World War Photos

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In February 1940, the British Purchase Mission in the US proposed to Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to develop a new patrol aircraft for Coastal Command coastal defense aviation based on the Model 18 Lodestar, ordering 25 aircraft immediately. The company had extensive experience with this kind of modernization. In 1938, a Hudson patrol aircraft was developed based on the Super Electra passenger plane, subsequently built in large numbers and widely used during World War II. So work began on the design of a new aircraft designated Model 39.A little trouble was caused by the English demand for maximum unification of the Model 39 with the Hudson aircraft, but this was to accelerate the implementation into production.
High-powered Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engines were installed on the aircraft, as well as new wide-bladed propellers, most favorable for low- and medium-altitude flight, where naval patrol aircraft mostly operated. The aircraft received a strong defensive armament consisting of 8 7.69 mm cal. machine guns: 2 movable in the nose section of the fuselage in the navigator’s station, an additional 2 non-movable above it, 2 movable in the Boulton-Paul gunner’s turret on the back of the fuselage and 2 on the gunner’s station in a specially formed protrusion under the tail section of the fuselage. The aircraft carried 1800 kg of bombs or depth charges. Compared with the Hudson aircraft, the new plane, which was named Ventura in the UK, had a longer range and considerably higher speed. In May 1940, the British had already placed an order for 300 exemplars of the Ventura Mk.I version.