14-5920 —

cool old cars in the background

This ain't a civilian aircraft, remove letter N and announce it as US Navy BuNo is 145920.
Thank you.

@chalet...I only put the N in front because the FA algorithm seems to really dislike BUNOs, often they have inserted the N when I just put in the number. I corrected it. It may be that it only causes problems on shorter BUNOs...haven't figured out the logic yet.

Funny how old cars look old but old planes look beautiful.

These Neptunes were probably SP2Es or SP2Hs

I believe that the photo above represents a P2V7 Neptune, not the VP-56 as stated. The VP-56 Dragons P-3C Orion (56) Model, were a completely different airframe from the P2V7 Neptune.

@john cook: I’d consider those cars beautiful.

Two turning and two burning!!

Paul Hurford, did you not read Bill's description accompanying the photo? Yes it is a P-2. VP 56 is a squadron not an aircraft type, as stated. And yes VP 56 flew both P-2's and P-3's. Pay attention, then comment.

This is sort of confusing. VP-56 transitioned from SP-2H's to P-3B's in 1968 after they transferred to Pax River from Norva and then went on to the P-3C in 1969.
I know the P-2's were long gone before 1973 because in 1970 I was in Pax River in VP-8 in the next hangar over from them. So I'm curious as to the real story behind this photo.

I'm thinking the squadron called out was a typo. It was probably VP-67, the reserve squadron from NAS Memphis, they flew P-2s till the late '70s. The were in P-3As when I got NATTC Memphis in the fall of 1979.

@Scott Smith and @Chris DiCenso...the VP-56 was an error and it was almost certainly a VP-67 aircraft. I was stationed at NAS Memphis and these were on the flight line, but I had to do some homework to piece together the background and I clearly picked the wrong squadron because of the timing of transition to P-3s for VP-56. Doing forensics on old frames of Tri-X shot with a Canon F-1 is a bit harder than when I shoot digital with my Canon R5 these days :)

Thanks for keeping me honest!

WOW! That's a great photo. The P-2V Neptune was the first aircraft I worked on as a wet-behind-the-ears 1st year apprentice in 1962. I was on the P-2V mod line at the old Lockheed Burbank factory back then.

We have a P2V as a gatekeeper here at KBXM (formerly KNHZ).