B-24 Liberator in Action - Aircraft No. 21 (Squadron/Signal Publications 1021)
Steve Birdsall - B-24 Liberator in Action - Aircraft No. 21
Squadron/Signal Publications | 1975 | ISBN: 0897470206 | English | 51 pages | PDF | 28.55 MB
Squadron/Signal Publications 1021
Squadron/Signal Publications | 1975 | ISBN: 0897470206 | English | 51 pages | PDF | 28.55 MB
Squadron/Signal Publications 1021
The Liberator was conceived in January 1939, when General "Hap" Arnold invited Consolidated to come up with a design superior to Boeing's Flying Fortress. The company's preliminary data was impressive enough to warrant a contract for a prototype, and the design team under Isaac Laddon went to work in earnest. Their first consideration was range, and they selected the wing designed by David Davis for its great efficiency; the wings were shoulder mounted, allowing a capacious fuselage, and a twin rudder and fin assembly was chosen. The aircraft had a tricycle undercarriage and the bomb bay was divided into front and rear compartments, with unique roller-type doors which retracted up the sides from the central keel beam.
In the first Liberator, Consolidated Model 32, there was provision for a few hand-held .30-caliber machine guns, and the gleaming prototype, dubbed XB-24 by the Air Corps, flew for the first time on December 29, 1939. By then the Air Corps had already placed an order for seven YB-24s, and thirty-six B-24As for evaluation. The French and British ordered 284 aircraft between them.