CONSOLIDATED B-24 "Liberator"
In the illustration, the B-24 enrollment 41123859, belonging to the 9th. Air Force
based Benghazi (Libya) in February 1943, pilot error, Lieut
Dan Story, after a raid on Naples, during which he
result with an engine damaged by antiaircraft artillery, landed at
Pachino (Sicily) where he was captured and repainted with the insignia
Italian.
In the following June in Rechlin crashed, which had been sent
to be considered in the experimental facilities in Germany, where he stayed.
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The Consolidated B-24 "Liberator" holds an important and enviable record: it was the American military plane produced in greater quantity and variations during the Second World War. No less than 18,188 four-engine of this type out of the factories of the manufacturers for the Consolidated Vultee, and many other industries scattered throughout the United States who participated in the massive bomber production program.
His story began in 1939 when the U.S. Air Corps bomber performances looked better than the B-17. Laddon Isaac, head of Consolidated Planning, had only nine months to design the aircraft, make it and make it fly. The Model 32, the prototype XB-24 first flew on December 29, 1939 at Lindbergh Field, responding to the American school of the time, who wanted speedy bombers capable of flying for a long time at high altitude and a good offensive load. The American firm, who had long worked on seaplanes, faced an embarrassing first aircraft project land, distinguished by some very modern features, like the previous tricycle landing gear, high wing with high aspect ratio slip Fowler flaps, and large drifts Similar to the previous mounted PB2Y naval seaplane.
The prototype of 1939, immediately following seven pre-production aircraft (YB-24) and 36 B-24A, all aimed at an intensive program of valuation by the USAAF.
The Liberator was a four-engine high wing all metal (except coated control surfaces) with tricycle landing gear and empennage previous dual retractable drift.
The Liberator Wing based at Davis laminar profiles derived from those used in the previous Model 31 flying boat, was extremely advanced both aerodynamic and structurally. Its high elongation (about 12 m) on the plane assured him an important bearing capacity and excellent features of climbing and especially scope, while the laminar airfoils and wing loading allowed considerable, despite the large fuselage, brilliant performances speed. To reduce (within acceptable limits), the minimum speeds that result from the high wing loading, the wing was provided to over 55 percent of its size, of very modern flaps slip Fowler with a maximum angulation of 40 °, in which part willing outer flaps, extending to the junctions of the leads.
In terms of construction, the wing was divided into five elements: a central section of nearly 17 meter wingspan, which crossed the back of the fuselage and came to the external drive shelves, two outer sections that since these gondolas extended to unions with the same tip and wing tips. The structure was a classic semi-monocoque type, based on a dual rail drawer (which became the gondola quad rail between internal and external driving, in correspondence with the accommodation of the posts after the landing gear) with a reinforced coating sets of ribs and longitudinal stringers U (on back) and Z (belly).
The fuselage also had semi-monocoque structure, based on many frames and stringers in Z, and resistant frames corresponding to the anterior and posterior wing box with the ends of the bomb bay and the joints of the drive landing and the empennage. The longitudinal stringers assumed a U-section of the fuselage in the compartment occupied by the bomb rack, where the lining was interrupted in the womb. The union of the wing to the fuselage was particularly simple and light and to a large extent, was entrusted to the link, by riveting and bolts, including the lining of the wing box and fuselage.
The empennage consisted of a double rail stabilizer with rectangular, which were joined by the two Semi-raised hinges constant string and the ends were joined drifts with double rail structure. All structures were moving surfaces single rail, were balanced statically and provided corrective fins (such as spoilers, at first only the right and then both).
The landing gear had studs with air / oil shock absorbers and wheels of 1.71 meters (later, equipped with hydraulic brakes) and 1.10 meters (above). The earlier train was retracted back into the belly of the fuselage, while the main gear rotated outward, shoves in the belly of the wing. A retractable skid was placed in the queue.
Liberator's engines were excellent double star fourteen-cylinder Pratt & Whitney "Twin Wasp" R-1830, belonging to several series, with a maximum power of 1,217 horses. The engines, equipped with discharge gas turbochargers installed in the belly of the gondola (which provide the maximum power allowed even to alrrededor height of 7,500 meters), three-bladed Curtiss propeller powering electrically controlled, constant speed and feathering . They were housed in fairings characteristic elliptical shape due to the location of the radiators of lubricant on the sides of the engines.
The Liberator feeding equipment flowed into twelve self-sealing tanks arranged in the drawer of the section center wing, with a total capacity of 8,025 liters, which, however, could be taken to 13,679 liters in total, with the use of tanks installed in the external wing and fuselage bomb bay. The team fed the main hydraulic actuators for the flaps, landing gear, brakes and wheel compartment of the breaches of bomb rack (which is retracted into the fuselage), while a separate computer powering the turret flow. The plane was equipped with equipment for inhalation of oxygen, inflatable boats (in missions at sea) and navigation devices and telecommunication very complete, covering an intercom, three transmitters, four receivers, and rediogoniómetro radiocompás.
Liberator defensive armament, in the more heavily used, commonly consisted of ten 12.7-mm machine guns, installed in the double-barreled turrets placed on the bow, dorsal, caudal and ventral (retractable) and in individual stalls operated manually, the side of the fuselage. Up to 5,800 kg of bombs, housed vertically in the large compartment of the fuselage (split longitudinally from the ventral platform) could be transported in short-distance missions, being hung directly on wing box running through the fuselage, greatly reducing the charges against the latter. Steel armor protected the crew and key equipment, and in the transparent tube, was installed the looks of aim gyroscopic Norden.
The first copies of the series of B-24 were intended for export, but the 120 bombers originally ordered by the French government were not delivered and were assigned to England (as Liberator I) in spring 1941.Algunos designated LB-30A aircraft were used to transport, while most armed specimens were transferred to the RAF Coastal Command for use in antisubmarine warfare. The next version, provided for the RAF, was the Liberator II that had no equivalent in American aviation. It differed from the Mk.I through the tube longer and, most of the 139 aircraft delivered, Boulton Paul had two turrets, one in the tail and a dorsal.
American Aviation had the first B.24A in June 1941, followed by nine B-24C with turbocharged engines provided with gas discharge and modified weapons. Version B-24D was the first to be actually used in the bomber role, powered by Pratt & Whitney "Twin Wasp "R-1830-43. The first B-24D took a limited weapons, which included a single 7.7 mm machine gun in the tube with no windows and two guns of the same caliber in posts dorsal, ventral and caudal.Pero the military operations, especially those in which the bomber had to face the enemy fighter, showed that these weapons in the bow was totally inadequate and the following copies of B-24D was equipped with another weapon in the bow, and a position with manual control on the side of the fuselage. Meanwhile, the offensive load capacity went from 3,630 to 5,800 kilograms.
is most often made changes to the specification of the Liberator during the first months of 1943, leading to the production of new models that differed from predecessors precisely in the defensive armament and military cargo transportable.
in production aircraft was introduced in June 1943 (from 491 to exactly copy of the production line raised by Ford), the bow turret Emerson coupled with electric. These specimens were designated B-24H and were characterized by the new engine series R-1830-65. In the two previous intermediate series, B-24E and B-24G, with minor differences of detail, were made respectively, 791 and 430 copies.
Efforts to remedy the operational problems that had been verified in models G, H and, in part, on the B-24J, has led to a significant increase in the total weight of the aircraft, fully loaded with war, was around the 25,000 kg, sometimes even surpassing the limitations imposed by the designers. Obviously, the flight performance was affected by it: little reserve power in the takeoff, climb rate limited fuel consumption very high, and so on. But the undesirable consequences of this weight gain were undoubtedly the theoretical and lowering the ceiling, especially in height, the lower stability of the aircraft. Consequently, operational height of the formations of B-24 was frequently lower than desired and collisions due to sudden loss of control were common in training required to fly in adverse weather conditions.
The Liberator had their baptism of fire at American aircraft with variant B-24D. The first bomber group that received the new UAV was 44 in February 1942, then had the 98 of the 9th. Desert Air Force (August 1942) that during the naval battle in mid-August, the fleet operated against Italian group and 93 of the 8th. Air Force that led the Liberator on a mission in October 1942 Lila.
The first units of the USAAF with Liberator turret on the bow (B-24H) were sent to England in August 1943, shortly after the B-24 base in North Africa had been performed (1 August 1943) the famous raid on oil fields and refineries of Ploesti, after which the B-24J replaced in almost all units to their predecessors. Equipped with Liberator groups were so many that it is practically impossible to make a complete list.
Peak Liberator in aviation service American was reached in September 1944 with 6,043 copies, about half of them in 177 front-line units.
Information obtained from the work Storia dell Aviazione.
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