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The Story of the B-24:
The B-24 Liberator was never as famous as the B-17 Flying Fortress. Reuben Fleet named his plane "Liberator" because of its ability "to carry destruction to the heart of the Hun," and liberate Europe from Hitler's yoke. Despite the B-17's popularity early in the war, the B-24 became the most influential bomber and was manufactured in the greatest numbers. A total of 19,256 B-24 bombers of all variants came out of three American factories, more than any other US warplane of any era.
In 1938, the Army Air Corps approached San Diego's Consolidated Aircraft Corporation with the idea that they build the B-17 under license to provide an additional production line. Executives from Consolidated visited Boeing's plant in Seattle where the Fortresses were made and quickly realized they could build a better plane based on the creation of a near-penniless inventor named David R. Davis. Davis had designed radical new wing that he sold to Consolidated in 1937. When scientists at the California Institute of Technology tested the Davis wing in their wind tunnel, they proved Fleet's hunch -- that the slender profile and sharp camber would provide a greatly superior lift. It was so efficient that the scientists ignored their test results at first because it exceeded what they thought possible, outperforming other contemporary wings by 20 percent.
In January 1939, Consolidated president Reuben H. Fleet offered the Army Air Corps his proposal for the B-24, a design he was sure was superior to the B-17, and the Air Corps leaders instructed him to proceed with his new plane. In order to provide some direction to Fleet's project, the Air Corps issued Type Specification C-212, which called for "a heavy bomber to have a maximum speed greater than 300 mph, a range of 2,000 miles, and a ceiling of 35,000 feet." On March 30, 1939, Consolidated received a contract for one prototype under the designation "XB-24." |