and B-24 tail

Sat Feb 28, 2009 4:41 pm

http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_pho ... 730-1.html

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Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:50 pm

Cool! That's probably the greatest inflight pic I've ever seen of the XB-24N..thanks for posting.

<edit> I just went through all the photos..fantastic stuff!

SN

Sat Feb 28, 2009 9:29 pm

I always thought the B-24N project was just in the preliminary stages when the war ended in the ETO. When we were helping Gary in Midland I got to visit with a veteran who was a Gunnery School instructor at Las Vegas (I think). He told me they had gotten a couple of Ns to start training with, and that the plan was to equip several 15th Air Force Groups with the N if the war had dragged on for longer. An interesting machine that almost went into mass-production.

Scott

Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:54 pm

I've never seen that shot before, thanks for posting it. Here's a link to a collection of photos that include three shots of the Emerson 128 (A-31) nose ball turret. It sure would be cool if somebody thought to save one of the B-24Ns or even one of the A-31 turrets. I've got lots of the small pieces but very little of the main structure.

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... 095&idx=12

Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:49 am

Here's another shot of it. I just thought it was a PB4Y-2 when I saw that the last time this site was posted. I didn't know anything about an N model.

http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_pho ... 730-5.html

Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:00 am

Very interesting, I would have pegged it for a Privateer derivative! Yes it would have been nice to save an example, but as it was only a prototype, it had very little "historical value", not that real "historical value" would keep if from being scrapped anyways!

What was the reasoning behind the new tail arrangement? More stability? Strength? Ease of Manufacture?

Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:36 am

The AAF placed orders for over 5,000 of the N. There exists a photo of several on the apron at Kingman awaiting the smelter, and the XB-24N was dismantled at Dayton if memory serves.

The airplane had better stability on the bomb run and the nose and tail turrets were a great improvement.

Scott