Consolidated Liberator B-24 / F-7
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Consolidated Liberator G.R. Mk. VIII, RCAF (Serial No. 11130) ex-USAAF Consolidated (Vultee) B-24L Liberator USAAF (44-50154)
ex-RAF (Serial No. 5009), ex-Indian Air Force (Serial No. HE773).
Currently preserved in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Ottawa Ontario.
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber flown by the RCAF during the Second Word War. It was designed with a shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing which gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine. In comparison with its contemporaries the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance; it also had a lower ceiling compared with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Of the roughly 18,500 B-24s built in the USA during the war, 148 were flown by the RCAF on long range anti-submarine patrols, with the B-24 serving an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. The RCAF also flew a few B-24s post war as transports.
Roughly half of all (RAF) Liberator crews in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theatre were Canadian by the end of the war. John Muir of Vancouver flew the longest mission of the war: 24hrs, 10mins from Ceylon to Burma and back. (Kyle Hood) Harold Skaarup web page
last update: 2021-09-18 19:06:22
Liberator C. Mk. II AL516
Construction No. 14Took on charge Dorval 26-9-1941
Dorval to Gander 15-10-1941
Gander to Ayr 17-10-1941
To Scottish Aviation 17-10-1941
To 150 Squadron 28-11-1941
To 1653 CU 30-5-1942
To 1445 Flt 10-6-1942
To Scottish Aviation 1-8-1942 for Bomber Command mods, changed to Transport mods
To 1425 Flt 30-9-1942
To 511 Squadron 10-10-1942
Overshot landing at Gibraltar 31-10-1942
To BOAC as freighter, registered as G-AHZP