Static Display Patrol Aircraft at Moffett Field

The former Naval Air Station Moffett Field, located in Mountain View, California, was once the home of the US Navy’s rigid airship USS Macon. Moffett Field’s Hangar One was originally built to house the Macon, a flying aircraft carrier of the 1930s that was lost off the California coast near Point Sur in 1935. Hangar One is the most recognizable landmark at Moffett Field, but visitors can also find two interesting and historic Navy aircraft on display south of Hangar One.

These aircraft were retired from active duty and placed on display while Moffett Field was still an active Naval Air Station. Markers located in front of each of these aircraft give their general specifications and a short description to those who venture out for a closer look. Unfortunately, there is no information on display about the operating histories of these particular aircraft. I hope that the information in this short article will help aviation enthusiasts gain a greater sense of the Naval Aviation history represented by these two aircraft.

The DP-2E Neptune, Bureau of Aeronautics number 128393, is the aircraft located closer to Highway 101. The P2V series of patrol aircraft started with specifications laid out by the Navy near the end of World War II, and the first flight of the P2V prototype was in 1945. Under the pre-1962 US Navy nomenclature, the “V” in the designation indicated that Lockheed was the aircraft’s manufacturer.

Bureau number 128393 was the 66^th in a batch of 96 P2V-5s built by Lockheed. The P2V-5, later P-2E, was the most numerous of the P-2 variants. Moffett Field’s P-2 was accepted by the Navy on October 7, 1953. This aircraft, like many P2Vs, was delivered as a twin-engine aircraft, powered by two R3350 radial piston engines. Most P2V-5s were modified with the addition of two J-34 turbojet engines to improve takeoff performance and maximum speed; this modification was denoted with a change in the aircraft’s designation to P2V-5F.

After acceptance by the Navy in late 1953, 128393 served in the Pacific for several years. FASRON 116 at NAS Alameda and FASRON 117 at NAS Barbers Point in Hawaii operated this aircraft in its initial assignments. Later assigned to VP-6, the aircraft operated from Barbers Point as well as Kodiak, Alaska. In 1955, the aircraft was reassigned to VP-19 at NAS Alameda prior to returning to Lockheed’s Burbank facility for the addition of the J-34 jet engines.

With substantially improved performance, 128393 returned to duty with VP-22, operating again from Barbers Point and Kodiak. In 1960, 128393 became one of at least nine P2V-5Fs modified at NAS Alameda by the Bureau of Weapons to serve as drone launchers and directors. This modification brought with it the new designation P2V-5FD, which changed in 1962 to DP-2E. In the early 1960s the aircraft was operated by VU-3 out of NAS Brown Field and NAS North Island in San Diego. Transferred to VC-3 in the middle 1960s the aircraft supported drone operations at North Island and Barbers Point for the remainder of the decade.

Neptunes serving as drone launchers and directors in the 1960s and 1970s were painted in very distinctive color schemes for high visibility during air operations. 128393 spent the years it served as a drone director with its wings and horizontal stabilizers painted bright yellow, with a single red stripe on each wing. At different times the vertical stabilizer was painted bright red overall or a checkerboard pattern of bright red and bright yellow. The fuselage color scheme was white on the upper surfaces and a shade of blue-gray known as “Engine Gray” or “Seaplane Gray” on the lower surfaces. These colors fade rapidly, and 128393’s standard patrol aircraft color scheme is better suited to outdoor display.

DP-2E 128393 spent the last eight years of its operational life with VC-8, supporting drone operations out of NAS Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. It was transferred to Moffett Field in 1978, where it was stricken from active duty on November 22, 1978 after flying 7601 hours in US Navy service. Once a common sight, the P-2 Neptune is becoming a rarity, with only a few preserved on static display. Some examples of the Neptune continue in service to this day as forest fire fighting air tankers.

The other aircraft on display at Moffett Field is a P-3A Orion, Bureau of Aeronautics number 150509. A successor to the P-2 in the patrol role, the P-3 series was also built by Lockheed. While the basic P-2 airframe was designed to meet the Navy’s patrol aircraft requirements, the P-3 was a modification of Lockheed’s four-engine, turbo-prop powered Electra airliner. The Electra design was transformed into an excellent, high-endurance patrol aircraft with the addition of sophisticated sensor capabilities, including the early use of digital computers in Navy aircraft.  Other changes to the Electra design included reducing the length of the forward fuselage and increasing the fuel capacity by more than 60% compared to its airliner cousin.

P-3A number 150509 was the 35^th of 157 “A” models produced, with the first delivery taking place in 1961; Moffett Field’s P-3 was accepted by the Navy on May 1, 1963. The aircraft’s first fleet assignment was with VX-1 at NAS Key West, Florida, where it served from 1965 through 1972. In the early 1970s this aircraft was also operated by VP-68 at NAS Pautuxent River, Maryland. While later models of the P-3 continued to roll off the assembly line in the mid-1970s, this early P-3A served on with a number of patrol squadrons including VP-65 at NAS Point Mugu in California, VP-69 at NAS Whidbey Island in Washington, and VP-67 in Memphis, Tennessee.

In the late 1970s the aircraft was transferred to VP-31 at NAS Moffett Field, which at that time was the center of P-3 training and operations on the West Coast. While 150509 remained in service with VP-31 into the early 1980s, the end of its service career was approaching. The P-3 had remained in production for more than 20 years, however, and when 150509 was stricken from active duty on July 13, 1984, much newer P-3s carried on the vigil against Soviet submarines.

The next time you visit the museum at Moffett Field, take some time to look at the P-2 Neptune and the P-3 Orion. These aircraft are well-preserved examples of important Navy patrol aircraft, spanning the decades from World War II to the end of the Cold War. I hope that the information in this article will make a trip to see these aircraft all the more interesting.