Page 8 - Aerotech News and Review, February 18, 2022

High Desert Hangar Stories
The flight of the P2-V Neptune “Truculent Turtle” — Part 2

by Bob Alvis up to the 5,000-foot marker, the wheels
special to Aerotech News began to fold with the props only five
feet above the runway — and when
In my last article, I shared the lead- the wheels finally housed, there was
up to the record-breaking flight of the only 500 feet of runway left. Finally,
P2-V Neptune “Truculent Turtle,” at 150 knots, the white knuckles on the
the long-distance reconnaissance and controls began to loosen as the Turtle
search aircraft built for the U.S. Navy began to respond to flight inputs by the
by Lockheed back in 1946. crew. Crossing Perth at 5,000 feet, they
The Truculent Turtle’s historic were airborne and made a slow gradual
flight evoked the spirit of the clas- climb to 9,000 feet and headed towards
sic race between the tortoise and the New Guinea. Once the routine set in,
hare. The Turtle’s spirit and tenacity the crew set the automatic pilot and
would beat the odds and the crew of began the rotation schedule of a pilot
Cmdr. Thomas Davies, Capt. Eugene flying four hours on and then four off.
Rankin, Cmdr. Walter S. Reid and Lt. Flying in the South Pacific has its
Cmdr. Roy Tabling would establish a weather challenges, to be sure. From
record for non-stop, unrefueled flight New Guinea to Kwajalein at sunset,
that would remain unchallenged for the crew dodged thunderstorms. Do-
16 years. ing as much as they could to save Navy photograph
Picking up from where I left off last fuel and miles, they took up a course With 50,000 gallons of fuel on board, the PV-2 Neptune “Truculent Turtle” had to use Jet Asssisted Takeoff capability
time, I got to thinking of the famous aimed at the middle of the Hawaiian to get airborne.
old song of boredom “One hundred Islands. The radio equipment back in
bottles of beer on the wall,” and how those days was not like we have today, miles to go, it looked like success was night over the Rockies, the final leg tinguished Flying Crosses by Secretary
many bottles would need to be added to and the crew could not give positions in grasp — but the Rocky Mountains of the flight was mercifully unevent- of the Navy James Forrestal.
cover the 11,568 miles between Perth, to Midway or Honolulu. Thus, for 18 had other ideas. ful. The crew found time to shave and But wait, there’s more! So the one
Australia, and Washington, D.C! hours they flew in a radio blackout until As night fell over the Rockies, change uniforms and, looking “smart part of this story that really pulled at
As the pilot sat at the end of a 6,000 they could raise Oakland, Calif. Cross- weather became a major factor. Freez- and fresh’’ they landed in Columbus. my interest was a passenger that was
foot runway, the most dangerous as- ing the international date line, they had ing rain, snow and ice froze on the When the mains set down, they had on board for the historic flight, who I
pect of the flight in his mind was not the Groundhog Day-experience of liv- wings and fuselage, forcing the crew to covered 11,236 miles in 55 hour and 16 believe was probably responsible for
about the upcoming boredom, but the ing the previous day over again. After increase power to 80 percent to barely minutes. The record would stand until keeping the crew entertained for the
challenge of getting a plane weighing contact with Oakland, the crew filed a stay airborne. During the P2-V Nep- January 1962, when a B-52 flew from majority of the trip. This bit of pre-
85,561 pounds off the ground — with flight plan for Washington, D.C. They tune Truculent Turtle’s preflight modi- Okinawa, Japan, to Madrid, Spain, cious cargo made the trip from Austra-
50,000 pounds of that being gasoline. were now 9,000 miles from Perth and fications, the anti-icing and de-icing covering 12,519 miles nonstop. As a lia thanks to a zoo in Perth, and was
The co-pilot may have been sitting at this point had broken the previous equipment had been removed to reduce piston-driven aircraft, the P2-V Nep- presented to Dr. William Mann of the
there, thinking of his wife and kids and nonstop record of 7,916 miles, set by weight. The turbulence and heavy fuel tune Truculent Turtle’s record stood National Zoo in Washington, D.C. One
wondering ‘What am I doing here?’ as a B-29 flying from Guam to Washing- use for almost three hours to maintain until 1986 when another piston-driven slightly bedraggled and exhausted fe-
the pilot’s talk with the control tower ton, D.C. With all the fuel transferred flying altitude at 13,000 feet cut 500 aircraft, Voyager, piloted by Dick Ru- male baby kangaroo survived the long
snapped him back to reality, with a to the main tanks and with over 2,000 hundred miles off the possible distance tan and Jeana Yeager, flew around the trip safe and sound. Her name became
cheery “Good luck!” for the flight. world to set the all-time record. a fitting tribute to the P2-V Neptune
Pushing the throttles forward, the After calculating the remaining fuel After a news conference in Colum- Truculent Turtle and its crew, as her
P2-V Neptune Truculent Turtle reluc- at dawn, the crew notified Naval Oper- bus, the crew of the Turtle was flown to new country christened the little joey
tantly began to roll and pick up some ations that they would have to set down Washington, D.C., where they met up with the name “One Long Hop.”
speed. At 3,000 feet down the runway in Columbus, Ohio. After the rough with their wives and were awarded Dis- Until next time, Bob out …
at 75 knots, the lumbering smoothed
out as weight began to shift from the
wheels to the wings. At 87 knots, pi-
lot Davies fired the four JATO (jet
assisted takeoff) bottles to increase
takeoff speed. At 4,500 feet down the
runway, the Turtle reached 115 knots.
The pilot said, “She is supposed to fly
at 115, so pull up the wheels.” Coming

Courtesy photograph Courtesy photograph
“One Long Hop” arrives in the United States. One Long Hop was a kangaroo that The Turtle is now on display at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum in Florida.
made the trip from a zoo in Perth, Australia, to the National Zoo in Washington,
D.C., on board the P2-V “Truculent Turtle.”

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