The Lockheed Constellation's engine testbed was ...

[Mark Allen M]

... this!

A Lockheed Ventura with a couple of Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones hanging off of it. At least I think that's what they are. It's interesting that the nose was trimmed back. Funky looking thing.

[quemerford]

AKA The Lockheed Ventellation.

[ArtS]

Sweater Girl

[Malo83]

American Beaufighter!

[Malo83]

Anymore info, Performance wise?

[Mark Allen M]

As usual I don't know much about it other than what's been posted so far.


"Vent-ellation: Lockheed Aircraft retained one of the 188 Ventura Mk. I patrol bombers intended for the Royal Air Force for use as an engine testbed for the powerplant installation of the Constellation transport. This hybrid, which carried US Army Air Corps markings, was nicknamed Vent-ellation, a contraction of the Ventura and Constellation names. It is shown at the Lockheed plant in Burbank, California, around 1942."

Last edited by Mark Allen M on Tue Feb 16, 2016 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[DB2]

I believe the R-3350 on the original Connies were only 2200 hp, whereas the RAF Venturas had 2000 hp R-2800, so the performance difference would not have been substantial (though removal of the armament certainly would have helped as well).

[Snake45]

American Beaufighter!

Winner!

[Rick65]

Did the 3350 test engines have bigger props than the 2800 hence the shorter nose?
The Ventura has the engines close in to the fuselage and has 10 foot 7 inch propellors according to a drawing on Wiki.

[b29driver]

Beechcraft Grizzly had R-3350's

[maxum96]

Beechcraft Grizzly had R-3350's

I hope you don't mind, your linked picture was pretty small.

[b29driver]

When I was a kid flying Twin Beech freighters in the 60's & 70's we could have used those R3350's

[aerovin]

And one other Constellation engine test bed...

In 1957, Curtiss Wright purchased five engine test bed B-17G 44-85813 from the USAF (earlier modified by moving the cockpit aft and used to test the Wright XT-35 turboprop) and modified it further by "installing a TC18DA1 Constellation Model 1049 nacelle" that was used as the mount for the test engine, a version of the Wright Aeronautical Division Turbo Compound 18 Cyclone engine...a civil development of the R-3350. Specifically, tests were being conducted by Wright toward Power Recovery Turbine development. The tests were conducted from 1957 until 1965 or so. The B-17 had recorded 579 hours of flight time when Wright began operating the aircraft, and it ended the program with over 1581 hours logged...so over 1,000 hours of test use was made of the B-17 through that test program on the engine.



What efforts Wright was making to improve the engine at that late date is unknown....the engine had other applications but the tests may have originated toward an engine for the final planned version of the 1049 or the 1649, though the tests continued well after those aircraft finished production. Maybe the four bladed prop provides a clue.

After Wright finished with the airplane, it was sold to Arnold Kolb, modified back to a conventional B-17 configuration, used as an air tanker, crashed, wreckage recovered and went through several owners, and the remains of the aircraft have been incorporated into the restoration underway at Urbana, Ohio.

[old iron]

Is this the B-17 that was heavily damaged by the tornado in Windsor Locks, Connecticut in 1979?

[aerovin]

Nope, that was the Pratt & Whitney airplane, 44-85734 (NL5111N). Very similar mods to both aircraft with the cockpit being moved several feet aft and additional structure added to the forward fuselage for the stresses of the fifth engine installation.