Originally Posted by
stinsonjr
I have loved Lodestars, and any variation of Lodestar for a long time - would love to see any pictures and hear stories about the beast - what a machine! Here is one of my favorite websites:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/m.zoeller/, a page devoted to large Lockheed twins.
My father flew for Jim Walter Corp. based in Tampa Fl. When he was hired they were flying a Super Ventura which was a civilian conversion of the WW2 Ventura patrol BomberThe airplane had 2500HP a side with ADI ( anti detenation injection ) and huge 4 bladed props I think the howard 500 had the same props. Jim walter's airplane still had some of the bomb rack hardware beneath the floor. The airplane was N200JW I have done a google search and it brings up pictures of it. The Howard 500 was basicially a Loadstar on steriods. The airplane was pressurised and each airplane was different as they were only built to order.