The book. The bombsight was located below the turret. 3. Naval B-24s were redesignated PB4Y-1, meaning the fourth patrol bomber design built by Consolidated Aircraft. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber that entered service in 1941. BOAC also flew trans-Atlantic services and other various long-range air transportation routes. While aircrews tended to prefer the B-17, General Staff favored the B-24 and procured it in huge numbers for a wide variety of roles. This unit then was formalized as the 376th Bombardment Group, Heavy, and along with the 98th BG formed the nucleus of the IX Bomber Command of the Ninth Air Force, operating from Africa until absorbed into the Twelfth Air Force briefly, and then the Fifteenth Air Force, operating from Italy. The RAF found, as did the US, that global war increased the need for air transports and early-type bombers and seaplanes were converted or completed as cargo carriers and transports. Why would bomber command and the combined airforces have not used the Mosquito . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [37] Many C-109s were lost in flying the Hump airlift to China. "Consolidated B-24 Liberator. In addition, 73 Liberators of various models that had force-landed on European airfields were recovered and 30 of them were repaired and used by the 45th Bomber Aviation Division. Early versions were fitted with a single .50 caliber (12.7mm) Browning machine gun in their tails, and a XC-87B version proposed two .50 caliber (12.7mm) fixed machine guns for the nose, operable by the pilot, though these were eventually removed. Learn how we are strengthening the economies, industries and communities of our global partner nations. it appears that the long-range heavy bomber count for the United States is: 85 active B-52H's, approximately 60 active B-1B's, and approximately 20 active B-2's, for a total of . Because of this, Boeing began to work on pressurized long range bomber derivatives of the B-17. ", "Old China Hands, Tales & Stories The Azon Bomb. Subject: Acceptance Performance Tests Section: Flying Branch . Australian aircrew seconded to the Royal Air Force flew Liberators in all theatres of the war, including with RAF Coastal Command, in the Middle East, and with South East Asia Command, while some flew in South African Air Force squadrons. At 59,524 pounds (27,000kg)[dubious discuss] (29.76 short tons) maximum takeoff weight, it was one of the heaviest aircraft in the world; comparable with the British "heavies", with fully loaded weights of 30 short tons for (and nearly identical to) the Stirling, the 34 short ton Lancaster and the 27 short ton Halifax. [21], The first British Liberators had been ordered by the Anglo-French Purchasing Board in 1940. The Liberators range proved invaluable in scouting and destroying German U-boats, creating safe passage for Allied transports and destroyers across Europe. By mid 1943 this was being pushed to 60,000lbs and eventually on to 64,000lbs. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. Only one B-24 was officially delivered to the USSR according to the Lend-Lease agreements, stranded in Yakutsk while flying a government mission to the Soviet Union in November 1942. 'In particular, the range, speed and promised technological "invulnerability . This meant climbing to about 500ft (150m) above cruise altitude, levelling off, achieving a cruise speed of 165-170mph (265-275 km/h), then descending to assigned altitude. Books repeated highlight the fact that the Mosquito bomb load over long distance was equal to a B17 (approx 4,000lbs). Engines: Four Wright "Cyclone" R-1820s of 1,200 hp. The payloads for the B-52H and B-2 are usually given as about 70,000 lbs. Carrying the largest conventional payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the Air Force inventory, the multi-mission B-1 is the backbone of America's long-range bomber force. The route was named Kangaroo Service and marked the first time that Qantas's now-famous Kangaroo logo was used; passengers received a certificate proclaiming them as members of The Order of the Longest Hop. Long-range anti-submarine Liberators played an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. Thousands of B-24s flying from bases in Europe dropped hundreds of thousands of tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on German military and industrial targets. [44] Production took place at 5 plants. This role was dangerous, especially after many U-boats were armed with extra anti-aircraft guns, some adopting the policy of staying on the surface to fight, rather than submerging and risking being sunk by aerial weapons such as rockets, gunfire, torpedoes and depth charges from the bombers. After it was discovered that these problems could be alleviated by flying with the forward storage tank empty, this practice became fairly routine, enhancing aircrew safety at the cost of some fuel-carrying capacity. MEMORANDUM REPORT ON Boeing B-17E Airplane, A.C. No. [citation needed]. The extended nose earned it the name Pinocchio. [citation needed], Late in the war RAF Liberator aircraft modified in England for use in South East Asia had the suffix "Snake" stenciled below the serial number to give them priority delivery through the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Armed with no less than 13 0.50-calibre machine guns, including two in a new chin turret for defense against head-on attack, the B-17G fairly bristled with machine guns. Post and all but two of the 11 men aboard were killed. By 1941, B-24s were being shipped to Great Britain, where they were given the name Liberator and adapted for a variety of purposes, including coastal patrol, protecting critical Atlantic cargo ship convoy crossings. Consolidated incorporated innovative features such as a tricycle landing gear and Davis wing. The relatively thick wing held the promise of increased tankage while delivering increased lift and speed, but it became unpleasant to fly when committed to heavier loadings as experienced at high altitude and in bad weather. An unusual four-panel set of all-metal, tambour-panel "roller-type" bomb bay doors, which operated very much like the movable enclosure of a rolltop desk, retracted into the fuselage. The 859 BS was converted from day bombardment to these operations and then transferred to the 15th Air Force. Wind tunnel testing and experimental programs using an existing Consolidated Model 31 provided extensive data on the flight characteristics of the Davis airfoil. It saw use in every theater of operations. Post and five other reporters of The New York Times were granted permission. (Later versions were fitted with a powered twin-.50 caliber (12.7mm) M2 Browning machine gun nose turret.) Later versions started at 60,000lbs and by the end of the war, using special flying techniques that had been developed they were being flown at up to 67,000lbs. 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, but the type was not very popular with crews: they complained of various hazards including the fuel system, engines and cockpit accessories, while the type was notorious for leaking fuel tanks and mid-air fires a constant danger. pp. As early as 1942, it was recognized that the Liberator's handling and stability could be improved by the use of a single vertical fin. Liberators remained in service until 1948, when they were replaced by Avro Lincolns. The B-24N was intended as a major production variant featuring a single tail. These Liberators operated from both sides of the Atlantic with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command and later, the US Navy conducting patrols along all three American coasts and the Canal Zone. Designed to help the U.S. and allies leverage emerging technologies to create a resilient multi-domain network. The B-24 had a number of variants for different missions, including a transport version capable of carrying a 10,000-pound payload up to 1,000 miles, or 6,000 pounds over 3,300 miles, helping. In Eighth Air force combat configuration, the aircraft carried 8000lb (3600kg) of bombs. ". The single fin did appear in production on the PB4Y Privateer derivative.[10][11][12]. The XC-87B also designated a resurrected crash victim B-24D (42-40355) fitted with low altitude power packages and a forward fuselage extension. The Mark II was the first Liberator to be equipped with powered turrets, one plane having them installed before leaving San Diego, the remainder having them installed in the field: four Browning Boulton Paul A-type Mk IV with 600 rounds of .303 in the dorsal position; and a Boulton Paul E-type Mk II with 2200 rounds in the tail (later increased to 2500 rounds), supplemented by pairs of guns at the waist position, a single gun in the nose and another in the belly, for a total of fourteen guns. [13] For some time, newspapers had been requesting permission for a reporter to go on one of the missions. We develop laser weapon systems, radio frequency and other directed energy technologies for air, ground and sea platforms to provide an affordable countermeasure alternative. Crashed B-24s were the source of the landing gear units for the strictly experimental Junkers Ju 287 V1 first prototype jet bomber airframe in 1945. Eighty minutes into their flight, German fighters swooped in, taking their toll on the B-24 squadrons. It edged out the B-17 on most performance criteria (speed, range, bombload). It was operated by a crew of 10, including the pilot, copilot, navigator-radioman, bombardier, and gunners. The cargo versions, C-87 and C-109 tanker, further increased its overseas presence, especially in Asia in support of the XX Bomber Command air offensive against Japan. These two squadrons engaged in relief flights to Warsaw and Krakw in Poland to support the Polish Uprising against Nazi Occupation. Two RAF bomber squadrons with Liberators were deployed to the Middle East in early 1942. Along with the B-17, the B-24 was the mainstay of the US strategic bombing campaign in the Western European theater. Because of their special skills, they were called upon to fly fuel to General George Patton's army during the summer and early autumn of 1944 when it outran its fuel supply. The B-24 variants made by each company differed slightly, so repair depots had to stock many different parts to support various models. Online by mid-1943, the new plant produced hundreds of B-24 Liberator bombers. Following the Japanese surrender, the RAAF's Liberators participated in flying former prisoners of war and other personnel back to Australia. [20] Hendrix preferred the B-24 to the B-17. This daring assault by high-altitude bombers at treetop level was a costly success. Early Royal Air Force (RAF) Liberators were the first aircraft to routinely cross the Atlantic Ocean. At Ford's Ypsilanti, Michigan based Willow Run Bomber plant alone, one B-24 was being produced every 59 minutes at its peak, a rate so large that production exceeded the military's ability to use the aircraft. Range: 1,850 miles Service Ceiling: 35,000 ft. B 24 - L IBERATOR The inboard propeller windmilled to a stop. Conceived in 1938 by Consolidated Aircraft, a Lockheed Martin legacy company, the original B-24 prototype was designed to fly faster and carry a larger payload than the US Army Air Corpss B-17 Flying Fortress. 'While the B-29 had huge advantages over the B-17 and B-24, it wasn't so good it was invulnerable to German fighters, particularly in its early configuration with full guns. A 4,000-pound (1,800-kg) bomb load was typical for long missions, though the B-17 could carry up to 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) internally for shorter distances at lower altitudes and even more on external racks beneath the wings. Early model Liberators were fitted with a top-mounted turret, a tail turret and single machine guns located in the waist and in the glazed nose. # 3 ( permalink) . The tailplane featured two large oval vertical stabilizers mounted at the ends of a rectangular horizontal stabilizer. Changes included the removal of all armament, provision for passenger seating, a revised cabin oxygen and heating system. ", Winchester, Jim. The B-24 had a shoulder-mounted high aspect ratio Davis wing. [43] The regiment concerned appears to have been the 890th Bomber Aviation Regiment at Baranovichi until 1944, and then Kazan. Consolidated, Douglas and Ford all manufactured the B-24H, while North American made the slightly different B-24G. The belly turret was a periscopically sighted Bendix model. That would make the total payload capability 134,000 lbs.! All five plants switched over to the almost identical B-24J in August 1943. The top horizontal line represents the maximum payload. [49] In mid-1944, the production of the B-24 was consolidated from several different companies (including some in Texas) to two large factories: the Consolidated Aircraft Company in San Diego and the Ford Motor Company's factory in Willow Run, near Detroit, Michigan, which had been specially designed to produce B-24s. The B-24's controls were heavy, especially if the control rigging was not properly tensioned. It carried a larger bomb load than the B-17, and. However, in the ETO, the B-24 operated with the B-17 which constrained the aircraft's operating speed. Lloyd H. Hughes, Maj. John L. Jerstad and Col. Addison E. Bakerwere killed in action. Carpetbagger aircraft flew spies called "Joes" and commando groups prior to the Allied invasion of Europe on D-Day and afterward, and retrieved over 5,000 officers and enlisted men who had escaped capture after being shot down. Hendrix claimed that a lightly loaded B-24 could out-turn a P-38 Lightning. The B-24 was a faster plane having a greater range and payload capacity. Due to deferments of the US requirements, the US purchase was twice postponed, and the serial numbers were changed to 40696 to 40-702. In late June 1943, the three B-24 Liberator groups of the 8th Air Force were sent to North Africa on temporary duty with the 9th Air Force:[13] the 44th Bomb Group joined the 93rd and the 389th Bomb Groups. Liberators were equipped with ASV Mk. Consolidated finished the prototype and had it ready for its first flight two days before the end of 1939. More B-24's were built than any other American airplane. The Liberators which had served early in the war in the Pacific continued the efforts from the Philippines, Australia, Espiritu Santo, Guadalcanal, Hawaii, and Midway Island. A B-24 could reach 290 miles per hour and carry a 5,000-pound bomb load for 1,700 miles, giving it a longer range, greater speed, and a bigger payload than its B-17 cousin." [15] The occasional need during a mission for crewmen to move from fore to aft within the B-24's fuselage over the narrow catwalk was a drawback shared with other bomber designs. These aircraft flew between the United Kingdom and Egypt (with an extensive detour around Spain over the Atlantic), and they were used in the evacuation of Java in the East Indies. ", Bhargava, Kapil, Group Captain (ret'd). Compared to the B-17, it had a 6 feet (1.8m) larger wingspan but a lower wing area. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). B-24s were also used by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps for ASW, anti-ship patrol, and photographic reconnaissance in the Pacific Theater, and by the U.S. Coast Guard for patrol and SAR. The specification was written such that the Model 32 would automatically be the winning design. ", "B-24D-53-CO "Shady Lady" Serial Number 42-40369", US Army Air Forces in World War II: Vol. The Lib's gracefully tapered 100-foot Davis airfoil wing (compared to the B-17's 103-foot-span barn door of a wing) made the difference. Autry, Gene with Herskowitz, Mickey. From August 1943 until the end of the war in Europe, specially modified B-24Ds were used in classified missions. B-17s couldn't carry as heavy a payload as the B-24, nor fly as far or as fast. 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. Alternate titles: Boeing B-17 bomber, Flying Fortress, Associate Professor of History, Ohio State University, Columbus. It proved to be quite vulnerable to icing conditions, and was prone to fall into a spin with even small amounts of ice accumulated onto its Davis wing. In the Pacific, to simplify logistics and to take advantage of its longer range, the B-24 (and its twin, the U.S. Navy PB4Y) was the chosen standard heavy bomber. The success of the Mosquito as a pathfinder or tactical bomber is without challenge. Some were fitted with a belly pack containing fixed, forward-facing cannon. Since the aircraft had been designed to be a bomber that dropped its loads while airborne, the C-87's nose landing gear was not designed for landing with a heavy load, and frequently it collapsed from the stress. Your selected aircraft are compared in side-by-side arrangement below. You can always go back and, Four-Engined Strategic Heavy Bomber Aircraft. Updates? The first USAAF Liberators to carry out combat missions were 12 repossessed LB-30s deployed to Java with the 11th Bombardment Squadron (7th Bombardment Group) that flew their first combat mission in mid-January. Kane and Johnson survived the mission but three other recipients of the Medal of Honor for their actions in the missionLt. The B-17 and the B-24 inevitably invited comparison. The VLR Liberators sacrificed some armor and often gun turrets to save weight, while carrying extra aviation gasoline in their bomb-bay tanks. A heavily loaded B-24 was difficult to fly at speeds of less than 160mph (260 km/h). B-1B Lancer. . Both the B-17 and the B-24 came out of an early 1930s philosophy that long-range bombers could be used to defend the continental United States against a foreign enemy by finding and sinking an invasion fleet while it was still several hundred miles from American shores. [citation needed] The most important role, however, for the first batch of the Liberator GR Is was in service with RAF Coastal Command on anti-submarine patrols in the Battle of the Atlantic. The basic element of a typical formation was a squadron box of 9 or 12 aircraft; three squadron boxes staggered vertically and horizontally formed a group, and three groups in trail formed a combat wing. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Follow our simple tutorial and start! The B-17 had a notably smaller bomb bay than the Lanc (impressive though the B-17's payload was at the time of its design) - although the 22,000lb figure is for the Grand Slam carrying Lancs rather than the standard maximum load (which was, IIRC, about 14,000lb). 20 x AGM-129 cruise missiles (internal). In a joint venture between the Army Air Forces and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) code-named Operation Carpetbagger, pilots and crews flew specially modified B-24Ds painted with a glossy black anti-searchlight paint to supply friendly underground forces throughout German-occupied Europe. The U.S. Army Air Corps awarded a contract for the prototype XB-24 in March 1939, with the requirement that one example should be ready before the end of the year. Early versions proved to be more vulnerable to fighter attack than anticipated, but, by the time the B-17E version began to go into service shortly before the United States entered the war in 1941, the plane was equipped with turrets in the upper fuselage, belly, and tail. [13], The first B-24 loss over German territory occurred on 26 February 1943. https://www.britannica.com/technology/B-17, GlobalSecurity.org - B-17 Flying Fortress. It had turbocharged engines and increased fuel capacity. They were equipped with signal lighting, provision for quantity discharge of pyrotechnics, and were painted with distinctive group-specific high-contrast patterns of stripes, checkers or polka dots to enable easy recognition by their flock of bombers. [8], The B-24 had a shoulder-mounted high aspect ratio Davis wing. 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