Mar 022011
Shown in a 1947 US Army booklet of data on existing and projected American military aircraft (and boy were there a lot of ’em) is this sketch of an early proposal for the Consolidated XB-24 “Liberator” bomber. It’s mostly recognizable as a Liberator… except the cockpit glazing is much closer to that of the Boeing B-29. Why this design was included when, by 1947, the B-24 was pretty well known, is a bit of a mystery.
10 Responses to “Early XB-24 concept”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
The aircraft never was terribly attractive, and the glass nose doesn’t help it one iota.
What are the crew supposed to do about attacking enemy fighters? Sneer at them?
Were they planning on making the B-24 a pressurized aircraft?
Note that the production B-24 was very different from the XB-24. They changed the all-glass nose, stuck gun turrets all over it, and generally butched it up.
And if you’re looking for really ugly WWII planes, check out pretty much any British bomber, especially the Avro and Handley Page heavy bombers. They make the B-24 look elegant.
Wasn’t there a fad for glass noses in the mid- to late-30s?
The Germans got very into them as the war went on; one of the few aircraft they looked okay on was the later versions of the He-111. The one on the B-29 looked okay also.
The Short Stirling was considered a very ugly bomber, but I think the He-177 was even worse looking…. it certainly was worse working.
That’s what it reminds me of: the He177!
Reminds me of a Do-217K, whose cockpit was based on a scaled-down version of the one on the He-177:
http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints-depot/ww2planes/dornier/dornier-do-217k.png
Most interesting. There is at least one photo of the original B-24 in this arrangement, not to mention at least one drawing in Consolidated’s LB-series of design studies that is the same aircraft, the LB-16 if I recall correctly. I would like to communicated with the writer of this blog about this and other items he has posted. Please contact me.
OOPS! Typo. Left out “original B-24 MOCKUP”
hello….alan?