Warbird Information Exchange

Hi,

I am a new member with a question. When I was a child the University of Minnesota had a lightning research facility located a couple miles from my house in Roseville Minnesota, a suburb of St. Paul. Parked outside at this facility was an intact Hudson that they used to research lightning strikes on aircraft. The Hudson was painted in sand and spinach and had nose art. I am almost certain that it was a Hudson (or U.S. equivilent) and not a Ventura. In the early 1980s the aircaft was moved. The local paper said that it was going to a museum/collector and was going to be restored. Does anyone have any information on what happened to this aircraft?

Thank you,

Steve

IT WAS REMOVED AND WENT TO A AIR FORCE BASE IN COLORADO WERE IT IS ON DISPLAY.THE DISNEY TYPE NOSE ART HAD DONALD DUCK STRANGLING HITLER AND TOJO WITH THE WORDS TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE!AND TIME WOUNDS ALL HEALS!THANKS MIKE

_________________
IF YOU CAN FIND IT WE CAN FIX IT

The aircraft you are asking about is a Lockheed Ventura II (USAAF RB-34 but some correspondence claims it to be a B-37) and it's original RAF identification is AJ311. Serial number is 4449. The interior is mostly gutted and the outer 8 feet of the left wing has been replaced with a wooden mock-up. Apparently the lightning tests were pretty brutal! It sits at the Fred E. Wiesbrod Museum in Pueblo, Colorado on outside display. This may be the only Lockheed Ventura left with the original Disney applied artwork on it's side.