Neptune Aviation was founded in 1993 as the result of the purchase of Black Hills Aviation in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Shortly thereafter, operations were moved to Missoula, Montana. For more than two decades, Neptune utilized the Lockheed Martin P-2V Neptune to perform aerial firefighting missions for the U.S. Forest Service and various State agencies. Neptune’s P2V fleet performed 47,000 firefighting missions and dropped 97 million gallons of fire retardant during this period.
In 2017, Neptune retired its venerable fleet of 7 Lockheed P2V aircraft. These aircraft found new homes in 2018 in museums around the country.
- Alamogordo Airport/ALM (Alamogordo, New Mexico)
- N203EV (former Evergreen Tanker 142)
- Estrella Warbirds Museum (Paso Robles, California)
- Tanker 7 (P2V-5)
- Tanker 7 (P2V-5)
- Glendive Airport/GDV (Glendive, Montana)
- Tanker 5 (P2V-5)
- To be determined
- Tanker 12 (P2V-5)
- T61 Memorial & Klamath Falls Air Base (Klamath Falls, Oregon)
- Tanker 6 (P2V-5)
- Yankee Air Museum (Belleville, Michigan)
- Tanker 45 (P2V-7)
- San Diego Air & Space Museum (San Diego, California)
- Tanker 43 (P2V-7)
- Neptune Aviation Services
- Tanker 44 (P2V-5)
- Tanker 14 (P2V-5)