![]() ![]() The PV-1 was an adequate bomber but provided some weaknesses needed addressing, most notably in that the increased fuel weight made it difficult to take-off without problems. The first PV-1s arrived in December 1942, then entered naval service in February 1943. The adapted Venturas were adopted under the designation PV-1 Ventura for the navy, with special equipment for patrol bombing, increased fuel storage along with a decrease in forward defensive armaments, and the addition of search radar. The Lockheed Ventura bomber, an aircraft the USN had an eye for, was converted for their usage. It wasn't until a compromise with the B-29 Superfortress in a naval manufacturing factory that the Army finally gave the Navy the aircraft and jurisdiction to act in their roles. The USAAF had a monopoly on manufacturing and command of land-based bombers, leading to naval activities such as anti-submarine duties with bombers shouldered by the USAAF rather than the USN, forcing the usage of float planes like the Catalina in the Navy's role. America's usage of the B-34 Lexington was complicated with a feud in air power between the USAAF and the US Navy (USN). Though the Ventura was faster and could hold twice as many bombs than the Hudson, the Royal Air Force did not like the plane very much and replaced them with Mosquitoes, the surplus Venturas sent to Coastal Command. The Royal Air Force adopted the plane under the Ventura name, and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) adopted it as the B-34 Lexington. Though similar to the Hudson, the Ventura was a lot bigger. U.S.After the success of the Lockheed Hudson, Lockheed sought to introduce another bomber named the Ventura based off their Model 18 Lodestar transport aircraft. It is currently on outdoor static display painted in a wartime Marine Corps scheme." With the latter company the airplane supporting the effort to fight forest fires in the western states until flight delivered to the National Naval Aviation Museum in 2000. Subsequently, Bureau Number 37230 flew as an aerial fire fighter and agricultural sprayer for owners in Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, before its purchase by Hirth Air Tankers of Buffalo, Wyoming, in 1989. Stricken from the Navy aircraft inventory following this assignment, the airplane entered the private sector and over the course of the ensuing decades it passed through several owners, the first appearance on civil aviation rolls in Houston, Texas, in 1957. The airplane flew in support of the training of reservists at NAS Olathe, NAS Moffett Field, California, and NAS Minneapolis, Minnesota, until 1951, at which time it entered overhaul and repair.Ĭonverted to the PV-2T configuration, Bureau Number 37230 joined Marine Night Fighter Training Squadron (VMFT(N))-20 at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, North Carolina, in 1952 and flew with that squadron for the ensuing three years. ![]() However, this was not destined to be the fate of Bureau Number 37230, which spent only a week there before being flown to Naval Air Station (NAS) Olathe, Kansas, where it commenced service with the Naval Air Reserve. It remained at the station until the following February, at which time it was sent to Naval Air Facility (NAF) Litchfield Park, Arizona, a base used primarily for the long term storage of aircraft. Official description: "The museum's example of the PV-2 Harpoon (Bureau Number 37230) was accepted by the Navy at Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) Holtsville, California, in December 1945. Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon (BuNo 37230) at the U.S.
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