The range requirements were more than met. The test flights of the lumbering aircraft were successful, although the maximum speed was slightly less than that of the current model of the Flying Fortress. The wingspan was 110 feet, and the bomber was 63 feet long. Weighing 41,000 pounds gross, the XB-24 was powered by four 1200 horsepower Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasps. The French and British ordered 284 aircraft between them. By then the Air Corps had already placed an order for seven YB-24s, and thirty-six B-24As for evaluation. 30-caliber machine guns, and the gleaming prototype, dubbed XB-24 by the Air Corps, flew for the first time on December 29, 1939. In the first Liberator, Consolidated Model 32, there was provision for a few hand-held. 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. Their first consideration was range, and they selected the wing design 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 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. 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. Nevertheless, the B-24 provided excellent service in a variety of roles thanks to its large payload and long range and was the only bomber to operationally deploy the United States’ first forerunner to precision-guided munitions during the war, the 1,000 lb. Its high fuselage-mounted “Davis wing” also meant it was dangerous to ditch or belly land, since the fuselage tended to break apart. The B-24 was notorious among American aircrews for its tendency to catch fire. The placement of the B-24’s fuel tanks throughout the upper fuselage and its lightweight construction, designed to increase range and optimize assembly line production, made the aircraft vulnerable to battle damage. Popular opinion among aircrews and general staffs tended to favor the B-17’s rugged qualities above all other considerations in the European Theater. Often compared with the better-known Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 was a more modern design with a higher top speed, greater range, and a heavier bomb load it was also more difficult to fly, with heavy control forces and poor formation-flying characteristics. The B-24 was used in World War II by several Allied air forces and navies, and by every branch of the American armed forces during the war, attaining a distinguished war record with its operations in the Western European, Pacific, Mediterranean, and China-Burma-India Theaters. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30 (LB for Land Bomber). The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California.
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