Warbird Information Exchange

I've known about the following for some time but was sworn to secrecy.

This month's CAF-Wisconsin Wing newsletter reveals that they will be replacing their current project (PV-2D #84060) with something more manageable for an organization their size. There are no definite plans for the Harpoon's movement yet, but she will most likely be assigned to another CAF wing.

www.cafwi.org

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Hi all

How much if any of a Ventura is able to be used on a Harpoon restoration and Visa Verca.

There is a very nice project here in Queensland on a RAAF Ventura but they don't seem to have wings (static only )

Any thoughts please.

Regards
John P

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

All I know, John, is that the wings are a different design on the Harpoon. I suppose you could make a composite plane with different wings, but you may as well try to do it original in order to keep the value up.

By the way you never did tell me the name of that Japanese airbase in Vietnam. Can you tell me publicly or PM?

Thanks,

Chris

Hi

Yes I just found out the wings are different so I suppose I am now after a rough set of Ventura wings

Any leads anybody.

Regards
John P

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

I hope the project will be picked up and finished by someone. I'd love to see another in the air. The work do on her looks great so far. It must be hard for the wing to give her up

For some strange reason I have always liked them. I love seeing "Hot Stuff" at airshows!

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www.tailhookstudio.com

It is sad, Tim. Their Martin 250 top turret was my first restoration project involving warbirds (back in 1990). The interior floor also has quite a bit of my rivet work in her.

Someone is going to get an excellent project: freshly overhauled 2800's, overhauled props and instruments, loads of original military goodies (radar, radios, etc.). Plus the fact that it's one of only 35 -D models ever built.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

The only sets of PV-1 Ventura outer wings I have ever come across are in South Africa. The SAAF Museum at Swartkop has several sets in the outside storage compound and the SAA Technical School at JoBerg has another two or three sets in their hangar. At least, that is the way it was in 1996. Any updates out there?

The lockheed Hudson, and lodestar use the same wimg as the ventura , but on the ventura they used a little filler strip between the flap track rails, we are planing on useing a ventura wing on our hudson, I think the ferrymead group gave a hudson wing to a group in oz that were going to put it on a ventura.

Actually that is not exactly correct. The wings may appear to be the same between the Hudson (Model 14), Lodestar (Model 18) and the Ventura (Model 37) but they are not. Since the gross weight of the PV-1 was so much greater the wing had to be beefed up. This encompassed a totally different attaching method with differnt front spar and rear spar attachments along with over 200 special bolts on the outer attachment strips. When you look into the Lockheed Interchangeable Parts List book you find very little in common between the Hudson/Lodestar and even less between the PV-1 and PV-2.
Originally we had thought that the Vent's rudders were the same as a P-38's.......no such luck. We did manage to find rudders from a Howard Super Ventura though that did work. Then again, that isn't too surprising!

So are lodestar and hudson wings the same.? Does it mention them in the interchangeablity book, could lodestar wings be used on a ventura for static?

Now you got me diving into the Hudson/Ventura/Harpoon manuals! Says here that the Hudson outer wing (part# 70271-L/R) and the Lodestar outer wing (part#73681-L/R) are the same. It seems that the Lodestar wing is far more compatable for the Hudson and this may be because it has been beefed up a bit. This also indicates that the wing attachment fittings are the same so I cannot see a problem there.
However there is no compatability with both these outer wing sections to the PV-1 and PV-2 models. I can only surmise that 1) the wing is not structurally strong enough for the design and 2) the wing attachment fittings are not the same. I can concur with the later as I have inspected L-18 model wings and noted the difference.
Remember though that externally the outer wing may appear the same and may even be the same size. The Interchageable Parts List was designed to maintain the flow of aircraft production as much as possible. With Lockheed/Vega building several aircraft at several plants, if one line needed a part that they did not have then they could possibly use a similiar part (same part, different ID) off another aircraft's line.
So you probably could use L-18 outer wings for the PV-1 as static but I would first check on the size of those panels and then how much work you are going to have to do to attach them to the airframe.