Naval Aviation Centennial: Neptune’s Atomic Trident (1950)

In 1948, the first Navy heavy attack squadron, VC-5, commissioned on 9 September 1948, established an interim, long-range nuclear attack capability from Midway-class carriers. VC-5 was trained to fly the Lockheed P2V-3C Neptune on one-way nuclear attack missions with 10,000-pound Mark 1 (“Little Boy”) bombs and not return to the carrier. The Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) issued a Request for Proposal on 16 August 1948 to selected aircraft manufacturers for a long range, heavy attack airplane, with details provided in Outline Specification OS-111. The mission was to conduct a high-altitude bombing attack with a 10,000 lb (4,536 kg) nuclear bomb load to a point no less than 1,700 nm (3,148 km) from the takeoff point. Maximum aircraft weight was set at 100,000 lb (45,360 kg); the aircraft was to be designed for catapult launch (plus JATO if needed).