24 Facts About B-24 Liberator

At its inception, the B-24 was a modern design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing.

The B-24 Liberator was rapidly phased out of US service, although the PB4Y-2 Privateer maritime patrol derivative carried on in service with the US Navy in the Korean War.

B-24 Liberator originated from a United States Army Air Corps request in 1938 for Consolidated to produce the B-17 under license.

The occasional need during a mission for crewmen to move from fore to aft within the B-24 Liberator's fuselage over the narrow catwalk was a drawback shared with other bomber designs.

B-24 Liberator featured a tricycle undercarriage, the first American bomber to do so, with the main gear extending out of the wing on long, single-oleo strut legs.

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Early orders, placed before the XB-24 Liberator had flown, included 36 for the USAAC, 120 for the French Air Force and 164 for the Royal Air Force.

The name "B-24 Liberator" was originally given to it by the RAF, and subsequently adopted by the USAAF as the official name for the Model 24.

The B-24 Liberator's controls were heavy, especially if the control rigging was not properly tensioned.

Hendrix did not permit smoking on his B-24 Liberator, even though he was a smoker.

The most important role for the first batch of the B-24 Liberator GR Is was in service with RAF Coastal Command on anti-submarine patrols in the Battle of the Atlantic.

B-24 Liberator II were divided between Coastal Command, Bomber Command, and British Overseas Airways Corporation.

In October 1944, two RAF B-24 Liberator squadrons were deployed to Jessore India in support of British SAS, American OSS and French SIS underground operations throughout SE Asia.

Additionally, the B-24 Liberator equipped a number of independent squadrons in a variety of special combat roles.

The B-24 Liberator came to dominate the heavy bombardment role in the Pacific because compared to the B-17, the B-24 Liberator was faster, had longer range, and could carry a ton more bombs.

Much of 1944, the B-24 Liberator was the predominant bomber of US Strategic Air Forces formerly the Eighth Air Force in the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany, forming nearly half of its heavy bomber strength in the ETO prior to August and most of the Italian-based force.

B-24 Liberator was the platform for the pioneering use of the Americans' Azon laterally-guidable precision-guided munition ordnance design, a pioneering Allied radio-guided munition system during World War II.

Lastly, unlike a typical purpose-designed transport, the B-24 Liberator was not designed to tolerate large loading variations because most of its load was held on fixed bomb racks.

C-109 was a dedicated fuel transport version of the B-24 Liberator conceived as a support aircraft for Boeing B-29 Superfortress operations in central China.

B-24 Liberator bombers were extensively used in the Pacific area after the end of World War II to transport cargo and supplies during the rebuilding of Japan, China, and the Philippines.

Only one B-24 Liberator 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.

At Ford's Ypsilanti, Michigan based Willow Run Bomber plant alone, one B-24 Liberator was being produced every 59 minutes at its peak, a rate so large that production exceeded the military's ability to use the aircraft.

In 1943, the model of B-24 Liberator considered by many the "definitive" version was introduced.

The B-24 Liberator variants made by each company differed slightly, so repair depots had to stock many different parts to support various models.

Late in the war RAF B-24 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.