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 and Whitney R-1830-65 Twin Wasp
14-cyl
2-row
radial
engines driving three-bladed propellers. 1200 hp (895 kW) at 26,500
feet (8077 m) |
|
|
Armament |
10 0.50 machine guns in nose, dorsal, ventral, and tail turrets 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 |
2364-3614 gallons 8949-13,6880 liters |
|
Search radius |
780 mi 1260 km |
|
Production |
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. The first
version
produced in quantity was the B-24D with increased fuel and armament and
turbocharged engines. 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. There was also a photoreconnaissance version (the F-7), a tanker version (the C-109, capable of carrying 2900 gallons 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.
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.
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
War
Bird Alley (accessed 2008-9-12)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia (c) 2007-2008 by Kent G. Budge. Index
