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Saturday, November 6, 2021

Lockheed P2 Neptune

Lockheed P2 Neptune on Iceberg Patrol near Adak, AK around 1966

Don't know how accurate the caption is. The International Ice Patrol has been operating in the North Atlantic Ocean ever since the Titanic sank, and the Navy operated Neptunes all over the world. I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing their own ice patrols while looking for enemy submarines.

P.S. April 2022. I just noticed that the propellers on this airplane are not turning. Normally photographs of this vintage show the propellers as a blur. It's only since the advent of digital cameras that we have been getting psychedelic images of props. Since it looks like they are not turning it means either: the engines have stopped and the airplane is gliding, on its way to its doom, or they used special high speed film and camera to stop the propeller, or the date is a lie. If the engine is turning at 1200 RPM, then the tip speed of this 15 foot diameter prop is around 1,000 fps. Typical exposure time for a 35 mm camera is 1/100th of a second which is 10 milliseconds. In ten milliseconds, the tip of the prop would have moved 10 feet, or about a quarter of a rotation and we would not be seeing the individual blades. Of course, this is a military aircraft and they would have had access to high speed film and cameras, so that's likely the explanation.

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