Churchill, puffing on cigar and wearing dashing aviator glasses while being tailed by the Luftwaffe

Daily Mail ^ | 7-8-12 | Chris Parsons

[MasterGunner01]

The Boeing 314 (aka “China Clipper”) was a flying boat. The Convair B-24 “Liberator” was a land based bomber. The only superficial recognition point was the four radial engines that powered them. Otherwise, both were as different as apples to oranges.

Churchill's personal plane was an LB-30 (export version) of the B-24 and was called Liberator II by the British. Eventually 87 LB-30s served in the RAF. Churchill's personal LB-30 was named “Commando”.

The Liberator II was the first version of the B-24 to feature the lengthened nose that would become standard on all later aircraft. This extension, which increased the length of the aircraft from 63ft 9in to 66ft 4in, was originally made for purely aesthetic reasons, but as the war developed, and the amount of equipment carried on aircraft increased, the extra space proved to be very valuable.

The Liberator II was powered by commercial Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C4-G engines. These engines lacked the turbosuperchargers used on USAAF B-24 aircraft. The P&W engines turned Curtiss Electric propellers (longer propeller hubs) than the more common, shorter hubs, of the Hamilton-Standard propellers found on the B-24.

In RAF service, the LB-30 carried 14 .303-inch machine guns: one in the nose, one in a tunnel hatch, two in each waist position, and four each in Boulton-Paul power operated tail and dorsal turrets.

[yarddog]

I remember seeing that in all those books. I never could figure out which one was “Former naval person” as it could easily have been either one.

[TXnMA]

One of the great things about FR is the in-depth knowledge of folks who have a special interest in a subject -- and their willingness to share it when that subject arises. Thanks for the info on the B-24 variants!

IIRC, the B-24 and the China Clipper shared the same wing design (and its high placement, which, of course, was ideal for a flying boat)...

Otherwise, as you say, "apples to oranges"...

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks exit82. Pretty neat. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Northern Yankee]

my dad flew 15 - 17 hour flights out of Guam to Japan and back. Those are long hours in a plane.

They watched their fuel like a hawk, knowing there was no room for error. By the time they'd get to their hardstand the engines would be fuel starved.

[MasterGunner01]

The Davis wing design was very efficient and was a good heavy lifter for these large aircraft. I am continually amazed by the advanced technology of the airplanes of 1930s.