P2V HARPOON FULL
P2V HARPOON CODE

In order to accommodate a larger payload of up to 3,000 lbs. machine guns: two fixed in an upper nose decking, three in an under nose pack, a pair in the dorsal turret, and two in a rear-facing ventral tunnel position. Powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney R-2800-31 engines, the PV-2D typically carried nine. Several entered the civilian market and some were used as sprayers. Numerous foreign military arms such as Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Peru acquired Harpoons after the war, and the aircraft was one of the first to equip the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) after that service came into being in July 1951 with a total of 17 aircraft being supplied. The maiden flight of the new aircraft took place on December 3, 1943, but the aircraft’s first combat appearance was not until March 1945 in the Pacific Theater as revision “D.” Following the end of World War II, the Navy continued to fly the Harpoon in reserve squadrons until they were phased out by August 1948. Navy placed an order for five hundred PV-2’s. The designation “P” being for Patrol, and the “V” for the Lockheed manufacturer. Nicknames included the “Pregnant Pig” and the “Lexington” (U.S. But it was a reconnaissance/anti-submarine patrol bomber built by Lockheed’s Vega Division, the Harpoon was a major redesign of the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura.

P2V HARPOON FULL

This is not a full account of the development and history of the aircraft type. My photos – little of the interior and some are grainy – and YouTube walk around. Saint Helens on a flight from Seattle, Washington, to Red Bluff, California (wreckage was found by hikers in early 1960). And to a PV-1 Ventura, #49459, that crashed November 29, 1945, five miles east of Mt. And also for the PV-2, c/n 15-1605, N7250C, with pilot Douglas Lacey and its 7 passengers lost in a crash on September 29, 1990, at Clear Lake, California, after taking off from the Sonoma County Airport.

P2V HARPOON CODE

Also painted in memoriam to Royal Canadian Air Force Flight Sergeant Bomb Aimer Donald Irwin Rose of Stoney Mountain, Manitoba, #434 “Bluenose” squadron (In Excelsis Vincimus), who was killed along with his fellow Halifax V, s/n LK649, code WL-X, crew members on a raid over Berlin on January 28-29, 1944.

The nose art “Rose’s Raiders” is in reference to its former owner Neil M. Airworthy as I recall, but I have not seen it fly. and the current owner is P-38 LLC, one of Jack Erickson’s companies. In 1999, it was acquired to become part of the Erickson Aircraft Collection now in Madras, Oregon. It was restored at Wheelless Airport in Dothan, Alabama, and ferried to Vancouver, Washington. The following year, it began a civilian career with several owners and was used as a fire tanker and sprayer – including as fire service #29 at Medford, Oregon – during the years of the 1960’s through the 1980’s. including NAS Alameda and NAS Cherry Park in California until stricken from the record and put into the Navy’s boneyard at Litchfield Park, Arizona, in December 1956. This particular aircraft was the first of 35 “D” variants.

P2v harpoon