The P-3 Orion is going away… In a few years…
I spent a lot of years flying on these all over the world. Did some fun things, some not so fun, and still can’t talk about a bunch of it…
Having said that, HERE is a pretty interesting interview (wondering how some of this got through the censors) from a current generation P-3 pilot.
Not a sexy acft, more like a truck (carried LOTS of strange stuff over the years), scared the crap out of us more than once, but brought us home every time. We lost a number of shipmates over the years, to a variety of causes, and their memories will live on as long as we are alive.
Salut!
Awesome picture!
Just got back from skimming the P-3 story, I bookmarked it for a more leisurely read later. Thanks!
Active duty in the seventies does yield a couple of “special” weapons stories. One story tells the aftermath of flunking the Annual Nuclear Weapons Inspection, (I don’t think that is the name of the annual inspection, but it was a long time ago.) And of course, we will neither confirm nor deny the presence of any special weapons.
The aircraft was a workhorse and will be remembered as the go-anywhere, do-anything platform.
I saw them every day coming into NAS Willow Grove when I lived in PA. I think that base was closed down in the last go round of closures.
A long and storied history of a great plane. If they want to keep a good workhorse they will have to go commercial to other countries… like Lockheed and the C-130. She is still going strong today.
Good, solid aircraft. I fell in love with the sound of those engines as they did their job in the Aleutians. Only rode in one once, but that cinched the deal for me. I’ll miss ’em, too.
Thanks all! I know nozzink… 🙂
Posted from my iPhone.
Glad to see that you found the article. They’re putting some good stuff up on foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com, though it’s a Gawker site…
And they put up my bird yesterday! http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/what-it-is-like-to-fly-the-americas-biggest-jet-the-ga-1727650088
I’d like to see one at the Air Show.
I wanna see it in an Air Show!
All Hail the Mighty P-3!
May have to buy one of the ones converted to fire bombers when I hit that lottery, just because they were so. Damned. Cool.
Thank-you for sharing