List of surviving Consolidated B-24 Liberators

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Main article: Consolidated B-24 Liberator
List of surviving Consolidated B-24 Liberators
Duxfordlib.jpg
B-24M 44-51228 painted as 450493 Dugan at the Imperial War Museum Duxford

Consolidated B-24 Survivors is a list of flying and static display B-24 Liberators and includes brief history, markings, owners, locations, and aircraft condition or status.

Contents

[edit] Background

By the time the last complete B-24M came off the Willow Run assembly line in July 1945, 18,482 Liberators had been built by the five B-24 manufacturers.

[edit] Post World War II

The B-24 was quickly declared obsolete by the USAAF and the remaining stateside aircraft were flown to desert storage in the US Southwest. In the Pacific theatre, many aircraft were simply parked, the oil drained from the engines and left for reclamation. By 1950, except for the one B-24D held for preservation, the vast fleet of Liberators were gone. The last flight of a B-24 by the USAF was on 12 May 1959 when Strawberry Bitch left Davis–Monthan Air Force Base for the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where it is now displayed.

[edit] Lend lease

While at the end of the war both the Royal Air Force as well as the Royal Australian Air Force were willing[citation needed] to continue operating the B-24, the terms of the Lend-Lease agreements stipulated that these aircraft had to be either paid for or returned to the US and vast graveyards of aircraft accumulated in India as well as Tarakan,and Australia.

[edit] Other countries needs

When India gained independence in 1947, 37 Liberators were resurrected and gave service until their retirement in 1968. It is from the Indian Air Force that the majority of the remaining B-24s owe their existence.

In 1948 when Israel was looking for aircraft, the Royal Australian Air Force was approached with the offer to purchase 25 aircraft, but since these aircraft had not been stored with long-term preservation in mind, they were neither airworthy nor economically feasible to restore to flyable condition. In 1968 the Indian Air Force donate HE-771, stored at Poonah, to ex-RCAF pilot Lynn Garrison for inclusion in his aircraft collection. It was to be ferried back to the United States in company with the B-24 giver to Strategic Air Command. Garrison was busy with Roger Corman's film Richthofen & Brown, in 1970, so he turned it over to the RAF. Somehow it ended up in Kermit Weeks' museum in Florida.

With the availability of intact, existing airframes beginning to diminish, the warbird movement since the late 1990s has been seeking out previously considered unrecoverable airframes for restoration. The RAAF has three airframes in storage (serials unknown) which were recovered when they restored their museum aircraft. Both India and China are reported to have additional recoverable aircraft and the jungles of the Southwest Pacific still hold abandoned aircraft.[1]

[edit] Survivors

[edit] Australia

Under restoration

[edit] Canada

On display

[edit] India

On display

[edit] Turkey

On display
  • B-24D (s/n 41-24311) Hadley's Harem (nose only) is on display in Istanbul.[6]

[edit] United Kingdom

On display

[edit] United States

LB-30A ex-Diamond Lil from the Commemorative Air Force collection. Airframe returned to B-24A configuration and renamed Ol' 927.[N 1]
Strawberry Bitch on display at US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH
Airworthy
  • B-24A (s/n 40-2366) Ol' 927 is airworthy and owned by the Commemorative Air Force (B-24/B-29 Squadron) in Addison, Texas This B-24 is number 18 off the assembly line, and is one of a handful of surviving early-war aircraft.[10]
  • B-24J (s/n 44-44052) Witchcraft is airworthy and owned by the Collings Foundation in Stow, Massachusetts.[11]
  • B-24J (s/n 44-44272) Joe is airworthy and owned by the Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida.[12] When originally retired by the Indian Air Force this aircraft was donated to Lynn Garrison's collection.
On display

[edit] References

Notes
  1. ^ Quote: "One of the primary reasons we decided to go with the "A" model, vs the LB-30, was that this airplane was originally a B-24A."[9]
Citations
  1. ^ John Hayles (8 February 2009). "World Wide Warbirds Contents Listing". Aeroflight (aeroflight.co.uk). http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mags/uk/warbirds_worldwide.htm. 
  2. ^ "Liberator/44-41956" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  3. ^ "Liberator/44-50154" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  4. ^ Liberator III/G.R.V for RAF
  5. ^ "Liberator/44-44213" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  6. ^ "Liberator/41-24311" John Weeks Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  7. ^ "Liberator/44-51228" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  8. ^ "Liberator/44-50206" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  9. ^ "Ol 927: CAF's B-24A Liberator." Warbird Digest, Issue 15, July–August 2007, pp. 17–30.
  10. ^ "Liberator/40-2366" FAA Registry. Retrieved: 13 May 2011.
  11. ^ "Liberator/44-44052" FAA Registry. Retrieved: 13 May 2011.
  12. ^ "Liberator/44-44272" FAA Registry. Retrieved: 13 May 2011.
  13. ^ "Liberator/41-11825" John Weeks Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  14. ^ "Liberator/41-23908" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  15. ^ "Liberator/42-40557 Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  16. ^ "Liberator/42-40461" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  17. ^ "Liberator/42-72843" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  18. ^ "Liberator/44-41916" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  19. ^ "Liberator/44-44175" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  20. ^ "Liberator/44-48781" Warbirds Resource Group Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
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