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Neptune at Dubbo



 
 
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  #11  
Old January 30th 07, 05:09 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Bob Moore
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Posts: 291
Default Neptune at Dubbo

CWO4 Dave Mann wrote
I am wondering if the "flash bulb" P2V was something special cooked up
for Vietnam. We had two of them flying out of Da Nang with US Army
crews on board. That was from mid-1965 to -mid 1967.


The US Army operated AP-2E (P2V-5F) ECM aircraft from Cam Rahn Bay (67-72),
the Navy operated OP-2E with machine gun pods from Nakhon Phanon, Thailand,
and the Navy operated AP-2H armed ECM aircraft along the Ho Chi Minh Trail
from 1967 to 1969.

Bob Moore
  #12  
Old January 30th 07, 06:03 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Paul Elliot
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Posts: 222
Default Neptune at Dubbo

CWO4 Dave Mann wrote:
Bob Moore wrote:
CWO4 Dave Mann wrote
This looks like the photo recon version with the zillion candlepower
strobes in the wing tips. Rare bird. The Mohawk had a similar
system only the strobe light was under the fuselage.


Nope! Just the standard 30 million candle power, copilot controlled,
searchlight mounted on the starboard side only.

It's a standard SP-2H of the RAAF. There is a photo of its sistership
number 81 on page 240 of Wayne Mutza's "Lockheed P2V NEPTUNE, An
Illustrated History"

Bob Moore
VP-21, SP-2H, 1959-1962
PanAm (retired)



I am wondering if the "flash bulb" P2V was something special cooked up
for Vietnam. We had two of them flying out of Da Nang with US Army
crews on board. That was from mid-1965 to -mid 1967.

The US Air Force really agitated against the Army flying any aircraft
over a certain gross weight, capacity, speed, etc. Air Force folks got
real nervous when we fielded the OV1D Mohawk with rockets and then gun
pods under the wings on the hard points. Made us take off the weapons
and have only drop flares on the hard-points. That was the same time as
the Caribou controversy and Knock-Down Bitch-Slapping on the Pentagon
E-Ring about the Army having "cargo capacity". Our lovely Boo's went
away with USAF markings. The Army's SIGINT assets managed to get away
with some other platforms, as NSA used their clout. The SIGINT birds
flew with Army markings except for the odd C47 with "civilian" registry.

The Mohawk flash-bulb was cool since when it flew a mission on a
moonless night, the flash made an almost perfectly square illuminated
footprint on the ground. It was like the Hand of G-d to the VC I
suppose. Only trouble was that the imagery was not real-time and it
usually took a 24-hour period to get the B52's overhead and by that time
the dinks had moved on to someplace else. Of course they also had the
radio relays from their interception sites near Guam which relayed
real-time B52 flight information back to the North Vietnam High Command.

Cheers,

Dave


I love those old Mohawks. They were phasing the last of them out in the
'70s IIRC. The Bronco may have been better, but there is something
about that bug-eyed look that I like.

--
Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics
German, the lovers French and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the police are German, the chefs British, the mechanics
French, the lovers Swiss and it is all organized by Italians.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/paul1cart/albums/
  #13  
Old January 30th 07, 06:03 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Paul Elliot
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 222
Default Neptune at Dubbo

CWO4 Dave Mann wrote:
Bob Moore wrote:
CWO4 Dave Mann wrote
This looks like the photo recon version with the zillion candlepower
strobes in the wing tips. Rare bird. The Mohawk had a similar
system only the strobe light was under the fuselage.


Nope! Just the standard 30 million candle power, copilot controlled,
searchlight mounted on the starboard side only.

It's a standard SP-2H of the RAAF. There is a photo of its sistership
number 81 on page 240 of Wayne Mutza's "Lockheed P2V NEPTUNE, An
Illustrated History"

Bob Moore
VP-21, SP-2H, 1959-1962
PanAm (retired)



I am wondering if the "flash bulb" P2V was something special cooked up
for Vietnam. We had two of them flying out of Da Nang with US Army
crews on board. That was from mid-1965 to -mid 1967.

The US Air Force really agitated against the Army flying any aircraft
over a certain gross weight, capacity, speed, etc. Air Force folks got
real nervous when we fielded the OV1D Mohawk with rockets and then gun
pods under the wings on the hard points. Made us take off the weapons
and have only drop flares on the hard-points. That was the same time as
the Caribou controversy and Knock-Down Bitch-Slapping on the Pentagon
E-Ring about the Army having "cargo capacity". Our lovely Boo's went
away with USAF markings. The Army's SIGINT assets managed to get away
with some other platforms, as NSA used their clout. The SIGINT birds
flew with Army markings except for the odd C47 with "civilian" registry.

The Mohawk flash-bulb was cool since when it flew a mission on a
moonless night, the flash made an almost perfectly square illuminated
footprint on the ground. It was like the Hand of G-d to the VC I
suppose. Only trouble was that the imagery was not real-time and it
usually took a 24-hour period to get the B52's overhead and by that time
the dinks had moved on to someplace else. Of course they also had the
radio relays from their interception sites near Guam which relayed
real-time B52 flight information back to the North Vietnam High Command.

Cheers,

Dave


I love those old Mohawks. They were phasing the last of them out in the
'70s IIRC. The Bronco may have been better, but there is something
about that bug-eyed look that I like.

--
Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics
German, the lovers French and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the police are German, the chefs British, the mechanics
French, the lovers Swiss and it is all organized by Italians.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/paul1cart/albums/
  #14  
Old January 30th 07, 06:43 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Boomerang
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 57
Default Neptune at Dubbo

It should be there, someplace, maybe in the grass. All the other photos I
have of this aircraft show the APS-20 radom where iot should be. Maybe
somebody cut it off...




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  #15  
Old January 30th 07, 06:43 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Boomerang
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 57
Default Neptune at Dubbo

It should be there, someplace, maybe in the grass. All the other photos I
have of this aircraft show the APS-20 radom where iot should be. Maybe
somebody cut it off...




Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

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ID:	5852  
  #16  
Old January 30th 07, 08:33 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Wayne Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 905
Default Neptune at Dubbo


"Boomerang" wrote in message
...
It should be there, someplace, maybe in the grass. All the other photos I
have of this aircraft show the APS-20 radom where iot should be. Maybe
somebody cut it off...


None of the P-2s I have seen recently have had radoms. They were all flying
as water bombers fighting forest fires and looked something like this:
http://website.lineone.net/~roling47/Bombers/WBP2a.JPG

Wayne
http://www.soaridaho.com/




  #17  
Old January 30th 07, 08:33 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Wayne Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 905
Default Neptune at Dubbo


"Boomerang" wrote in message
...
It should be there, someplace, maybe in the grass. All the other photos I
have of this aircraft show the APS-20 radom where iot should be. Maybe
somebody cut it off...


None of the P-2s I have seen recently have had radoms. They were all flying
as water bombers fighting forest fires and looked something like this:
http://website.lineone.net/~roling47/Bombers/WBP2a.JPG

Wayne
http://www.soaridaho.com/




  #18  
Old January 30th 07, 09:08 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Boomerang
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 57
Default Neptune at Dubbo

It sure had a radome when it was old LG-11 from VP-18.


  #19  
Old January 30th 07, 09:08 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Boomerang
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 57
Default Neptune at Dubbo

It sure had a radome when it was old LG-11 from VP-18.


  #20  
Old January 30th 07, 09:26 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Wayne Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 905
Default Neptune at Dubbo


"Boomerang" wrote in message
...
It sure had a radome when it was old LG-11 from VP-18.


True. All the operational P-2s stationed at Whidbey Island back in the mid
1960s had radomes.

Wayne
http://tinyurl.com/yv2czg
USN (Retired)


 




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