rjb123Other than the armament, does anyone know how many other differences there were between it and the L10 Electra? Well yes there were many. One thing I do know is that whenever Lockheed put a V in the name of an aircraft, it involved Vega Aircraft Company, which became a separate company a time to two. The PV1 was one of lockheed's numerous innovative airplanes that performed a wide range of tasks in WWII.
Lockheed was on the forefront of so many aeronautical innovations, usually the only people who grasp its scope learned by being Lockheed employees. The Hudson was not as capable as the Ventura, but lockheed bows its head in recognition of the Hudson nonetheless. When WWII brought the USA into the fight, the US Government called in its favors with the UK to put the Venturas back under US command as much as possible. The Ventura was one of many anti-submarine and electronic surveillance aircraft that Lockheed continued to build. It had more 'tech' onboard than anything else the allies had and was used as a lead aircraft for B-17's and Lancasters flying out of the UK. Lockheed had a fully operational jet fighter in 1943 called the P-80. There was always so much shrouded in secrecy and the "need to know" prevented knowledge of their capabilities from ever getting recognized. Ceiling and Speed capabilities exceeded other planes so much, that they never were recognized.
And so, the misinformation campaigns we learned from the British became part and parcel of the UFO cover-up, even though Lockheed's engineers and customers did almost all of it seamlessly with the Air Force's Project Blue Book, it really just turned out that way. There never was a government conspiracy to keep UFO information from the public. Defense contractors were more concerned with other companies learning their tech than anything else. National Defense was indeed central to the whole thing. But not for the reasons commonly cited.
Anyway, getting back to Vega, there is still misinformation about that. Amelia Earhart did fly in a Vega. She could fly anything. But her ill-fated voyage was in a Lockheed L10 Electra. After her flight was lost due to ground control errors, not her skill nor the very safe Lockheed airplane.
Nonetheless, Lockheed engineers went to work on successors to the Electra to give a pilot all of the tech she or he would ever need not to get lost ever again. Not many more L10's were built, except for deliveries under contract. And their "Hudson" based design for the PV! put one of the most sophisticated surveillance aircraft into the hands of our allies, Canada and the RAF. Until Uncle Sam wanted them back.
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2-33 Pilot
