Sweater girl

Air Classics, Mar 2003 by O'Leary, Michael

HELPING PROVE THE CONSTELLATION'S ENGINES CALLED fOR A UNIQUE AIRCRAfT

Since the massive Wright R-3350 was pretty much an unknown to the designers at Lockheed, a decision was made to modify an aircraft so that the engines and their systems could be extensively flight tested.

It was decided to use a Lockheed product and Ventura I serial AE662 was pulled from the initial British order for 188 of the attack bombers. Lockheed engineers set to work modifying the craft and most military equipment was stripped from the plane while the Pratt & Whitney S1A4-G Double Wasps were removed and the Wrights installed along with threeblade Hamilton Standard propellers.

Because of propeller clearance, or actually the lack of it, the nose was drastically shortened and various test stations installed. Initially flown in Royal Air Force camouflage but with USAAF insignia, the aircraft, for obvious reasons, soon had the name Sweater Girl added to the left side of the forward fuselage. Around the plant, the Ventura was also known as Ventilation.

First flight was in late September 1942. Some time later, the aircraft had its paint removed and the civil registration NX33626 added. The craft was registered to the Vega Aircraft Corporation with the designation Special Ventura 37. In 1945, the plane went to the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and its final fate is not recorded but it was presumably scrapped in the late 1940s.