All you wanted to know about the 24 Neptunes flown by the RAAF:

ADF Serials - Neptune

R.A.F. Lockheed Neptune P2V5
 

The Neptunes at MOTU at Kinloss when I went through the course in the summer of 1953 were the short nosed ones with the three turrets. When I joined 203 Squadron at Topcliffe that Autumn we were equipped with the long nosed version still with the three turrets. After about a year these were taken to Scottish Aviation at Prestwick and they were converted to the Perspex (?) nose and the MAD "sting" tail. Also the electric Varicam was changed to a hydraulic Varicam to avoid interference with the MAD tail instrumentation. A lovely aeroplane but I preferred four Griffons!! What have we got now? I think that we still had the twin .5 turret on top, but can't be sure. We still had our 16 rockets under the wings.

I had a colleague who was an ex-Chieftain tanker. He reckoned that if they had to, they could pull into a supermarket parking lot and refuel on bulk cooking oil.

Back to Neptunes...
 

... last summer on our way back to the Chunnel we stayed overnight in a farmhouse B&B. There were 8 other guests there (of a similar demographic to madame and me).

Next morning over breakfast we all got chatting and one chap (deaf as a post) picked up that we were from Morayshire and said that he had spent a couple of weeks at a place called Kinloss for an exercise (flying Neptunes from the French Aeronavale) in the late 1950s.

He became very enthousiastic on finding a fellow (ex)maritime aviator but said that he and crew had had great difficulty with the food in both the Os and Sgts messes. "terrible" he claimed. Being enterprising chaps they set snares around the dispersal and caught a lot of rabbits. How to cook them?

As mentioned further up there was quite a good galley in the aircraft.
They decided to start an engine and get a genny on line to power the oven. It took rather a long time to cook the casserole and he reckoned they'd burnt maybe a thousand litres of Avgas.
"The most expensive rabbit stew in the history of French cuisine".

Small world the maritime aviators' world. But always amiable and interesting.

The Ancient Mariner

C'est France..................

They should have gone into Findhorn for a Fish or Haggis Supper. That would have given them a whole new gastronomic experience.

:eek:

Actually...
 

......from a nation that eats Andouillette (chopped up intestines in a natural casing and a VERY strange smell) haggis might have been quite acceptable.

The Ancient Mariner

Rossian - NO, a VAST improvement!

The Neptunes certainly had the range, and the handling was excellent. I was told it was "almost like a fighter". APS 20 was very powerful, but the display was a bit rubbish when looking for small contacts. The early sonobuoy system using EER was very hit or miss, as was the Shackleton, with its slow data rate 1c system. I looked round one at Ballykelly, and remember the main spar took up a lot of space, and made it hard to move around. The galley was tiny and a bit of a slum. In ASW exercises from Ballykelly it did not have a lot of luck. Later improvements (AQA5?) may have helped, but the Shackletons had the edge as an ASW aircraft.

Many thanks Alan ... I'm pleased to see my original post still pulling some interest :ok:

Topcliffe Neptunes.
 

Did we just use the P-2 for patrols around the coast at height of the Cold War, or did we deploy them outside of theses shores and Europe such as used in the Malayan emergency or Borneo ..

cheers

They were certainly all UK based, and I have a vague idea that as they were MDAP-funded they could only be used as NATO assets.

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.

[QUOTE=chopper2004;10788283]Did we just use the P-2 for patrols around the coast at height of the Cold War, or did we deploy them outside of theses shores and Europe such as used in the Malayan emergency or Borneo ..

Pretty sure they were based at Kinross in the 50s

Or even Kinloss

Given that there were 6 squadrons plus the radar trials flight I assume 3 at Kinloss and 3 at St Mawgan?
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/researc...sp-2h-neptune/

There is speculation that the AEW Research & Development work conducted by 1453 Flight from Topcliffe (1953 to 1956) may in fact be a cover story for classified radar reconnaissance operations over the Eastern Bloc. Their Neptunes appear to have carried full defensive armament, which seems inconsistent with R & D flights.

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.

Tks pr00ne