Posted on 08/21/2007 4:22:14 AM PDT by don-o
Four of us are sitting in jump seats just below the flight deck of the 18th B-24 Liberator bomber off the assembly line in 1941, and one of only two still flying.
It is dark. There are no windows other than the flight deck and the bombardier’s greenhouse below it. On the wall are spider webs of control cables running down the walls and overhead that makes you feel like what it must be like inside a grand piano.
I am leaning against a 250-pound bomb, a copper wire running to the fuse in the nose that would activate the bomb if it were dropped.
It’s like a dream set for claustrophobia as pilot Phil Stokoy fires up the four engines of this 66-year-old aircraft one after another.
Our only way to tell if we are moving is to look at the free-castering nose wheel in the bombardier’s station. The rudder and other control surfaces are ineffectual at ground speed and the pilots can only steer by touches of one brake or the other and by increasing or decreasing power to the engines on one side or the other.
Ol’ 927 appeared at Tri-Cities Regional Airport at treetop level for a wheels-up pass down the runway before fire-walling the throttles once again to circle into the pattern for its landing. It will be at the airport for three more days so anyone who wants to pony-up $425 can take a ride with a piece of history.
“The Liberator burns 200 gallons of gasoline per hour and each engine requires 30 quarts of oil,” said Col. Ray Whiteman of Kingsport, who is hosting the visit with the Commemorative Air Force. “You can see why there aren’t any cheap seats.”
All members of the CAF are volunteers with a mission of preserving the old war birds and keeping them flying. They pay their own way when they travel to work on a plane or to crew on one of the great warplanes of all time.
There are only about nine seats on the plane because it is restored to its original World War II fighting configuration, complete with machine guns sticking out of the nose, tail and waist, and bombs in the racks.
The restoration earned the plane the top bomber award at the Oshkosh, Wisc., Air Show earlier this summer.
“Everybody knows about the role of the B-17 in World War II because the reporters in England were close to a B-17 base, so it was the plane they flew on,” Whiteman said. “They considered it a sexier airplane than the slab-sided Liberator.”
The B-24, however, flew more missions in all theaters, it flew higher, faster and carried a bigger bomb load for longer distances than any other bomber until the B-29 came out later in the Pacific Theater.
It is best known for its raids on the Romanian oil fields, especially Ploesti, that broke the back of Germany when its planes and tanks were crippled due to the need to ration fuel. “It’s an honor to go out with a flying museum and take it around so people can see it fly and even ride on it,” Whiteman said. “To ride it and smell the caster oil, walk around to all the gun positions and visit the flight deck is a special thrill.”
“Sure it’s noisy and bumpy and uncomfortable,” said Stokoy in the pre-flight briefing. “That’s what those kids who were 17, 18, 19 years old felt. They had electric flight suits, but they didn’t always work and it was way below zero, plus people were shooting at them.”
Mass producing the Liberators was a specialty of Henry Ford, who built them at the rate of one per hour at his Willow Run plant.
Ol’ 927 was built in San Diego by Consolidated and was one of the first off the assembly line. It was originally supposed to go overseas on the lend-lease program, but a landing gear collapse in testing caused it to be repaired and kept in New Mexico for training. That’s probably the reason it is one of the few survivors of a production run that reached 18,300 aircraft. This plane is a movie star, having appeared in “Fat Man and Little Boy” and a BBC movie, “Beautiful Dreamer.”
It has a range of 3,000 miles and could carry a 14,000-pound bomb load.
On takeoff we could feel the plane rotate at 105 mph, and saw the nose wheel come swinging up toward us before it locked into place.
Once up we were free to walk about the plane, including taking turns up to the cockpit for an awesome view of Bristol Motor Speedway, which was circled a couple of times before a tap on the shoulder sent me back down the stairs to make room for the next passenger.
You quickly get an appreciation for what the gunners went through, muscling the .50 cal. machine guns against the wind in below zero temperatures as enemy planes flashed by and the floor was made slippery with spent shell casings.
All too quickly the thundering beast glides toward the runway with the flaps extended all the way out. To land a Liberator the pilot has to grip the yokes with both hands and tug against the nose-down force of the flaps. No power steering here. Once the nose comes up the pilot is blind to the runway and the flight engineer sticks his head out a roof hatch to line him up.
The crew manages to set the giant bomber down with barely a squeak to the tires, and every person on board wishes it would take forever to taxi back in to the present.
Ol’ 927 will be available for rides or inspection at Tri-Cities Aviation at TCRA through Thursday. Take the entrance road straight past the parking lots and follow the road to the private aviation area. Reservations are needed to take a flight into history. Call 413-4100 for information.
ping
Brooks fails to mention that you can't activate an inert bomb.
I flew on one that the “Wings of Freedom” brought to our town. Amazing, terrifying, exhilarating. The pilot gave us three instructions: don’t touch the wires, or you’ll be flying the plane; the bomb bay doors are functional, so don’t step on them; and have fun.
My father was Navy WWII S. Pacific and Tail Gunner in those things. He told us some really hair raising stories about how they used to take off overloaded with fuel and bombs/munitions for extended patrol. Seems they used to have to literally bounce them down the mudsoaked temporary runways to get them airborne. He said sometimes it was like hanging in air some moments during takeoff.
I know he went down in three different Liberators and was lucky to have lived. They got the job done, and that is what counted he said.
The Commemorative Air Force owns and operates the oldest B-24A type aircraft in existence.
Ol 927was the 25th of over 18,000 built.
Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, one of the companies merged over the years into what is now General Dynamics Corporation, produced the first B-24A Liberator bombers for the Royal Air Force of Great Britain. Early production models of the B-24A were delivered to the British with the first six off the line known as LB-30A's. This aircraft, the 18th LB-30 of an order of 20 for Great Britain, was involved in an accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico in July of 1941.
Consolidated rebuilt it to a transport configuration and AM-927 was used as a company aircraft throughout World War II.
AM-297 flew on a scheduled basis between San Diego, Fort Worth and New York. From its Consolidated serial #AM-927, the plane became known along this route as "Old 927."
After the war, "Old 927" was sold to the Contintental Can Company, and flew as an executive transport for about 10 years. Ol 927 was then sold to Mexico's national oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and flown in Latin America until the CAF acquired it in 1967.
Since her Ghost Squadron debut in 1967, "Old 927" has performed majestically before crowds of thousands of people. In 1971, she was put in the paint scheme and markings of the 98th Bomb Group of the 9th Air Force and was named Diamond LiL. The B-24 flew as Diamond LiL until May of 2007 at which time she was returned to her original configuration as B-24A, Heavy Bomber, with a new paint job, new nose art and a new name, "OL 927 ".
It was here before and flew over my house. Lumbered is a better description. It is slow and loud and big.
ping
Where is the 8th Air Force when you need it? I would love to see a 1000 B=24 plane raid on Baghdad.
I didn’t know that the US Navy operated the B-24 or any other strategic bombers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-24_Liberator#US_Navy_Nomenclature_and_Subvariants
Coast Guard too.
The Navy also flew B-17s at the end of the war known as PB-1s.
I had the opportunity to see one of these B-24s a number of years ago. While there I ran into an older gentleman, I knew through church. He told me that during WW-II he had been a navigator on such a B-24 flying out of Italy and had been shot down over Yugoslavia. After bailing out he spent six weeks being hidden from the Nazis by Tito’s partisans. I gained a whole new respect for the brave young men who flew these planes.
The people who take care of it are topnotch.
My father flew B-29's out of Guam. He literally flew on the last mission of the war. Lost an engine coming back from bombing an oil refinery over Japan, and made an emergency landing, along with 12 other Superfortresses, at Iwo Jima.
For me it is the sound, not the bombs, but the finely tuned engines. The other year a single B-24(maybe this same plane) flew over my house on its way to the Mid Atlantic WWII Show and I can only imagine what the sound of few of them in formation would've made.
There was a show on the history channel last week? On that very mission. The 29’s that made it back to Guam had flown for like 12 hours and the engines where literally running on gas fumes when they landed.
“I didn’t know that the US Navy operated the B-24 or any other strategic bombers.”
That’s why I come to FR everyday. Learn something new and often amazing.
He was Navy, a Tailgunner in Liberators in the South Pacific. He flew many a mission with other Navy B-24’s, and crashed in three during his time of service.
He’s alive today and 85 years old living in Texas. Escapee from Katrina.
Wow.
I did not know that.
I learn something new here every day.
thx.
Amazing.
Thank him for his service for me.
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