RAF Lockheed P-2 Neptune

[Ascend Charlie]

The pilots of Neptunes would refer to them as "Two turning, two burning, and it was often the wrong two burning..."

[Caramba]

Originally Posted by pr00ne

Nope. Only 4 RAF Neptune squadrons (36, 203, 210 and 217) with 3 squadrons and the AEW Flight at RAF Topcliffe, and 1 squadron at RAF Kinloss. Plus there was the Neptune element of the OCU at Kinloss too.

217 was at Kinloss, plus the OCU. The remainder must have been at Topcliffe.

i always thought it was a very graceful looking aeroplane.

MR1 I think WX505, 217 squadron, c1956

[Green Flash]

Gracefull yes but I remember seeing a Dutch one displayed (Finningley maybe) very enthusiastically and it couldn't half turn. The Cloggies were hurling it about the sky in the grand style.

[evansb]

The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) operated 25 Neptunes from 1955 to 1968. Lockheed CP-122/P2V-7/CL-826-45-14 Neptune (25), (Serial Nos. 24101-24125). They were replaced by the Canadair CP-107 Argus.

Several ex-RCAF Neptunes ended up fighting forest fires in the U.S.A.

[redsetter]

Originally Posted by pr00ne

Martin the Martian,

I doubt that there was any such restriction seeing as the majority of the RAF's Hunters, Shackletons and Javelins were also MDAP funded.

From documents I've seen, the US did place restrictions on the use of aircraft they bought (or part-funded) via their various aid programmes. The restrictions were not just by numbers (i.e. "we've paid for N so we'd better see N assigned to SACEUR") but, in some cases at least, also applied to individual aircraft, identified by serial. The latter restriction came as something of a surprise to the Air Ministry and caused a fair amount of inconvenience when it became known, since it meant they had to ensure only non-US funded aircraft went out of area.

[pr00ne]

redsetter,

Are you seriously saying that the US would have prevented the RAF deploying US funded aircraft to Korea in the early 50's. Seeing as the US directly paid for numerous Hunters, Javelins, Canberras, Shackletons, Sabres, Neptunes Whirlwinds and Washingtons that would have been quite a restriction. I know that didn't happen, but it was a possibility for some time.
Operation Firedog in Malaya and then Confrontation with Indonesia as well as the long running saga in Aden just three instances of "out of area" with many of the types that the US paid for utilised, but up until maybe the mid to late 60's there is a strong argument that the RAF frontline was actually a lot further East than Europe.

[redsetter]

I assume the US might have allowed US financed aircraft to be used in Korea. As regards Malaya etc not all UK aircraft were paid for (part or otherwise) by the US, which meant that some could still be deployed for purely national committments. But the fact remains, the US government had a very real say in the use of aircraft they had financed (so Suez must have doubly annoyed them).

[kenparry]

As mentioned above, some Hunters (I never found out how many) were funded under MDAP, but that did not stop them being used in the Middle East. However, come disposal time at the end of their RAF service, the funding source determined the countries to which they could be sold. The US vetoed sales of MDAP-funded aircraft to Latin America (and possibly elsewhere), so it was the UK-funded airframes that went there.

[Pontius Navigator]

Originally Posted by Green Flash

Gracefull yes but I remember seeing a Dutch one displayed (Finningley maybe) very enthusiastically and it couldn't half turn. The Cloggies were hurling it about the sky in the grand style.

A Cloggie one displaying at Den Helder was doing a high speed run iro 300kts when the copilot's hatch unlatched. I think the Cmdr was in the right hand seat and managed to hang on to it.

[chopper2004]

Originally Posted by chopper2004

I have a copy of P2V In Action (pub Squadron Signal No.68) and Page 29, shows a photo of P-2V s/n 51-15956 destined for UK albeit in ferry and US markings still.

I was not aware that the batches we had under the MDAP , had the MAD tailboom but just the early versions without or with turret? Came across this on a pictorial book of the RAF from the year dot to the 1970s

Cheers

Same here

cheers

[Caramba]

I have the same book. Discussed that very photo with the Pater. I’m sure I remember being told that the aircraft arrived without MAD tail or observer nose and were converted during their time in the RAFs hands.

51-115956 became WX543 before going off to Brazil. I’ll try to do some homework

caramba