B-24 Liberator, U.S. Heavy Bomber


Aerial photograph of B-24 Liberator

USAF


Consolidated Vultee B-24D or PB4Y Liberator


Specifications:


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

Power plant

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

Gunston (1986)

War Bird Alley (accessed 2008-9-12)

Wilson (1998)


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