The Friday Flyby - 26 April

Lockheed P-3 Orion

From the OAFSSRFTOTN: A maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), also known as a patrol aircraft, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, or by the older American term patrol bomber, is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to operate for long durations over water in maritime patrol roles—in particular anti-submarine, anti-ship and search and rescue.

To be a crewman on one of these birds I would think that you'd need an a$$ of iron. Long hours over the ocean, searching, searching.

Just looking at the ocean for hours on end can be, shall we say, less than exciting. I've done it on my various trips across the big waters (both Atlantic and Pacific) and it is monotonous. Of course, from the altitude of a commercial airliner, everything is really, really tiny. Though I have seen the occasional wake from altitude.

The modern MPAs have come a long way from this - 

Supermarine Stranraer
Between the Wars MPA

Let's have a look at some of the old birds and the new birds.

World War II

PBY Catalina

Kawanishi H8K "Emily"

Focke Wulf-200 Kondor

Post WWII

P2V Neptune

Hawker Siddeley Nimrod

Deutsche Marine Breguet Atlantique

Soviet IL-38

The New Kid on the Block

P8 Poseidon

And a Little Something for Us "Cold Warriors"

Tupolev 95 Bear Escorted by a Tomcat
Yes, Boys and Girls, Those Are Warshots Under the Wings!

Let's give the guys and gals who patrol the oceans (from the sky) a big round of applause!