The Vultee Model 72 (V-72) was initially ordered by France after the early successes of the German Blitzkrieg campaigns. However, with the fall of France, Great Britain became interested in the aircraft and took over the French order in 1940 to fill an urgent need for dive bomber aircraft. The V-72 was designed as a true vertical dive bomber and scheduled for production in a Vultee plant in Nashville, Tennessee and also in a Northrop plant in Hawthorne, California after licensing agreements for the design were completed. The first flight of the V-72 was made on 30 November 1941, just days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For contractual reasons, the Air Corps assigned the A-31 designation to the Model 72 and ordered large numbers of aircraft intended for delivery to Great Britain under Lend-Lease agreements. http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/attack/a5/a5-2.htm At the later time the British had realized the obsolescence of the dive bomber concept, and the aircraft were used operationally only in Burma. http://www.highgallery.com/military-aircraft-a-35b.html
Thanks for that, Kai ! The Vultee Vengeance is one of those names that sounds great but I know little about ; another one is the Lockheed Ventura....
Thanx for the tip, Martin! LOCKHEED PV-1 VENTURA http://www.shearwateraviationmuseum.ns.ca/aircraft/specs/lockheedventura.htm The Lockheed Ventura was designed to replace the Lockheed Hudson which had well served the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as a maritime patrol bomber during the early stages of WW II. In total the RCAF took delivery of 286 Venturas of all marks. The first Venturas, delivered to the RCAF in 1942, were 129 Mark I & II’s, basically the bomber version, with a glazed nose and a Boulton-Paul dorsal turret. Most of these Venturas were assigned to No. 34 Operational Training Unit at Pennfield Ridge N.B. where RCAF instructors trained crews from all the Commonwealth countries until the end of WW II. With the pressing German U-boat threat to North America, Lockheed developed the main operational version, the Ventura Mark V, a specialized anti-submarine version with a different turret, solid nose and radar among other refinements. No. 113 BR Squadron, at Yarmouth NS, took delivery of the first RCAF Ventura Mark. V in April 1943. No. 145 BR was the second East Coast squadron to convert from Hudsons to the Ventura Mark V in May 1943 at Torbay Nfld. In Oct 1943, 145 BR Squadron moved to RCAF Station Dartmouth where it flew anti-submarine and convoy escort patrols. Venturas from 145 BR Squadron also flew Harbour Entrance Patrols off the Halifax harbour approaches to search for German U-boats that were lying in wait for convoys to enter or depart Halifax’s strategic harbour, the principal western terminus for merchant convoys supplying England during WW II. No. 145 Squadron disbanded in June 1945 at RCAF Station Dartmouth. RCAF Venturas made a number of attacks on enemy submarine sightings, but never achieved a confirmed kill. This is attributable to the fact that RCAF Venturas arrived in the middle of the war when the opportunity for Canadian based, medium range BR aircraft to encounter enemy submarines was rapidly diminishing. The Venturas’ various paint schemes were enlivened through the artistry of a worker in the Lockheed factory in California. The artist painted Walt Disney characters on many the aircraft, marking the only known time that aircraft art was applied before an aircraft reached its operational squadron. ------- http://home.att.net/~jbaugher2/b34_1.html 47 Venturas from Nos 21, 464, and 487 Squadrons took part along with Mosquitos and Bostons in a daylight low-level attack on December 6, 1942 against the Philips radio and vacuum tube factory at Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The raid did not go well--nine of the Venturas were shot down and 37 were damaged. The Ventura was never very popular with its RAF crews. It was 50 mph faster than the Hudson which preceded it and had a bombload of 2500 pounds instead of the former's 1000 pounds, but it was over 7500 pounds heavier. Losses were high, and the aircraft was not really suitable as a bomber. The RAF Ventura I and II bombers were replaced by deHavilland Mosquitos by the summer of 1943. The last Ventura sortie took place with No. 21 Squadron on September 9, 1943.
A more interesting Vought entry in aircraft design is the TBU / TBY Seawolf torpedo bomber. This was Vought's entry competing against the Grumman TBF Avenger. The US Navy judged the TBU to be far superior to Grumman's entry and ordered it into production. Unfortunately, Vought proved incapable of gearing up for mass production so the design was passed to Consolidated as the TBY. Consolidated finally got production underway in 1943 well after the Grumman TBF was already in service. Of 1000 ordered only 150 actually were produced before the war ended. This makes an interesting comparison with the German aircraft procurement system: Here the winner was passed by in favor of a less effective design because the later could be mass produced in a timely fashion.
Hi All, I thought you might like to see a couple of impromptu photos of a Vultee Vengeance here in Australia. Cheers Owen View attachment 933 View attachment 934
Hi Jeff, Below is the only one that I have at hand. I'll check my records at home if you'd like as I may have another tucked away. The Royal Australian Air Force used the Vengeance operationally in New Guinea during WWII. Cheers Owen View attachment 936
On the December 6, 1942 Ventura attack I read an article years ago about this. One of the Venturas had engine trouble and they broke radio silence to say they were leaving the formation. The Germans picked up on this and were able to get alot of aircraft into the air and on location due to this error. I also read that the Vengeance was a pig to fly and was not liked by the crews.
