The Consolidated XB-41 Liberator was a single
Consolidated B-24D Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...
bomber, serial ''41-11822'', which was modified for the long-range escort role for U.S.
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...
bombing missions over
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Design and development
When the USAAF started strategic bombing in Europe there were no fighters available to escort the bombers all the way to distant targets. The bombers carried several defensive guns and formed up in boxes so that they could provide mutually covering fire but there was interest in providing more firepower for the formation.
The XB-41 Liberator was outfitted with 14
.50 caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range.
*''Length'' refers to the cartridge case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a ...
(12.7 mm) machine guns. This was achieved by adding a second dorsal turret and a remotely operated Bendix turret (of the same type as fitted to the
YB-40
The Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress was a modification for operational testing purposes of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft, converted to act as a heavily armed gunship to support other bombers during World War II. At the time of its de ...
) under the chin to the standard twin gun tail turret and twin gun retractable ventral
ball turret
A ball turret was a spherical-shaped, altazimuth mount gun turret, fitted to some American-built aircraft during World War II. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing.
It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets ...
, plus twin mount guns at each waist window.
[Davis 1987, p.24.] The port waist mount was originally covered by a
Plexiglas
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...
bubble; testing showed this caused severe optical distortion and it was removed.
The XB-41 carried 12,420 rounds of ammunition, 4,000 rounds of which were stored in the bomb bay as a reserve.
[ It was powered by four ]Pratt & Whitney R-1830
The Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp is an American air-cooled radial aircraft engine. It displaces and its bore and stroke are both . The design traces its history to 1929 experiments at Pratt & Whitney on twin-row designs. Production began ...
-43 radial engine
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...
s.
Operational history
On 29 January 1943, the sole XB-41 was delivered to Eglin Field Eglin may refer to:
* Eglin (surname)
* Eglin Air Force Base, a United States Air Force base located southwest of Valparaiso, Florida
* Federal Prison Camp, Eglin, a Federal Bureau of Prisons minimum security prison on the grounds of Eglin Air Forc ...
, Florida. Tests were carried out for two months at Eglin during February 1943.Consolidated XB-41 Liberator
Historyofwar.org. Retrieved on 2011-10-31. These indicated significant problems with the aircraft; on 21 March 1943, the Army declared the XB-41 as unsuitable for operational use;
[ the conversion of thirteen Liberators to YB-41 service test aircraft was cancelled. Despite this, Consolidated continued to work on the XB-41 prototype; wide-blade propellers were fitted, and some of the armor was removed to reduce the aircraft's weight. Tests resumed at Eglin on 28 July 1943; however, the basic flaws of the "gunship" concept remained, and the XB-41 program was abandoned. The prototype XB-41 was redesignated TB-24D; it served as an instructional airframe for training mechanics on the B-24.][ It was scrapped at ]Maxwell Field
Maxwell Air Force Base , officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force (USAF) installation under the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. O ...
, Alabama on 2 February 1945.
Specifications (XB-41)
See also
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
* Andrade, John M. ''U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909''. Earl Shilton, Leicester: Midland Counties Publications, 1979. .
* Birdsall, Steve. ''Log Of The Liberators''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1973. .
* Davis, Larry. ''B-24 Liberator in action''. Aircraft in Action No. 80. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1987. .
{{USAF bomber aircraft
B-41
Consolidated B-41 Liberator
1940s United States fighter aircraft
Four-engined tractor aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Individual aircraft of World War II
Four-engined piston aircraft