Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

[Ryan Keough]

That's some great news for you guys! I always wondered why more wasn't accomplished to make her bomber-like.

Does this mean that there will be a bomb bay "eventually" replaced in the plane, or is the structure modified too much to do that? Will you replace the cockpit window assembly to the early scheme too?

I kinda figured it was coming... have seen a lot of mentions on here and other places to "Diamond Lil the B-24A" and not LB-30.

[Chuck Gardner]

Maybe it will look something like this:

[Former Member]

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Last edited by Former Member on Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Warbirdnerd]

Awesome news Gary!
Can't wait to see the finished product.
She sure has come a long way from her old solid nose days!
Do you ever sleep, or did you have yourself cloned?

[Connery]

Any chance the correct cowlings may go on at some point or will they not fit on the current engines?

[Dan K]

I believe the cowlings it has are original. Recheck Chuck Gardner's first pic. Round cowlings on the early short-nosed Libs.

[FlyingFortB17]

Does a B-24A have a tailgunner's position?

[Randy Haskin]

What's the rationale behind converting the airplane away from the LB-30 configuration? Doesn't Li'l have more heritage as an LB-30 than as a B-24A?

[Dan K]

Does a B-24A have a tailgunner's position?

Yes, but no turret...hand-held .50 cals (brrr!).

[Connery]

I believe the cowlings it has are original. Recheck Chuck Gardner's first pic. Round cowlings on the early short-nosed Libs.

Dan,

You are absolutly correct. I did some checking as I had "assumed" that the round cowls were put in place as a replacement to the original engines and cowlings similar to what was done to the PB4Y-2's after the were sold on the civilian market for arial tankers.

Britain desperately needed a long range bomber for use in a coastal patrol and defense squadron, and Consolidated received permission to divert 6 of the 7 YB-24 aircraft to Britain as LB-30's with British serial numbers (AM258 to AM263), along with the first 20 (S/N 40-2349 to 40-2368) production aircraft in the USAAC order for 38 B-24A's. These 20 aircraft were assigned British serial numbers (AM910 to AM929) and the USAAC serial numbers were reassigned to the first 20 B-24D aircraft.

Of the remaining 18 B-24A aircraft, 9 aircraft (S/N 40-2369 to 40-2377) were built and delivered to the USAAC as B-24A's. The other 9 aircraft (S/N 40-2378 to 40-2386) were modified on the production line to B-24C models by replacing the original Pratt & Whitney R-1830-31 radials with -41 turbo supercharged radials, adding the elliptical engine cowling, installing an A-6 type power turret in the tail with twin 50-cal machine guns, and mounting a Martin power turret on the top forward fuselage. These aircraft were used for testing and training, none were ever flown in combat.

[retroaviation]

What's the rationale behind converting the airplane away from the LB-30 configuration? Doesn't Li'l have more heritage as an LB-30 than as a B-24A?

Good question Randy. Actually, there have been good questions asked by a lot of folks. Much like the re-engine program we came up with for FIFI, this project for the B-24A consumed many, many hours of thought before we came up with a plan. This is also a topic that has been historically "heated" within the B-29/B-24 Squadron in the past. Everyone is certainly entitled to their opinions, and believe me, I listened to all of them that have been conveyed to us.

One of the primary reasons we decided to go with the "A" model, vs. the LB-30, was that this airplane was originally a B-24A. Some of our guys have spent an untold amount of hours finding the real history of our airplane, and it will be circulated very soon. Some of it has been told correctly over the years, but frankly, most of it hasn't. But the gist of it showed that this airplane was a B-24A before it was anything else...before an LB-30, before being a transport, before being a corporate shuttle, and that's how myself and the elected staff of the B-29/B-24 Squadron felt when deciding on what to do with the airplane.

Plus, .50 caliber machine guns just look cooler than the .303's.

I hope this tiny bit of info helps. I will happily answer whatever questions I can. I know that everyone won't agree with what direction we're going with it, but we figured that any decision was a good one at this point.

Gary

[Flashonyrsix]

Great news, I'll probably rejoin the squadron over this.

Norm

[Django]

Here's some more pics I found...

[PhantomAce08]

Some of our guys have spent an untold amount of hours finding the real history of our airplane, and it will be circulated very soon.

I can't wait to hear what that is!

[Blackwing]

Where is the work on Lil being done?