MINICRAFT PV-1 VENTURA 1/72

Description

Lockheed’s twin-engined Hudson was a very successful light bomber as well as reconnaissance aircraft built for the RAF before World War II. The initial order of 200 Hudsons represented the largest order of any aircraft from the still-new Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, and launched that company into the mainstream aircraft business.

Building on the success of the Hudson, Lockheed developed a larger version of the aircraft that offered nearly twice the payload and was powered by nearly twice the horsepower. This new design was the Ventura, which was a militarized version of the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar. This design was also quite successful in RAF service and as the US entered the war, a number of these production aircraft were diverted for USAAC service as the B-34 and to the US Navy as the PV-1.

The PV-1 differed from the B-34 and Ventura Mk.I in several ways. First, the fuel capacity was increased by almost 300 gallons to over 1,600 gallons and to compensate, the nose armament was reduced by an equvilaent weight. The main space in the nose was taken up by the ASD-1 search radar. In the early PV-1, the bombarier station was just behind the radar nose and was distinctive with the four side windows and a bomb aiming panel under the nose. This bombardier station was deleted out of late production PV-1s in favor of three .50 caliber machine guns shooting forward from under the nose.