How many B-24's might fly ?

[Brad]

I this picture of the B-24 at Palam Air Base a few years back. It looked to be in pretty good shape. If you can stand the filth of India, I highly encourage visit to this museum. The drive from New Deli to Agra where the Taj Mahal is will show you squalor, poverty, filth and modes of transportation that you can't believe.



I'm pretty sure I posted these a few years back but here they are again. I took these pictures of the Weeks B-24, around 2003-2004 or so, being pressure washed to remove the old, flaking paint. The original Indian markings were still under the paint. I didn't look to see if they were ever painted over on my last visit.

[wls3]

One recent photo and one not so recent.
Second shot taken around 1992-3 arriving Valiant Air Command show at TICO.

[Second Air Force]

Notice in Brad's photo of the IAF Museum machine that the H2X radome is still installed.

Scott

[RAMC181]

And a rather battered Rebecca antenna...

[Second Air Force]

And a rather battered Rebecca antenna...

Yep, I saw that also. A few years ago there was a brand new, in-the-box AN 148 antenna on ebay.

[Chris Brame]

I posted about this on another thread, but I remember seeing on WIX someplace an aerial photo of a B-24, intact but broken in half, on a mountain in Indonesia (Java?). Apparantly very difficult to reach by ground which is why it's still there. Anyone else recall it?

[SaxMan]

The Liberator in storage in Colorado is actually LB-30 AL557. I believe it is still owned by Don Whittington, but rumor had it that he was trying sell it a few years ago. It is in very rough shape. It would take quite a lot to get it to fly.

At one point, I had some color photos taken from slides of the plane taken after it was abandoned in Alaska after an accident. It was just pushed over to the side and stripped of its engines.

The Newfoundland B-24 was supposed to be part of a trade that would bring a B-24 to the Smithsonian. IIRC, they were going to trade a T-33 (and a second plane that I can't recall) for the B-24. This was in the late 1990s. Unfortuntately, one of the people involved in trying to make the deal passed away. It is a combat vet, having a U-Boat kill (possible two?) to its credit. There was talk of restoring it so one side represented an AAF B-24 and the opposite side its RCAF markings.

Where the deal went south was that Newfoundland either wasn't part of Canada, or had a greater degree of autonomy (again, it's been a while) during World War II and they claimed the aircraft as their property. I'm not sure where it stands right now, but the plane is still out there.

[N3Njeff]

Ford built B-24 part!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/1944-B-24-Hatch-off ... 255d2791f0

[JDK]

Where the deal went south was that Newfoundland either wasn't part of Canada, or had a greater degree of autonomy (again, it's been a while) during World War II and they claimed the aircraft as their property. I'm not sure where it stands right now, but the plane is still out there.

The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 (before which the territory had the status of a British colony, self-governing from 1855) to 1949.
...
The dominion was self-governing from 1907 to 1934 when it voluntarily gave up self-government and reverted to direct control from London — one of the few countries that has ever voluntarily given up direct self-rule. Between 1934 and 1949 a six-member Commission of Government (plus a governor) administered Newfoundland, reporting to the Dominions Office in London. Newfoundland remained a de jure Dominion[1] until it joined Canada in 1949 to become Canada's tenth province.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_Newfoundland

One of the reasons for the first meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt was held here in high secrecy was the Dominion's status.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Conference