AP 118 · No. 11 Section II · Aircraft Plate 165 / 358

Plate 165 of 358 · Second World War · Maritime patrol bomber

Lockheed Ventura G.R.V

Ventura G.R.V 6498, painted as Lockheed Ventura G.R.V (Lockheed 237, the US Navy PV-1) 6498 of the South African Air Force, preserved at the SAAF Museum at Air Force Base Swartkop near Pretoria, as displayed: a twin-engined maritime patrol bomber developed from the Lodestar airliner, with two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radials driving three-bladed propellers, a solid nose, a stepped cockpit, twin oval fins and rudders and a wing spanning 19.96 m, shown tail down on its wheels with the dorsal turret faired over, a D/F loop, astrodome and aerial mast on the spine and rocket stubs under the outer wings: overall medium grey, the 1947–57 SAAF roundel of a dark blue ring and white centre with an orange springbok on the rear fuselage and wings, orange, white and blue fin flashes, black ‘6498’ on the rear fuselage and under the wings, black yellow-tipped propellers with red spinners; every photograph shows the starboard side, so the port side and the upper-wing roundels follow standard practice (shape from the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics PV-1 three-view, checked against photographs of 6498).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Lockheed Ventura G.R.V (Lockheed 237, the US Navy PV-1) 6498 of the South African Air Force, preserved at the SAAF Museum at Air Force Base Swartkop near Pretoria, as displayed: a twin-engined maritime patrol bomber developed from the Lodestar airliner, with two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radials driving three-bladed propellers, a solid nose, a stepped cockpit, twin oval fins and rudders and a wing spanning 19.96 m, shown tail down on its wheels with the dorsal turret faired over, a D/F loop, astrodome and aerial mast on the spine and rocket stubs under the outer wings: overall medium grey, the 1947–57 SAAF roundel of a dark blue ring and white centre with an orange springbok on the rear fuselage and wings, orange, white and blue fin flashes, black ‘6498’ on the rear fuselage and under the wings, black yellow-tipped propellers with red spinners; every photograph shows the starboard side, so the port side and the upper-wing roundels follow standard practice (shape from the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics PV-1 three-view, checked against photographs of 6498). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.5 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Ventura I & II, PV-1 Ventura, PV-2 Harpoon); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Ventura G.R.V 6498 modelled here.

History

The Ventura

The Ventura was Lockheed’s answer to a British request for a bigger, faster successor to the Hudson. Lockheed based it on the Model 18 Lodestar airliner, itself a stretched Super Electra, and fitted it with two 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp radials, a glazed bomb-aimer’s position under the nose, a dorsal turret and a stepped ventral gun position. Britain placed its first order in February 1940, and the first Ventura flew on 31 July 1941. Lockheed’s Vega subsidiary at Burbank built it.

In RAF service it went to No. 2 Group of Bomber Command as a daylight bomber, with No. 21 Squadron, No. 464 Squadron RAAF and No. 487 Squadron RNZAF. Their first operation, against railway targets near Hengelo in the Netherlands, came on 3 November 1942, and on 6 December 1942 forty-seven Venturas joined the low-level raid on the Philips works at Eindhoven, losing nine. On 3 May 1943 No. 487 Squadron lost every Ventura that reached Amsterdam on a raid against the city’s power station, and its leader, Squadron Leader Leonard Trent, was taken prisoner and later awarded the Victoria Cross. Too slow and vulnerable by day, the Ventura flew its last Bomber Command raid in September 1943 and was replaced by the Mosquito.

The type did far better over the sea. Under Lend-Lease the US Navy took over production as the PV-1, about 1,600 of which were built; the RAF and Commonwealth air forces called those they received the Ventura G.R.V. Navy PV-1s hunted submarines over the Atlantic and, from the Aleutians, bombed Japanese bases in the Kurile Islands, while others flew as night fighters in the Pacific. About 135 went to the South African Air Force, which flew them on patrols round the Cape and kept them in service until 1960. With the Army’s B-34 and B-37 and the Navy’s longer-winged PV-2 Harpoon, 3,028 were built in all.

This airframe

Ventura G.R.V 6498, South African Air Force

6498The airframe modelled

6498 is a Lockheed 237, the type the US Navy called the PV-1 and the RAF and South African Air Force the Ventura G.R.V, one of about 135 supplied to South Africa during and after the Second World War for maritime patrol round the Cape. It is preserved by the South African Air Force Museum at Air Force Base Swartkop near Pretoria. It is modelled because no Ventura is in a UK museum, and 6498 is the most complete and best-photographed Ventura survivor, with colour photographs from 2003 to 2015; another at the same museum has lost its outer wings. The model shows it as displayed, standing tail down on its wheels in the post-war SAAF maritime scheme: overall medium grey, the 1947–57 roundel of a dark blue ring and white centre with an orange springbok on the rear fuselage and wings, orange, white and blue flashes on both fins, a small black ‘6498’ on the rear fuselage and a large one under the wings, and black three-bladed propellers with yellow tips and red spinners. The dorsal turret is faired over, and it carries a D/F loop, an astrodome and an aerial mast on its spine and rocket stubs under its outer wings. Its shape comes from the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics PV-1 three-view, checked against photographs of 6498. Every photograph shows its starboard side, so the port side mirrors it, and the roundels on the upper wings, which no photograph shows, follow South African practice.

Where to see one

Not on charge

Survivors are in the United States and elsewhere abroad. None is in a UK museum.

All 358 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.