Consolidated B-24 Liberator

The B-24 was a four-engine heavy bomber used during the Second World War. The main characteristics of the Liberator are the shape of the wing (called Davis), narrow and elongated positioned in the mid-high area of the fuselage, the tail consists in two drifts oval in shape and, most important, the carriage in position tricycles.This allowed the pilots to be able to look directly at the track out of the cab without having to meander during taxiing planes as they had the spare wheel in the queue. It was a very versatile machine, but not too popular with crews because unlike his predecessor B-17, which had proved incredibly robust being able to return to base with vital parts badly damaged, the B-24 was not can withstand severe damage in combat. Paradoxically, this was due to its advanced structural characteristics (especially the wing, designed with laminar profiles and high aerodynamic characteristics) that were translated but in a weak structure, that often, if hit in the strengths, could divest of cracking net. Despite its weaknesses, ended the war as the US air more built (over 18,000 aircraft) and together with the B-17 bomber immediately became the leading USAAF. Slightly bigger, faster as the B-17 had a share against lower operational and this meant that was hit and knocked down more frequently at the hands of enemy air defenses. Heavily armed, was equipped with 10 Browning machine guns caliber 12.7mm positioned on turrets. The B-24, however, it was very difficult to fly and with its fairly rigid controls did not make life easy for pilots especially in maintaining the tight formations. Access to the crew was in the back of the plane. To get to the cockpit of the inside passage was very tight especially considering that he also wore a parachute. Very often this difficulty in the transition to head forzaramente queued compromised the ability to save in case it was necessary to launch the plane in flight because it was the only way out. For this reason, the Liberator was nicknamed by the crews "The Flying Coffin".