Lockheed P2V Neptune Crew Entry Hatch

 21 April 2020: In turns out, thanks to photos and illustrations provided by Ed Barthelmes that the P2V-5 (and presumably earlier and maybe the P2V-6) and the P2V-7 had slightly different entry hatches. The photos I took and originally posted were of the nose wheel well of a P2V-5FS.

For more on the P2V-5 versus the -7, see http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2020/03/lockheed-p2v-5-vs-7-neptune.html

All P2Vs had a crawl way to the left side of the nose-gear wheel well (which is why the well is offset to the right) and beneath the flight deck for access to the aircraft and to go between the nose and the forward crew compartment. This is a P2V-5 illustration:
 

Access to the crawl way from the ground was through the aft left side of the nose wheel well (note that the above illustrates the access point for P2Vs -1 through -6; because the nose wheel well was located farther forward on the P2V-7, the opening was located farther forward in the crawl way).

This is from the P2V-5 manual; note the width of the wheel well relative to the ladder:

The access could be closed off by sliding panels, in this case a picture of the P2V-5's.

Note the folding ladder attached to the aft end of the wheel well, again on a P2V-5.

Note that the earlier P2Vs had a wider nose-wheel well than the -7.

This is a picture of the hatch in a P2V-7; note that it slides open vertically and appears to be wider than the -5's.

 Ed Barthelmes

 This one shows the ladder (and the sole of somebody's shoe):

Ed Barthelmes

This is the open hatch in the wheel well of a P2V-1 (it isn't evident what closed it off; I suspect that the ladder was removed to discourage entry to the airplane after it became a museum display):

 This is the location of the opening in the floor of the forward crew compartment.

 Ed Barthelmes

There was another hatch on the bottom of the fuselage aft of the bomb bay for entry to the fuselage aft of the wing (it was possible to go between the forward and aft crew compartment but it required crawling over the wing spar) as shown in this P2V-5 illustration provided by Ed Barthelmes.