chainfeed wrote:
So what should diamond lil be considered? Is she a LB30 or is she a b24a? I've always been under the impression that she is a LB30.
LB-30 does not mean "cargo plane" like most think. It is essentially the basic designation of B-24s (a couple of Models) that were sold to the British, regardless of how they were configured. Some were bombers and some were transports. They were always called Liberators.
Diamond Lil was ordered/started as a B-24A, S/N 40-2366. The French purchased the airplane before it was completed. When they surrendered, the British took the order. At that point it was designated as an LB-30 and given the British serial number of AM927. The US serial number was later used on a B-24D. The main differences in a B-24A and an LB-30 was the gun caliber, Bomb shackles, bomb sight and the British radios. The airplane was accepted by the British and we being used as a trainer before going to the UK and had a brake lock up on landing in Albuquerque, doing serious damage to the airplane. Consolidated took this airplane back and filled the British order with a different airframe.
The airplane was ferried back to San Diego and was converted into a transport to be used by the factory. She was used to move parts and personnel but was far from any kind of executive transport. She also was never converted to a C-87 and was not the prototype for the C-87 as has been reported in the past. She was,however, the prototyoe for the prototype C-87 She was also never a C-109, which was the tanker version of the B-24.
When the war ended and the British started accounting for all their airplanes, they realized that this airplane was still on their books. They officially gave the airplane back to Consolidated at that time. I’ve got all the paperwork about this transaction.
At different points in her wartime career, she was modified many time. But, she was neverfullycinverted to an executive transport until after the war Basically before that she had a stock military transport interior Bomb bays were deleted and windows were added. PBY QECs added and the entire nose of an RY-3 was grafted on, lengthening the airplane. All the weapon stations were covered over. This airplane never had a top turret in the traditional sense. It had a scarf ring in the roof, behind the wing and had a single machine gun. The ring is still there but unfortunately when the cargo door was added, the control cables were rerouted along the top of the airplane.
When the war ended, Consolidated started looking at B-24s for potential executive aircraft. Diamond Lil happened to be one of the airplanes they owned at the time and really wasn’t configured like any other airplane. She was chosen to be the airplane that they used to establish the type certificate to be approved by the CAA for civilian use.
The serial number, AM927, was still on the airplane because the original US serial was no longer available as it went to another B-24. They did use S/N 18 for the serial number instead of the British one but I think that was probably done for simplicity reasons. The airplane was the 18th built out of an order for twenty something but she wasn't the 18th B-24 built. I believe it was the 25th but I can see where that confusion comes from. The LB-30 designation was still on the airplane because Consolidated never changed it to anything else after they got it back from the British.
At the time she was converted she had none of the British equipment installed that made her an LB-30 and hadn’t had it for many years. She was close to a C-87 but wasn’t one and never had been. Literally, she wasn’t closer to being a B-24A, configuration wise, than she was an LB-30 at the time. The paperwork and plate said LB-30 so that is what was submitted to the CAA. I’m sure that changing all that back to B-24A was the furthest thing from anybody’s mind back then.