"You either loved or hated the B-24. There was no in between."

The B-24 Liberator will always remain something of an enigma. When introduced into service it was the most expensive and complex bomber ever produced by the US aircraft industry. More B-24s were manufactured than any other bomber - almost 19,000 (vs 12,000 B-17s). Although it could carry a larger bomb load, further and faster than the B-17, the question that has always been posed since is: Was the additional expense and complexity justified or would the extra effort have been better spent in producing more B-17s?

	XB-24 Liberator - one of the first prototypes

It was also a demanding aircraft to fly. Pilots who switched from B-17s, rarely had a good word for it, while those who were brought up on it, extol its virtues. So which one was the better aircraft? The debate will probably continue for many years and the statisticians will roll out data to support both sides of the argument. To understand what the B-24 was all about one needs to look at how the design came about.

The Development of the B-24. A sales job?

The origin of the B-24 Liberator began in late 1938, when the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was asked by the Army Air Corps if they would build the B-17 Flying Fortress under license. With war in Europe seeming inevitable and the situation with Japan deteriorating, the Air Corps were anticipating a sudden explosion in demand for the B-17 and needed to investigate the practicality of having a backup to Boeing's manufacturing plant.

After a visit to Boeing's Seattle factory, Consolidated's management held an urgent meeting. On seeing the B-17 production line they were convinced they could build a bomber that would be superior to the B-17 - after all it was now a five year old design and there had been many advancements in that time. One major reason was that Consolidated had only recently conducted tests with a new airfoil design that promised to greatly improved performance. This was the outcome of a meeting in the summer of 1937, when Reuben H. Fleet, the President of Consolidated Aircraft met with freelance aeronautical engineer, David R. Davis.

A Radical Wing

Davis proposed a wing design for use on Consolidated's new flying boat, the Model 31 and suggested that it would be superior to anything in existence. Fleet wasn't impressed. The wing had a long, narrow chord, with a thick shoulder that Davis insisted would give far better performance than any airfoil then in use. Davis was turned down, however a few days later after studying Davis's calculations, Consolidated's chief designer, Ian M Laddon, advised Fleet that he had a suspicion that Davis just might be on to something. Reluctantly Fleet agreed to pay for wind tunnel tests at the California Institute of Technology. They would give Davis a chance at designing a wing for their new flying boat and then test it against their own wing design, which they felt was the best available for a long range patrol aircraft.

The results of the wind tunnel tests were so remarkable that Cal Tech recalibrated their wind tunnel and ran them a second and third time. When they delivered their report to Consolidated it indicated that Davis's wing was everything it was claimed to be and more - or that it might just be a wind tunnel anomaly. After lengthy consideration Fleet decided to gamble that the wing was what it was claimed to be and decided that it would be used on Consolidated's new twin engine flying boat, the Model 31.

	Consolidated Model 31

When the opportunity to propose a bomber to the Air Corps arose, although the Model 31 had not yet flown, Fleet and Laddon believed that by adapting major components to a landplane, they could create a design superior to the B-17. In addition they felt they could equip a factory to produce the new bomber, quicker than building a new production line for the B-17. It was a brash and somewhat risky concept.

Early in January, 1939 Fleet called designer Frank W. Fink into his office and told him they had decided to build a better bomber than Boeing's B-17. They informed Fink that he was to be project engineer for the new design and that a wooden mockup was to be ready in two weeks. When Fink asked what the new bomber looked like, he was told that this was to be a completely new project and the design hadn't even reached the basic drawing stage. He was then given a quick description of the new bomber - he would use the Model 31's Davis wing, its twin tail, four engine nacelles from the PBY Catalina and he would design a new fuselage with two bomb bays, each as large as the bomb bay of the B-17. He had 14 days to create the mock up, while Fleet and Laddon went to Washington to sell the new bomber to the U.S. Army.

Fleet and Laddon must have made a convincing sales team, for the the Air Corps were interested in their proposal and encouraged the company to proceed. In mid January Consolidated's Model 31 flew for the first time, confirming without doubt the merit of the Davis wing. The Model 31 had a top speed of 250 m.p.h and a range of up to 3500 miles compared to Consolidated's own PBY's top speed of 170 m.p.h, and range of 2500 miles - on the same engines.

The gamble had paid off and the design team was now confident they had the right formula for the B-24. By the end of January, the XB-24 mockup had been rushed to completion and was inspected by the Army Air Corps. They liked what they saw, and more importantly were impressed by its projected performance - now backed up by the Model 31's test flights.

On February 1,1939, the USAAC went through the formality of issuing Type Specification C-212 which called for a heavy bomber with a maximum speed greater than 300 mph, a range of 2000 miles and a ceiling of 35,000 feet. On March 30, 1939, a contract for one prototype was issued under the designation XB-24, to be ready by the end of December 1939.

Fleet and Laddon worked their sales magic again and on April 27, 1939, the initial order was followed up by another for seven YB-24 test aircraft, followed by yet another for 38 B-24A's in August. The Air Corps had learned from their experience with the B-17 and with war clouds gathering over Europe they knew that the only way to evaluate a new aircraft quickly was to have the numbers available.

Construction of the prototype began in April and the XB-24 made it's first flight on December 29, 1939 - almost four months after the outbreak of war.

	XB-24 during the first flight