Consolidated B-24J Liberator - Pima ASM, Tucson, AZ - Static Aircraft Displays on Waymarking.com

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, CA. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber. The B-24 was used in WW II by several Allied air forces and navies, and by every branch of the American armed forces during the war, attaining a distinguished war record with its operations in the Western European, Pacific, Mediterranean, and China-Burma-India Theaters.

Often compared with the better-known Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 was a more modern design with a higher top speed, greater range, and a heavier bomb load; however, it was also more difficult to fly, with heavy control forces and poor formation-flying characteristics. Popular opinion among aircrews and general staffs tended to favor the B-17's rugged qualities above all other considerations in the European Theater. The placement of the B-24's fuel tanks throughout the upper fuselage and its lightweight construction, designed to increase range and optimize assembly line production, made the aircraft vulnerable to battle damage. The B-24 was notorious among American aircrews for its tendency to catch fire. Moreover, its high fuselage-mounted "Davis wing" also meant it was dangerous to ditch or belly land, since the fuselage tended to break apart. Nevertheless, the B-24 provided excellent service in a variety of roles thanks to its large payload and long range.

The Liberator originated from a US Army Air Corps (USAAC) request in 1938 for Consolidated to produce the B-17 under license. After company executives including President Reuben Fleet visited the Boeing factory in Seattle, WA, Consolidated decided instead to submit a more modern design of its own.

The new Model 32 combined the Davis wing, a high efficiency airfoil design created by unorthodox means by a lone inventor named David Davis, the twin tail design from the Consolidated Model 31 flying boat, and a new fuselage. This new fuselage was intentionally designed around the twin bomb bays, each one being the same size and capacity of the B-17.

In January 1939, the USAAC, under Specification C-212, formally invited Consolidated to submit a design study for a bomber with longer range, higher speed, and greater ceiling than the B-17. The specification was written such that the Model 32 would automatically be the winning design. The contract for a prototype was awarded in March 1939, with the requirement that one should be ready before the end of the year. The design was simple in concept but nevertheless advanced for its time. Compared to the B-17, the proposed Model 32 had a shorter fuselage and 25% less wing area, but had a 6ft/1.8m greater wingspan and a substantially larger carrying capacity, as well as a distinctive twin tail. Whereas the B-17 used 9-cylinder Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines, the Consolidated design used twin-row, 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1830 "Twin Wasp" radials of 1,000hp/746kW. The 70,547lb/32,000kg maximum takeoff weight was one of the highest of the period. Consolidated incorporated innovative features: the new design would be the first American bomber to use tricycle landing gear, and it had long, thin wings with the efficient "Davis" high aspect ratio design promising to provide maximum fuel efficiency. Wind tunnel testing and experimental programs using an existing Consolidated Model 31 provided extensive data on the flight characteristics of the Davis airfoil.

Early orders—placed before the XB-24 had flown—included 36 for the USAAC, 120 for the French Armée de l'Air and 164 for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The name "Liberator" was originally assigned to it by the RAF, and subsequently adopted by the USAAF as the official name for the type. When France fell in 1940, their aircraft were re-directed to the RAF.

Consolidated finished the prototype, by then known as the XB-24, and had it ready for its first flight two days before the end of 1939. After initial testing, the XB-24 was found to be deficient in several areas. One major failure of the prototype was that it failed to meet the top speed requirements specified in the contract. As built, the XB-24 top speed was only 273mph instead of the specified 311mph. As a result, the mechanically supercharged Pratt & Whitney R-1830-33's were replaced with the turbo-supercharged R-1830's. Additionally, the tail span was widened by 2ft/0.61m and the pitot-static probes were relocated from the wings to the fuselage. The XB-24 was then redesigned XB-24B–these changes became standard on all B-24’s built starting with the B-24C model.

The B-24's spacious slab-sided fuselage was built around a central bomb bay with two compartments that could accommodate up to 8,000lb/3,629kg of ordnance each. The bomb bay was divided into front and rear compartments and had a central catwalk just nine inches wide, which was also the fuselage keel beam. A universal complaint arose over the extremely narrow catwalk. The aircraft was sometimes disparaged as "The Flying Coffin" because the only entry and exit from the bomber was in the rear and it was almost impossible for the flight crew and nose gunner to get from the flight deck to the rear when wearing parachutes. An unusual set of "roller-type" bomb bay doors, which operated very much like the movable enclosure of a rolltop desk, retracted into the fuselage, creating a minimum of aerodynamic drag to keep speed high over the target area.

Like the B-17, the B-24 had an array of 50-cal M2 Browning machine guns in the tail, belly, top, sides and nose to defend it from attacking enemy fighters. However, unlike the B-17, the ball turret could be retracted into the fuselage when not in use, a necessity given the low ground clearance of the fuselage. The ball turret first appeared on B-24D's sometime in early 1943 but not before the early D's had used tunnel guns and the Bendix remote controlled turret. General use of the ball turrets by the US would last until late July 1944 when performance gains outweighed the need for 360 degree belly defense. Bomber command Liberators generally dispensed with the belly turrets as unnecessary in areas where no enemy fighter presence would be found.

The USAAC initially ordered seven YB-24's in April 1939, but like the prototype these aircraft were being built by hand and were not considered combat ready. The first six YB-24's were released for direct purchase on 9 November 1940. These aircraft were redesignated LB-30A. The 7th aircraft was used by Consolidated and the USAAC to test armor installations as well as self-sealing fuel tanks. Initially, these aircraft were to be given USAAC serials 39-681 to 39-687; however, with delays with the actual purchase, the serial numbers were changed to 40-696 to 40-702. When the RAF purchased the first 6 YB-24 aircraft, the serial numbers were reassigned to a later block of B-24D's.

The RAF, like the USAAC, found the LB-30A unsuitable for combat. The aircraft were all modified in Montreal and included the provision for passenger seating, a revised cabin oxygen & heating system and the removal of all armaments. They were then assigned to the transatlantic Ferry Service between Canada and Prestwick, Scotland, returning the civilian ferry pilots who delivered aircraft such as the Lockheed Hudson across the Atlantic. The most important role for the first batch of the Liberators was in service with RAF Coastal Command on anti-submarine patrols in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Later in 1941, the first Liberator II's entered RAF service. This model introduced self-sealing fuel tanks and powered gun turrets. At the same time, Consolidated added a 2ft 7in/79cm plug in the forward fuselage to create more space for crew members. The Liberator II's were divided between Coastal Command, Bomber Command, and BOAC. Two RAF squadrons with Liberators were deployed to the Middle East in early 1942, in the first use of the Liberator as a bomber.

The USAAF took delivery of its first B-24A's in 1941. The sole B-24 in Hawaii was destroyed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Like the RAF, the USAAF used them as transports at first. American B-24's entered combat service in 1942 when on 6 June, four B-24's from Hawaii staging through Midway Island attempted an attack on Wake Island, but were unable to find it. On 12 June 1942, 13 B-24's flying from Egypt attacked the Axis-controlled oil fields and refineries around Ploie?ti, Romania.

The B-24's most infamous mission was the low-level strike against the Ploie?ti oil fields, in Romania on 1 August 1943, which turned into a disaster because the enemy was underestimated, fully alerted and attackers disorganized.

Over the next three years, B-24 squadrons deployed to all theaters of the war: African, European, China-Burma-India, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Southwest Pacific Theater and the Pacific Theater. In the Pacific, the B-24 (and its twin, the US Navy PB4Y Privateer) was eventually designated as the standard heavy bomber to simplify logistics and to take advantage of their longer range, replacing the shorter-range B-17 which had served early in the war along the perimeter of the Pacific from the Philippines, Australia, Espiritu Santo, Guadalcanal, Hawaii, and during the Battle of Midway from Midway Island.

Production of B-24's increased at an astonishing rate throughout 1942 and 1943. Consolidated Aircraft tripled the size of its plant in San Diego and built a large new plant outside Fort Worth, TX. More B-24's were built by Douglas Aircraft in Tulsa, OK. North American Aviation built a plant in Dallas, TX, which produced B-24G's and B-24J's. None of these were minor operations, but they were dwarfed by the vast new purpose-built factory constructed by the Ford Motor Company at Willow Run near Detroit, MI. Ford broke ground on Willow Run in the spring of 1941, with the first plane coming off the line in October 1942. It had the largest assembly line in the world at 3,500,000ft²/330,000 m². Mass production was brought into full force by 1943 through this new facility, where peak production had reached one B-24 per hour and 650 per month in 1944. Other factories soon followed. The B-24 ended WW II as the most produced Allied heavy bomber in history, and the most produced American military aircraft at over 18,400 units, due largely to Henry Ford and the harnessing of American industry. It still holds the distinction as the most-produced American military aircraft. By 1945, Ford made 70% of all B-24's in two nine-hour shifts. Pilots and crews slept on 1,300 cots at Willow Run waiting for their B-24's to roll off the assembly line.

The first mass-produced model was the B-24D (Liberator III in British service), entering service in early 1943. It had turbocharged engines and increased fuel capacity. Three more 50-cal machine guns brought the defensive armament up to 10 machine guns. At 59,524lb/27,000kg maximum takeoff weight, it was one of the heaviest aircraft in the world; comparable with the British "heavies" the Stirling, Lancaster and Halifax.

In 1943, the model of Liberator considered by many the "definitive" version was introduced. The B-24H was 10in/25cm longer, had a powered gun turret in the upper nose to reduce vulnerability to head-on attack and was fitted with an improved bomb sight, autopilot, and fuel transfer system. Consolidated, Douglas and Ford all manufactured the 'H', while North American made the slightly different 'G'. All five plants switched over to the almost identical B-24J in August 1943. The later B-24L and B-24M were lighter-weight versions and differed mainly in defensive armament.

By early 1943, the need for a transport with better high altitude performance and longer range than the Douglas C-47 Skytrain had become pressing. A transport version of the B-24 was proposed, and soon afterward, a B-24D that had been damaged in an accident was converted into a cargo aircraft by elimination of its transparent nose and the installation of a flat cargo floor. In April 1943, the C-87/RY-2 Liberator Express transport entered production at Fort Worth, TX. A more dedicated VIP transport, the C-87A/RY-1, was also built in small numbers. Although only 287 C-87/RY variants were produced, they were still important in the USAAF's airlift operations early in the war when aircraft with high altitude, long-range heavy hauling abilities were in short supply.

The C-87 flew in many theaters of war, including much hazardous duty in flights from Labrador to Greenland and Iceland in the North Atlantic. In the China Burma India Theater (CBI), the C-87 was used to airlift cargo and fuel over the Hump (the Himalayas) from India to China. Early in the campaign, the C-87 was the only readily available American transport that could fly over the Himalayas while heavily loaded, rather than relying on circuitous and highly dangerous routes through valleys and mountain passes.

The C-87/RY was plagued with electrical, engine power, nose landing gear, fuel leak and center of gravity problems. As soon as more dependable Douglas C-54 Skymaster and Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando transports became available in large numbers, C-87's were rapidly phased out of combat zone service, with some later used as VIP transports or B-24 flight crew trainers.

The C-109 was a dedicated fuel transport version of the B-24 conceived as a support aircraft for B-29 Superfortress operations in central China. Unlike the C-87, the C-109 was not built on the assembly line, but rather was converted from existing B-24 bomber production; to save weight, the glass nose, armament, turret fairings and bombardment equipment were removed. Several storage tanks were added, allowing a C-109 to carry almost 2,905gal/11,000L of fuel weighing over 22,000lb/10,000kg.

In June 1944, Qantas Empire Airways began service with the first of two converted Liberators on the Perth to Colombo route to augment Consolidated PBY Catalinas that had been used since May 1943. This route across the Indian Ocean was 3,513mi/5,654km long, the longest non-stop airline route in the world at the time. The Liberators flew a shorter 3,077mi/4,952km over-water route from Learmonth to an airfield northeast of Colombo, but they could make the flight in 17 hours with a 5,500lb/2,495kg payload, whereas the Catalinas required 27 hours and had to carry so much auxiliary fuel that their payload was limited to only 1,000lb/454kg. The route was named Kangaroo Service and marked the first time that Qantas' now-famous Kangaroo logo was used; passengers received a certificate proclaiming them as members of The Order of the Longest Hop. The Liberators were later replaced by Avro Lancastrians.

The B-24 was operated by the German secret operations unit KG 200, which also tested, evaluated and sometimes clandestinely operated captured enemy aircraft during World War II.

Source: Wikipedia

Type of Aircraft: (make/model): Consolidated B-24J Liberator Tail Number: (S/N): s/n 44-44175 Construction:: original aircraft Location (park, airport, museum, etc.): Located in hangar 3 at Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, AZ inside / outside: inside Other Information:: Pima Air & Space Museum 6000 E Valencia Rd Tucson, Arizona 85756 Phone 520-574-0462 Open 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Daily Last admittance at 4:00 PM $15.50-Adults $12.50-Pima Co Residents $12.75-Seniors $ 9.00-Children FREE---Children 6 & under $ 7.00-AMARG $13.50-Group Rate Access restrictions: None

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