Lockheed Ventura

Medium bomber · Lockheed · United States

Lockheed Ventura
ⓘ licence & creditU.S. Navy (via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Typical crew4
Engines2 × Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp
First flight1941
Number built3,028

Photographs

Aircraft Untitled Lockheed (Howard) 350 (L-237) Reg.: N350K MSN: 237-5988 Location & Date Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International (FLL / KFLL) Florida, USA - July 23, 1974 Caption The Howard 350 was an executive conversion of Lockheeed's PV-1 Ventura. Named "The Blue Max"
ⓘ licence & creditSteve Williams / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Untitled_Lockheed_(Howard)_350_(L-237)_N350K.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditGaius le Roux / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TS306_1981-10-24_FAJS_599_shd25_her2_600x364.jpgView source & full licence →
Vega Model 37, c.n 5697, at Long Beach, CA, March 20, 1953.
ⓘ licence & creditBill Larkins / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RCAF_Lockheed_Ventura_2247_ex-USN_34807.jpgView source & full licence →
A Lockheed PV-3 Ventura in flight in early 1943. The PV-3 was the designation given to the final 27 Ventura Mk.IIs reallocated from a Royal Air Force contract. They had been assigned RAF serials AJ511 to AJ537 and were reassigned U.S. Navy BuNos. 33925 to 33951. They were assigned in October 1942 to VP-82 which operated from Newfoundland on anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic.
ⓘ licence & creditUSN / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PV-3_NAN12-2-43.jpgView source & full licence →
PV-2 Harpoon 37492 painted and on display at Mayday Golf in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
ⓘ licence & creditTcnottwins / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PV-2_Harpoon_-_Mayday_Golf_North_Myrtle_Beach_2025-04-03.jpgView source & full licence →
PV-1
ⓘ licence & creditBill Larkins / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PV-1_(4476827444).jpgView source & full licence →
Lockheed Ventura
ⓘ licence & creditPublic domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_Ventura_ExCC.jpgView source & full licence →
Surplus Navy PV-1 modified as an executive transport at San Francisco in March 1954.
ⓘ licence & creditBill Larkins / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_PV-1_Modified_U._S._Steel_(4773645944).jpgView source & full licence →
Lockheed PV-1 Ventura N1514S converted to Howard 350 executive standard. Fort Lauderdale FL in 1978.
ⓘ licence & creditRuthAS / CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_PV-1_H350_N1514S_FLL_25.02.78_edited-3.jpgView source & full licence →
Hamilton International Air Show 1999
ⓘ licence & creditRobert Taylor from Stirling, ON, Canada / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_Hudson_(3207421575).jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditGaius le Roux / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_demo_1984-02-04_FAJS_608_shd50_her_600x364.jpgView source & full licence →
PV-1 model; rear view with 2 1/2' x 2 1/2' trubulene net mount in the 7x10ft w.t. at Ames Research Center
ⓘ licence & creditNASA Ames Research Center / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ARC-1944-AAL-6167.jpgView source & full licence →

About

The Lockheed Ventura was a heavier, more powerful development of the Lockheed Hudson, built around the airframe of the Lodestar airliner and ordered by the RAF as a medium day bomber. It reached the squadrons of No. 2 Group in late 1942 and flew low- and medium-level daylight raids over occupied Europe.

Like other unescorted day bombers of the period, the Ventura proved vulnerable in that role — most notoriously on a raid for which a Ventura crew earned a posthumous Victoria Cross amid heavy losses — and it was soon withdrawn from Bomber Command as the faster de Havilland Mosquito took over. Its more durable career came with Coastal Command, where, powered by two Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp radials, it replaced the Hudson on anti-submarine patrol and meteorological flights. Many also served with the RCAF, the SAAF and, as the PV-1, the US Navy.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Lockheed Ventura — historyofwar.org and Lockheed Ventura — Wikipedia. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Airframes in this database

SerialCodeSquadronFate
AJ209 EG-V — Lost on operations