{"id":151,"date":"2026-03-22T20:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviation.christophermreed.net\/?page_id=151"},"modified":"2026-03-22T20:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:26:22","slug":"what-if-martin-mercator","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/what-if-martin-mercator\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;What if&#8221; Martin Mercator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The real fleet of USN P4M Mercators was retired well before American forces began large-scale combat operations in Southeast Asia, but for this what if, I postulated that the type had been produced in larger numbers, and thus a few had hung on in service long enough to become &#8220;EP-4E&#8221; trail interdiction platforms in the late 1960s, mirroring the real-life Army AP-2E Neptunes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-152 \" src=\"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ap4e-1024x350.jpg\" alt=\"What if Martin Mercator color profile\" width=\"1349\" height=\"461\" data-neo-global--processed-neo-rename=\"true\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.\u201d <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4d3ORdQ\">Martin P4M-1\/-1Q Mercator (Naval Fighters Series Vol 37)<\/a>\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cThis is an affiliate link, and I may earn a commission if you purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation-index.html\">Aviation Index<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The real fleet of USN P4M Mercators was retired well before American forces began large-scale combat operations in Southeast Asia, but for this what if, I postulated that the type had been produced in larger numbers, and thus a few had hung on in service long enough to become &#8220;EP-4E&#8221; trail interdiction platforms in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-151","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christophermreed.net\/aviation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}