Lockheed P-3 Orion Ideas and Inspiration

[Volkodav]

Worked with an engineer who had been with BAE and worked on the wing for the MR4, including strain gauging a full wing set for fatigue testing, before the projects cancellation.  He told me about the issue with each Nimrod being different and the grief that caused, he also mentioned that it may not have been much more expensive to do a completely new aircraft.

[kitnut617]

I'd like to have seen the new wing attached to a wide body Airbus fuselage or something like that

[GTX_Admin]

Possible VTOL Orion inspiration:

[GTX_Admin]

[GTX_Admin]

RNZAF goes old school bombing:



https://dms.licdn.com/playback/C5605AQHioWnnpfL1ew/64a66a6f6f7d45609666b5b4dcca20cc/feedshare-mp4_3300-captions-thumbnails/1507940147251-drlcss?e=1542308400&v=beta&t=UOPGWmfMBPULNbiQvK02gO61icTQ31w9SvDoASOefI4

[The Big Gimper]

Nice video.   

[The Big Gimper]

The P-3 is now retired from the USN.

OAK HARBOR, Wash. (NNS) -- The Patrol Squadron (VP) 40 Fighting Marlins successfully completed transition from the P-3C Orion to the P-8A Poseidon, the Navy’s newest maritime patrol aircraft, May 14.

VP-40 began the P-8A platform transition in November 2019 following its return to Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island after completing the Navy’s final active duty P-3C deployment. On this landmark deployment, the Fighting Marlins made significant contributions to international maritime security while conducting sustained operations from three continents, marking the conclusion of VP-40’s forward-deployed P-3C operations that began in 1968.

Source: https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=113106

[elmayerle]

If nothing else, the P-8A has to have a roomier fuselage that the P-3.  Wonder if we'll see an EP-8A to replace the EP-3E's in service?

[apophenia]

The P-3 is now retired from the USN...

So ex-USN P-3C Orions will soon become available through FMS?

[GTX_Admin]

They were already available though I would be cautious since Orions have often built up quite a bit of airframe fatigue over the years.

[arkon]

When I was in vq1 I think our “newest “ plane was built in the early seventies

[apophenia]

They were already available though I would be cautious since Orions have often built up quite a bit of airframe fatigue over the years.

Nothing a little whiffery can't overcome 

[tankmodeler]

They were already available though I would be cautious since Orions have often built up quite a bit of airframe fatigue over the years.

Nothing a little whiffery can't overcome 

From a whiffery standpoint, they are all shiny, zero-timed and new!

[GTX_Admin]

Put them through a Kestrel style upgrade.

[apophenia]

From a whiffery standpoint, they are all shiny, zero-timed and new!

It is astonishing what those nanobots can accomplish   Suddenly, SMOH is an obsolete term   

Put them through a Kestrel style upgrade.

Project Kestrel sounds like it was well-run. An out-there option would be adopting some LM Orion 21 features - glass cockpit, 7,000 shp PW150As with NP2000 props, etc.

In the ANU article, I spotted a minor typo which amused: "not even Lockheed Martin, had ever re-winged a P-5B Orion with P-5C wing". Now, an Orion fitted with the wings of a P-5 Marlin is something I'd like to see 

[Spey Phantom]

there could be a market for demilitarised civilian versions, not just fire fighting and freight versions.
take for example my Junior Electra i built last year, if the P-3 was converted from an airliner, why not vice versa 

[GTX_Admin]

In the ANU article, I spotted a minor typo which amused: "not even Lockheed Martin, had ever re-winged a P-5B Orion with P-5C wing". Now, an Orion fitted with the wings of a P-5 Marlin is something I'd like to see 

You have seen too much...time to come with these men in black and look into their light.