerospace BAe

146s, which carry half again as much retardant

and have a service life of 80,000 hours versus the

Neptune’s 15,000.

Today there are only two restored Neptunes

still flying. The Australian Historic Aircraft Res-

to ration Society operates a handsome P2V-7

painted in Royal Australian Air Force colors, and

the Erickson Aircraft Collection, in Madras, Ore.,

regularly flies its -7 to airshows. Though the Mid-

Atlantic Air Museum has grounded its Neptune, it

could be relaunched after a thorough annual and

some new tires and hydraulic and fuel hoses.

Unfortunately, airshow crowds are far more

interested in B-17s, B-24s and B-29s than they are

in this forgotten bomber.

Contributing editor Stephan Wilkinson suggests for further

reading Lockheed P2V Neptune, by Wayne Mutza.

STILL SERVING A Neptune

flying for the U.S. Forest

Service drops retardant on

a fire near Bonner, Mont.

The last P2V firebombers

have since been retired.