Warbird Information Exchange

I wonder if Yankee might be interested in this. They've been piecing together a B-24 fuselage out of bits and pieces (including a Privateer aft fuselage.) The LB-30 parts would go a long way towards helping them build up a complete B-24..similar to that Halifax project in England, which as I recall was built up around a set of Hastings wings.


SN

I think Yankee Air Museum only wants Ford built B-24 parts.

Some info I'd posted on another forum in 2013, where an aerial photo of the Liberator in storage at Fort Collins Airpark is presented:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthre ... lins-today

It says:

Attached is a 2007 low-level oblique aerial view of AL557 in outdoor storage up against the large building at upper left. The photo is from this fascinating website:

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CO/....htm#Christmas

The image is about halfway down the page, under the Valley Airport / Fort Collins Airpark / Fort Collins Downtown Airport heading.

Using this photo as a guide to landmarks, it's easy to find on Google Maps. Then, using the Street View, you can peek some more from a ground perspective nearby the storage location.

In July 1943, after duty in the UK (including some RAF 120 Sqn time), AL557 was flown to India to join RAF 159 Sqn and also 1584 Conversion Unit (converting airmen to 4-engine Liberators), both at Salbani, West Bengal.

The 159 Sqn Operations Record Book does not list it on ops.

Copies of five airmen's logbooks in my possession show 19 individual training flights aboard AL557 while with 159 Sqn or 1584 CU between 3 Aug and 1 Oct '43. This was during the monsoon season of '43, when 159 flew very few ops (a policy which changed as the war progressed). Most of the logbook entries identify the aircraft as a Mk II Liberator, and none as an LB-30, though I doubt it was ever planned to use AL557 on ops. My guess is that it carried no bomb racks, and if there were guns, they were only for use in training. Also, per the ORB the last Mk II Liberator op on 159 Sqn was on 24 July 1943, the same month AL557 arrived at Salbani.

AL557 was moved to a general duties role in ACSEA before departing India on 23 May '44. Later it was converted to become a passenger aircraft in the immediate post-war years. Then, later again, it was converted for freight hauling. The aircraft crashed in Alaska during 1958 and was recovered by the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in 1990. It was sold in 1996 to the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, TX and stored 1996 - 2001 with Vintage Aircraft Ltd at Ft Collins, Colorado. Then, apparently, it was sold in 2001 to Worldjet/D. Whittington (or the Whittington brothers?) of Ft Lauderdale, Florida but still stored outdoors at Ft Collins.

I have no idea if there has been any further sale, but it sure is a heartbreaker to see this valuable airframe rotting away exposed to the Colorado weather. I also know that this now-closed airfield is on a floodplain, and at least part of the airfield site was flooded back in September. The above-mentioned website shows one such photo.

Regards,

Matt Poole

seriously? there are hundreds in png, indonesia and the islands, even alaska, nobody will spend the money recovering them because they will never get it back and nobodies will try to run them down

They'd certainly prefer Ford parts, but I think at this point they'll take what the can get. Their fuselage project is using a mid-section of a Ford-built B-24M, but they're splicing it together with the aft fuselage of a Privateer. They've also accumulated a bunch of B-24 bits from all over the place.

SN

Wow....tks for all the inputs and information!

Yup.....me neither is 24 anymore....but like myself better at 50

I just hope one day a local museum will open not too far from where if and when I retire.......so I can push a broom and look at old planes.....

Cheers

I'm not aware of any official stance of sourcing non Ford parts, but the goal is acquiring a complete Ford B-24.
We are using a Royal Canadian Air Force B-24L rear-mid section for our display project.

The listing has mysteriously disappeared.

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Volunteer
Yankee Air Museum

As i live in the area i think i have a better idea, there is tons of B-24 stuff around, even in Australia. Indonesia, ambon, west papua, halmahera, sulawesi, borneo especially are full of aircraft that nobody has access to remove.

Edited by Scott WRG Editor.

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Taylor Stevenson

Thanks! Always good to get some info from a more informed source. As a Michigan native and B-24 fan, I really wish you the best of luck with the project.

SN

Maybe that is what makes the Ft. Collins Liberator more marketable that some other 'stuff'.

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.

I'd be surprised if a fraction of a percentage of the population could differentiate between a B-24D and a LB-30. The people who actually do know the difference are more than likely to be just as interested in either aircraft. What makes the B-24D more marketable than an LB-30? What do you think the average Joe off the street will find more interesting about the B-24D?

Side by side of the LB-30 and B-24D other than the nose and gun positions most people would never know. Although I would think touring the inside would be more exciting on a real 24.
WarbirdKid's Grandfather was on a B-24 so Im sure there is a certain fondness as well. At this point if someone is willing to pump metric tons of cash into a project for fly I wont be complaining about the paint job or the lack of guns.

Untitled-2 by Drew King, on Flickr

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Andrew King
Air Museum Director with no Museum to Direct
Open to Suggestions

I think that there is a little bit of a misconception about what an LB-30 is. An LB-30 isn't a transport designation. It is the designation for the Liberator and Liberator II which were the export versions of the B-24. There were several configurations: bomber, transport, patrol, etc. You posted a picture of a transport version. Below is a picture of a bomber version. An LB-30 restored to original bomber configuration would be just as interesting as a B-24D and I'd be surprised if many would even know the difference.


ROYAL AIR FORCE: OPERATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, 1939-1943.. © IWM (CBM 1261)IWM Non Commercial Licence

Thanks for that, rwdfresno.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway