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Автор: Steve Birdsall
Издательство: Squadron/Signal Publications
Год издания: 1975
isbn: 0897470206
Количество страниц: 51
Язык: english
Формат: PDF (scan)
Размер: 29 Мб
Каталожный номер: 80645
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The Liberator was conceived in January 1939, when General "Hap" Arnold invited Consolidated to come up with a design superior to Boeing's Flying Fortress. The company's preliminary data was impressive enough to warrant a contract for a prototype, and the design team under Isaac Laddon went to work in earnest. Their first consideration was range, and they selected the wing designed by David Davis for its great efficiency; the wings were shoulder mounted, allowing a capacious fuselage, and a twin rudder and fin assembly was chosen. The aircraft had a tricycle undercarriage and the bomb bay was divided into front and rear compartments, with unique roller-type doors which retracted up the sides from the central keel beam. In the first Liberator, Consolidated Model 32, there was provision for a few hand-held .30-caliber machine guns, and the gleaming prototype, dubbed XB-24 by the Air Corps, flew for the first time on December 29, 1939. By then the Air Corps had already placed an order for seven YB-24s, and thirty-six B-24As for evaluation. The French and British ordered 284 aircraft between them.
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