List of surviving Consolidated B-24 Liberators

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.

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.

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 Grissom Air Force Base, formerly Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana following an Armed Forces Open House for the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where it is now displayed.

Lend lease

While at the end of the war both the Royal Air Force as well as the Royal Australian Air Force were willing 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.

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.[1]

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 donated HE-771, stored at Poonah (Pune), 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 given 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. Weeks' goal is to resurrect the aircraft, now named Joe, to airworthy status.

Survivors

Australia

B-24M

Canada

B-24L

India

B-24J

Libya

B-24D

Papua New Guinea

B-24D

Turkey

B-24D

United Kingdom

B-24L
B-24M

United States

LB-30A Diamond Lil from the Commemorative Air Force collection.[N 1]
The Collings Foundation's restored B-24J Witchcraft, October 2009.
Strawberry Bitch, formerly on outdoor display at US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH
Airworthy
B-24A
B-24J
On display (complete airframes)
B-24D
B-24J
B-24J Louisiana Belle II at the Barksdale Global Power Museum
B-24M
On display (partial airframes)
B-24D
Under restoration or in storage
LB-30
B-24J
Wrecks
B-24D
Coordinates 52.030395, -175.136921 (for best image use Bing Maps)

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."[10]

Citations

  1. "India's reclaimed B-24 bombers." Bhargava (bharat- rakshak.com). Retrieved: 25 December 2015.
  2. "B-24M Liberator/44-41956." B-24 Liberator Australia Restoration. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  3. "B-24L Liberator/44-50154." Canada Aviation and Space Museum. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  4. "B-24J Liberator/44-44213." aerialvisuals.ca. Retrieved: 25 March 2015.
  5. "B-24D Liberator/41-24301." Quartermaster Foundation. Retrieved: 25 March 2015.
  6. "B-24 Liberator/42-40885." pacificwrecks.com. Retrieved: 14 January 2015.
  7. "B-24D Liberator/41-24311." aerialvisuals.ca. Retrieved: 25 March 2015.
  8. "B-24L Liberator/44-50206." RAF Museum Hendon. Retrieved: 16 July 2013.
  9. "B-24M Liberator/44-51228." American Air Museum Duxford. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  10. "Ol 927: CAF's B-24A Liberator." Warbird Digest, Issue 15, July–August 2007, pp. 17–30.
  11. "B-24A Liberator/40-2366" Commemorative Air Force Retrieved: 02 October 2013.
  12. "FAA Registry: N24927." FAA.gov. Retrieved: 13 May 2011.
  13. "World War II plane's landing gear fails, causes delays." Charlotte Observeer. Retrieved: 27 May 2012.
  14. "B-24J Liberator/44-44052." Collings Foundation. Retrieved: 02 October 2013.
  15. "FAA Registry: N224J." FAA.gov. Retrieved: 13 May 2011.
  16. "B-24D Liberator/41-23908." Hill Aerospace Museum. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  17. "B-24D Liberator/42-72843." National Museum of the USAF. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  18. "B-24J Liberator/44-44175." Pima Air & Space Museum. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  19. "B-24J Liberator/44-48781." Barksdale Global Power Museum. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  20. "B-24M Liberator/44-41916." Castel Air Museum. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  21. "B-24D Liberator/41-11825." John Weeks. Retrieved: 24 August 2010.
  22. "B-24D Liberator/42-40557." Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  23. "B-24D Liberator/42-40461." Virginia Air and Space Center. Retrieved: 6 June 2012.
  24. "LB-30 Liberator/AL557." Vintage Aircraft Ltd. Retrieved: 13 June 2012.
  25. "B-24J Liberator/44-44272." Fantasy of Flight. Retrieved: 15 July 2013.
  26. "FAA Registry: N94459." FAA.gov. Retrieved: 26 August 2014.
  27. "B-24D Liberator/40-2367." Pacific Wrecks. Retrieved: 13 June 2012.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to B-24 Liberator warbirds.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to B-24 Liberator museum aircraft.
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