In college (Northern AZ), I flew fire bombers for the USFS. We had a Lockheed P2V-3 Neptune from Evergreen based out of Prescott during the fire season. It had Two 3,500-hp Wright R-3350 radials, and two 3,400-lb thrust Westinghouse J34 turbojets. You talk about an odd sounding aircraft.
Even with what seems like plenty of power. They still had to block the traffic on HW89 when we took off fully loaded on a hot day. Otherwise after clearing the end of the runway, the service road, two holes of the golf course and a fence line, we’d still smack a semi if they didn’t.
