| B-24 Liberator |
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| u.s. bomber aircraft 1930-1939 | |
| b-24 liberator | |
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B-24 Liberator]] The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was produced in greater numbers than any other American combat aircraft, and was used by most of the Allied Air Force s in World War II . Designed as a Heavy Bomber , it served with distinction not only in that role, but also as a maritime patrol bomber (known as the '''PB4Y''' in U.S. Navy service) and as a heavy transport (where it was designated '''C-87''' or '''C-109'''). DEVELOPMENT Like the equally successful North American P-51 Mustang , the Liberator was designed in a great hurry. In January 1939 , the United States Army Air Corps invited Consolidated to submit a design study for a bomber with greater range, higher speed, and greater altitude performance than the existing backbone of the Army Air Corps, the B-17 Flying Fortress . The contract for a prototype was awarded in March, requiring that it be ready before the end of the year. The design was simple in concept but advanced for its time. The 70,547 lb (32,000 kg) maximum takeoff weight was one of the highest of the time. It was the first American bomber to use Tricycle Landing Gear instead of a tailwheel, and it featured long, thin wings with a high Aspect Ratio for maximum Fuel Efficiency . It also had a Twin Tail layout. Compared to the B-17 , the B-24 was shorter, had 25% less wing area but a 6 foot (1.8 m) greater Wingspan , and a substantially greater carrying capacity. Whereas the B-17 used 9-cylinder Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines, the B-24 used twin-row 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials of 1000 hp (746 kW). Consolidated finished the prototype, by then known as the XB-24, and had it ready for its first flight with just two days before the end of 1939. Seven more YB-24 development aircraft flew in 1940 and Consolidated began preparing production tooling. Early orders — placed even before the XB-24 had flown — included 36 for the United States Army Air Corps , 120 for the French Armée De L'Air , and 164 for the RAF . Most of the first production Liberators went to Britain , including all those originally ordered by the Armée de l'Air after France collapsed in 1940. OPERATIONAL HISTORY Initial deployment .]] Initial Liberator deployment in March 1941 was with the British Overseas Airways Corporation on trans-Atlantic transport duties. Soon after, equipped with primitive but functional ASV Mark II Radar , it entered active service with RAF Coastal Command where its long range made it indispensable for anti-submarine patrols in the Battle Of The Atlantic . Later in 1941, the first Liberator IIs entered service. This model introduced survivability features essential to its design role as a bomber: Self-sealing Fuel Tank s and powered defensive gun turrets. At the same time, Consolidated added a 2 ft 7 in (790 mm) plug in the forward fuselage to create more space for crew members and also (it is said) to make the airplane look better. Liberator IIs were split between RAF Coastal Command, RAF Bomber Command and British Overseas Airways Corporation. Two RAF squadrons deployed to the Middle East in 1942 became the first to use the Liberator as a bomber. At the same time, the United States Army Air Forces began to take delivery of its first B-24As. Like the British, they used them as transports to begin with. Continued development work by Consolidated produced a handful of transitional B-24Cs with Turbocharged instead of Supercharged engines; the turbocharged engines led to the flattened oval nacelles that would distinguish all subsequent Liberator models. The first mass-produced model, the B-24D (or '''Liberator III''' in British service) was introduced in early 1943 ; it had turbocharged engines and increased fuel capacity. Three more 0.50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Machine Gun s brought the defensive armament up to ten guns. At 59,524 lb (27,000 kg) maximum take-off weight, it was one of the heaviest aircraft in the world; only the British Lancaster and Halifax bombers were of comparable weight. One universal complaint about the plane's design was that the bomb racks were placed along each side of the length of the plane's mid-section and the aisle between the racks was extremely narrow. Because the only entry and exit from the plane was in the rear, it was almost impossible for the flight crew and nose gunner to get from the flight deck to the rear if you were wearing your parachute. The plane was given the well deserved nickname, "The Flying Coffin". America enters the war ]] {In regard to photograph at right see link for reference only} American B-24s first entered combat in June 1942 with a raid of 13 aircraft on the German-occupied Romanian oilfields of Ploesti launched from Egypt . The attack was described as "unsuccessful" by the Army, but it alerted the defenders to the threat of the new heavy bombers. When 177 B-24s attacked Ploesti again on August 1 1943, 54 failed to return. Liberator production increased at an astonishing rate through 1942 and 1943: Consolidated had tripled the size of their plant at San Diego and built a large new plant outside Fort Worth, Texas . More production came from Douglas in Tulsa, Oklahoma and. North American was building a plant at Dallas, Texas . None of these were minor operations, but they were dwarfed by the vast new Greenfield factory built by Ford at Willow Run near Detroit , which began operation in August 1942. This was the largest factory in the United States, and the largest anywhere outside the USSR . In April 1942, the ''', Europe , the Atlantic, India and the Pacific . In the Pacific, the B-24 was designated the standard heavy bomber to simplify logistics, replacing the shorter-range B-17, which had not distinguished itself against Japan . In 1943, the model of Liberator considered by many the 'definitive' version was introduced. The B-24H was 10 inches (0.25 m) longer, had a powered gun turret in the 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 factories all manufactured the model, while the version made in Dallas by North American was designated the '''B-24G'''. All five plants switched over to the almost identical '''B-24J''' in August 1943. The later '''B-24L''' and '''B-24M''' were made to reduce weight, and differed mainly in the kinds of defensive weaponry they carried. As the war went on, the complexity of servicing the B-24 grew greater and greater. Since B-24s were made by a number of different companies, repair depots had to keep a large stock of many kinds of parts to supply for the various B-24 models. Fortunately, in the summer of 1944 , this problem was eased when three plants stopped making B-24s, leaving only the Consolidated plant in San Diego and the Ford plant in Willow Run. In all, 18,482 Liberators were completed before production ceased in 1945 . In addition to the six thousand that saw service with the U.S. Army , the Royal Air Force flew about 2,100 aircraft in 46 bomber groups and 41 squadrons, the Royal Canadian Air Force 1,200 B-24Js, the U.S. Navy about 1,000 PB4Y-1s (and almost 800 PB4Y-2 Privateers , which were derived from the Liberator), and the Royal Australian Air Force 287 B-24Js, B-24Ls, and B-24Ms. Two squadrons of the South African Air Force , deployed in the Mediterranean Theatre, flew B-24s. PRIMARY ROLES Maritime Patrol See Also: PB4Y Privateer ]] The Liberator made a massive contribution to the Battle Of The Atlantic . The decision to allocate early-build Liberators to RAF Coastal Command produced results immediately. The Very Long Range (VLR) Liberator closed the vital Atlantic Gap and was the only aircraft with the range to do so. The VLR sacrificed some armour and often turrets for weight whilst adding extra fuel in bomb bay tanks. Radar and the Leigh Light gave them the ability to hunt down U-boats by day and night. They were operated from both sides of the Atlantic with the RCAF to the West and the RAF from the UK and Iceland . However they remained vulnerable to attack, especially when U-boats adopted the policy of staying upon the surface to fight. Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot Lloyd Allan Trigg was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross following such a duel, which resulted in the loss of his Liberator with all on board and U-468 with all bar 7 of its crew. Uniquely, the VC was awarded on the recommendation of the surviving U-boat crew. Later models were more capable of surviving sorties over occupied Europe or duels with Axis fighters but, because of the extra weight allocated to their defense, they had a shorter range. Nothing was done to improve or replace the patrol aircraft until late in the war when the U-boat threat was waning. For twelve months, No. 120 Squadron RAF of Coastal Command, with its handful of much patched and modified early model Liberators, supplied the only air cover for convoys in the Atlantic Gap, even while shipments of B-24s to Strategic Bombing squadrons doubled and redoubled. The sudden and decisive turning of the Battle of the Atlantic in the Allies' favor in May 1943 was the result of many factors. However, it was no accident that it coincided with the long delayed arrival of many more VLR Liberators for maritime patrol. Liberators were credited in full or part with 72 U-boat kills. In addition to ''very'' long range patrols, the B-24 was vital for patrols of a radius less than 1,000 mile (1,609 km), in both the Atlantic and in the Pacific where B-24s and PB4Y-1s took a heavy toll of Japanese shipping. Transport Early model Liberators were used as unarmed long-range cargo carriers. They flew between Britain and Egypt (with an extensive detour around Spain over the Atlantic) and were used in the evacuation of Java . This success led to the development of dedicated transport models, known variously as the C-87 Liberator Express, '''RY-2''' or '''Liberator Cargo VII'''. The U.S. only made about 300 transports (as compared with over 18,000 other versions) but they were nevertheless the backbone of the Army Air Force’s heavy transport operation. The Army Air Force also converted 218 B-24Ds and B24-Es into '''C-109''' tankers. These tankers were used in all theaters but they were particularly used to fly fuel from India over the Himalaya s to supply B-29 bases in China. With all armour and military equipment removed to save weight, a C-109 could carry almost 2905 gal (11,000 L) of fuel — over 22,000 lb (10,000 kg). In addition, a large number of unmodified B-24s were pressed into transport duties on an ''ad hoc'' basis. Qantas Empire Airways ran 'civilianised' models on the Colombo - Perth, Western Australia route, at the time the longest non-stop route in the world, until they were replaced by Avro Lancastrian s. VARIANTS/DESIGN STAGES
UNITS USING THE LIBERATOR United States Army Air Force
Seventh Air Force American Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern served as a B-24 pilot in missions over Italy as part of this group; his wartime exploits and some of the characteristics of the B-24 are at the center of Stephen Ambrose 's book '' The Wild Blue ''. The Book, One Damned Island After Another (1946) contains the official history of the 7th Bomber Command of the Seveth Air Force. It describes B-24 operations in the Central Pacific . B-24s from the Seventh Air Force were the first B-24s to bomb the Japanese home islands. United States Navy Royal Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force Squadrons
Independent special duties flights Royal Canadian Air Force OPERATORS
SPECIFICATIONS (B-24J)
REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS B-24
http://home.att.net/~kelleys_kobras/links/b24links.htm http://www.sonofisaac.8m.com/page27.html Naval Variant: PB4Y-1 "Liberator" (Split Tail) PB4Y-2 "Privateer" (Single Tail)
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