Posted on 07/08/2012 6:16:40 PM PDT by Dysart
Flight Officer Ron Buck kept back his own pictures from the trip that was later described as the 'Most Daring Flight of the Whole War.'
Churchill had crossed the Atlantic by ship in order to lobby President Roosevelt, but rashly decided to fly home from Bermuda.
With some of his most senior colleagues, the Prime Minister embarked on what was to become a perilous 18 hours flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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 This extension, which increased the length of the aircraft from 63ft 9in to 66ft 4in, was originally made for purely aesthetic reasons, but as the war developed, and the amount of equipment carried on aircraft increased, the extra space proved to be very valuable.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.
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.
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"...
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GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Thanks exit82. Pretty neat. |
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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.
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