ErrolC wrote:
avenger2504 wrote:
There is an ex RNZAF Ventura at MOTAT Auckland New Zealand too.
Technically a RB-34-VE Lexington Mk 2
Nope, despite what you may have seen written in the past in modelling magazines and the likes, technically it is a B-34 Ventura. It was built as a Ventura for the RAF, served briefly as a B-34 with the USAAF (not in the Aleutians as some have stated) and then served in the RNZAF as a B-34 Ventura.
I quote from historian David Duxbury who posted this on the Wings over New Zealand Forum on the 12th of September 2014:
"Incidentally, not only did the RNZAF never use the designation RB-34, but it never used Lexington either - both PV-1s and B-34s were known in RNZAF service simply as Venturas for generic purposes, or by the two designations employed earlier in this sentence if they wanted to be specific. Even the fleet of PV-2s intended for service with the RNZAF were referred to in most correspondence simply as PV-2s, or sometimes "PV-2 Venturas". I have never come across any reliable evidence that in fact any operator of the B-34s ever used the name Lexington, and feel that this name should not be used in connection with their RNZAF service. Can anybody contradict this theory? "
His further research found that he actually cannot find any evidence of Lockheed ever using the name Lexington too, and I followed that up with a search that turned up nothing too.