Replacement aircraft would continue to be a mixture of olive drab and silver ships. The first silver aircraft arrived in the 449th in late April 1944. The B-24 design underwent almost continual engineering changes. By February 1944 the Army abandoned the practice of painting the aircraft in favor of the natural silver color of unpainted aluminum. The 449th Bomb Group was originally equipped with sixty-two B-24H Liberator heavy bombers. The original B-24H aircraft delivered to the 449th Bomb Group at Bruning were painted olive drab in accordance with Army specifications. The bomb racks were designed to accommodate a variety of bomb types including the standard 250-pound, 500-pound and 1,000-pound general purpose (GP) bombs, as well as clusters of incendiary and fragmentation bombs. The real payload of the B-24 was 5,000 pounds of bombs. The range increased to 3,000 miles with the introduction of the J-model. Manned by a crew of ten men - pilot, copilot, navigator, bombardier, and six gunners - the aircraft was capable of a maximum speed of 290 miles per hour, a service ceiling of 28,000 feet, and a maximum range of 2,100 miles. 50-caliber, machine guns with the powered nose-, top-, bottom-, and tail-turrets mounting two guns each, and a single gun mounted at each of the two waist positions. The aircraft weighed in empty at just over 36,000 pounds. The twin-tailed B-24H - with a wingspan of 110 feet, overall length of 67 feet and a height of 18 feet - was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-65 engines, each rated at 1,200 horsepower. The techniques were so successful that by 1944 a completed B-24H was rolling off the Willow Run production line every 100 minutes. These were Consolidated, Foth Worth, Douglas Aircraft in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ford Motor Combany’s Willow Run facility, and North American Aviation in Dallas, Texas.īy September 1942, Ford Motor Company’s Willow Run Plant was producing the B-24H model aircraft, and demonstrating the adaptation of automotive mass-production techniques to the manufacture of the huge, four-engine bombers. In order to meet projected production requirements, a Liberator production pool was established which added four other assembly plants. As the demands of war grew, the Army brought additional companies into the B-24 production pool. The famed B-24D was the first combat ready model to be put into mass production by Consolidated Aircraft in, San Diego in early 1942.
#B 24 BOMBER CREW LISTINGS SERIES#
The B-24 design underwent almost continual engineering changes resulting in a series of production models. The 449th Bomb Group was originally equipped with sixty-two B-24H Liberator heavy bombers.
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