This series is dedicated to the gallant service performed by the brave airmen of World War 2 who risked all so that we may enjoy our American way of life. The phrase “Big Brother, Little Brother” refers to the way the heavy bomber and fighter escort aircraft pilots called each other on the radio chatter.
On a personal note, my father “John” served as a flight engineer on a B-25 Mitchell out of Italy in 1944 and 1945. He made it back alive, as did my father-in-law “Danny” who served as a belly gunner on a B-24 Liberator out of Libya. “Danny” was one of the few airmen who flew in both Ploesti oil field raids to Romania (June 1942 and August 1943) and did so without so much as a scratch. He flew his 25 missions and returned to the US as a gunnery instructor (Lead, Dammit, Lead!).
Finding all the caches will display a GeoArt form of the Big Brother, Little Brother relationship on your map. The caches were not meant to be difficult to find. If you can’t find a cache, it’s probably missing. Send me a picture of the location by email, I’ll accept the find and replace the cache.
PV-2 Harpoon
The PV-2 Harpoon was a major redesign of the Ventura with the wing area increased from 551 ft² to 686 ft² giving an increased load-carrying capability. The motivation for redesign was weaknesses in the PV-1, since it had shown to have poor-quality takeoffs when carrying a full load of fuel. On the PV-2, the armament became standardised at five forward-firing machine guns. Many early PV-1s had a bombardier's position, which was deleted in the PV-2. Some other significant developments included the increase of the bombload by 30% to 4,000 lb, and the ability to carry eight 5-inch HVAR rockets under the wings.
While the PV-2 was expected to have increased range and better takeoff, the anticipated speed statistics were projected lower than those of the PV-1, due to the use of the same engines but an increase in weight. The Navy ordered 500 examples, designating them with the popular name Harpoon.
Early tests indicated a tendency for the wings to wrinkle dangerously. As this problem could not be solved by a 6 ft reduction in wingspan (making the wing uniformly flexible), a complete redesign of the wing was necessitated. This hurdle delayed entry of the PV-2 into service. The PV-2s already delivered were used for training purposes under the designation PV-2C. By the end of 1944, only 69 PV-2s had been delivered. They finally resumed when the redesign was complete. The first aircraft shipped were the PV-2D, which had eight forward-firing machine guns and was used in ground attacks. When World War II ended, all of the order was cancelled.
With the wing problems fixed, the PV-2 proved reliable, and eventually popular. It was first used in the Aleutians by VP-139, one of the squadrons that originally used the PV-1. It was used by a number of countries after the war’s end, but the United States ceased ordering new PV-2s, and they were all soon retired from service.
Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon Technicals
General characteristics-
Crew: 6
Length: 51 ft 5 in
Wingspan: 65 ft 6 in
Height: 11 ft 10 in
Wing area: 551 ft²
Empty weight: 20,197 lb
Loaded weight: 31,000 lb
Max. takeoff weight: 34,000 lb
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engines, 2,000 hp each
Performance-
Maximum speed: 322 mph
Cruise speed: 230 mph
Range: 1,660 mi
Ferry range: 2,600 mi
Service ceiling: 26,300 ft
Rate of climb: 2,035
Armament-
Guns:
4 × .50 in Browning M2 machine guns
2 × .30 in M1919 Browning machine guns
Bombs:
3,000 lb general ordnance or
6 × 325 lb depth charges or
1 × torpedo
Survivors
Airworthy-
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37211 owned by Palm Springs Air Museum in Palm Springs, CA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37396 owned by the American Military Heritage Foundation in Indianapolis, IN.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37472 owned by the Warbird Aircraft Sales LLC in Heber City, UT.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37634 owned by the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, TX.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 84062 owned by the Everts Air Fuel Inc. in Fairbanks, AK.
On display-
Ventura Mk.II, s/n AJ311 at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum in Pueblo, CO.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37230 at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, FL.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37257 at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, AZ.
Under restoration-
PV-1 Ventura, BuNo. unknown by at the NAS Sanford Memorial Park in Sanford, FL.
PV-1 Ventura, BuNo. 34604 by Air Carriers Inc. in North Miami, FL.
PV-1 Ventura, BuNo. 34670 by TP Universal Exports International LLC in Eagan, MN.
PV-1 Ventura, BuNo. 34804 by Skyrider Airfreight Inc. in Tulsa, OK.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37107 by Tim Savage in Roanoke, IN.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37129 by Quarry Products Inc. in Richmond, CA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37171 by Neil Rose in Vancouver, WA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37202 by Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, FL.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37216 by Earl Benedict in Napa, CA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37234 by Constance Hirth of Buffalo, WY.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37254 by Southwest Aviation Inc. of Fairacres, NM.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37276 by Constance Hirth of Buffalo, WY.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37419 by Quarry Products Inc. in Richmond, CA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37466 by Mitchell Aircraft Corp. in Chino, CA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37499 by Constance Hirth in Buffalo, WY.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37524 by Earl Benedict in Bangor, CA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37535 by Jack Erickson in Beaverton, OR.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37550 by the United States Airpower Museum in Fresno, CA.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 37633 by Robert Kropp in Mesa, AZ.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 84060 by the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison, TX.
PV-2 Harpoon, BuNo. 84064 by S.I. Vorschoot DBA in Glendive, MT.