Consolidated Vultee B-24D or PB4Y Liberator
| Crew | 8 to 10 |
|
Dimensions |
110’ x 66’4” x
17’11" 33.53m by 20.22m by 5.46m |
|
Wing area |
1048 square feet 97.4 square meters |
|
Weights |
32,605-71,200 lbs 14,790-32,296 kg |
|
Maximum speed |
303 mph at
25,000 feet. 488 km/h at 7620 m |
| Cruise speed | 200
mph 322 km/h |
|
Landing speed |
95 mph 153 km/h |
|
Rate of climb |
16.5 feet per second 5.0 m/s |
|
Service ceiling |
32,000 feet 9574m |
| 4 1200hp (895 kW) Pratt
& Whitney R-1830-65
Twin Wasp
14-cylinder two-row
radial
engines driving three-bladed propellers. |
|
|
Armament |
10 0.50 machine guns in dorsal, ventral, and tail turrets, in the nose, and in waist bulges. |
|
Bomb load |
2 bomb bays of 4000 lbs (1814 kg) each or 2 4000 lb (1814 kg) external bombs |
|
Range |
2100 mi (3380 km) at 190 mph (306 km/h) with 5000 lbs (2270
kg) of bombs 2850 miles (4586 km) maximum. |
|
Fuel |
3614 gallons 13,680 liters |
|
Search radius |
780 mi 1260 km |
| Total built: 19,203. 1716 built for the Navy as
PB4Ys. At
Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, San Diego, CA and other plants: 252 early models 2738 B-24D 791 B-24E 260 Liberator III 430 B-24G 3100 B-24H 6678 B-24J 1667 B-24L 2593 B-24M 739 PB4Y Privateer |
|
|
Variants |
The B-24C was the first variant with power turrets and turbocharged engines. The first
version
produced in quantity was the B-24D with increased fuel and armament. The main production versions were the
G, H,
and J
which differed only in minor details. The G introduced the powered nose turret. The PB4Y-2 Privateer replaced the twin
stabilizers with a single vertical stabilizer and added a flight
engineer station. The ventral turret was replaced with an ASG radome. There was also a photoreconnaissance version (the F-7), a tanker version (the C-109, capable of carrying 2900 gallons (11,000 liters) of fuel, of which about 200 were built), and transport versions (C-87 for the Army or RY-3 for the Navy.) |
The B-24 was intended as the
successor to the legendary B-17
and
incorporated a number of advanced
technologies. It was rather clumsy in appearance due to the
placement of
the low-drag Davis wing high on the fuselage. However, this
avoided
running the engine spar through the bomb bays, allowing a very large
bomb
capacity, and the Davis wing gave the B-24 excellent range and
speed. It
was somewhat less rugged than the B-17 and could not fly as high. In
some ways it was a disappointment, being a slight improvement at best
on the B-17, in spite of being conceived five years later, and being
much more complex and expensive.
Unlike the B-17, whose earliest versions entered
combat without adequate nose or tail armament, the first Liberator
model to see combat (the B-24C) was well-armed, with electrically
powered twin-gun tail, ventral, and dorsal turrets, in addition to
pairs of waist guns and nose guns. The flexible nose guns were replaced
with a powered turret beginning with the B-24G.
The most remarkable aspect of the B-24 was its
massive scale of production. Ford’s Willow Run aircraft
factory, which applied true mass
production techniques to aircraft manufacture, produced a B-24 every 50
minutes
once the assembly line was up and running. As a result, more
B-24s were
produced during the war than any other aircraft. This was enough to
supply every U.S. combat theater and still have aircraft left over for Lend-Lease to 15 Allied nations. The B-24 was
the only heavy bomber deployed in some theaters, including China and Burma,
until superceded by the very heavy B-29
Superfortress. Production was also sufficient to support an unusual
variety of special versions, such as reconnaissance, tanker, and
transport versions.
The British equipped their Lend-Lease B-24s with ASV radar from the very
start, for use in antisubmarine
warfare in the Atlantic, and it is likely that the U.S. quickly copied
this. The Liberator closed the "air gap" in the Atlantic and thus
ensured victory in the U-boat war. In the Pacific, far-ranging Navy
PB4Ys took a substantial bite out of the Japanese Merchant Marine and
did their part to wreck port
facilities. The PB4Y was still under development when the ASG radar was
coming into production, and became the first aircraft designed with
space for a radar set.
About a third of all B-24s were
deployed to the Pacific,
where their long range made them more suitable than the B-17.
A number
were allocated to the Navy as PB4Y search planes.
References
Guerlac
(1987)
Gunston
(1986)
Sharpe et al. (1999)
War
Bird Alley (accessed 2008-9-12)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2009 by Kent G. Budge. Index
