DP-2E Neptune & P-3A Orion

These aircraft were retired from active duty and placed on display while Moffett Field was still an active Naval Air Station.

DP-2E 128393 spent the last eight years of its operational life with VC-8, supporting drone operations out of NAS Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. It was transferred to Moffett Field in 1978, where it was stricken from active duty on November 22, 1978 after flying 7601 hours in US Navy service. Once a common sight, the P-2 Neptune is becoming a rarity, with only a few preserved on static display.

P-3A number 150509 was the 35th of 157 “A” models produced, with the first delivery taking place in 1961; Moffett Field’s P-3 was accepted by the Navy on May 1, 1963. The aircraft’s first fleet assignment was with VX-1 at NAS Key West, Florida, where it served from 1965 through 1972. In the early 1970s this aircraft was also operated by VP-68 at NAS Pautuxent River, Maryland. While later models of the P-3 continued to roll off the assembly line in the mid-1970s, this early P-3A served on with a number of patrol squadrons including VP-65 at NAS Point Mugu in California, VP-69 at NAS Whidbey Island in Washington, and VP-67 in Memphis, Tennessee.