Consolidated C-87

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Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express
C-87s delivered Fort Worth (color) 1942-2.jpg
Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express
Type: Transport plane
Design country:

United StatesUnited States United States

Manufacturer:

Consolidated Aircraft

First flight:

August 24, 1942

Number of pieces:

280

The Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express was a long-haul transport aircraft of the USAAF , the US Navy and the Royal Air Force during World War II .

History and equipment

Consolidated C-87 Liberator

This version was derived from the B-24D bomber , it had no armament. A row of windows was attached to the left and right of the fuselage. The 24 machines of the Royal Air Force were called Liberator C.Mk VII . The variant C-87-A , of which only 6 were built, had 10 sleeping cabins and R-1830-45 radial engines. The US Navy deployed 3 Consolidated C-87s under the designation RY-2 and 5 Consolidated C-87A under the designation RY-1 . The Consolidated C-109 had tanks with a capacity of 10,978 liters. The version with the designation PB4Y Privateer was used as a bomber and had only one vertical tail . As a transport aircraft, this type was used under the designation RY-3 in the US Navy and under the designation Liberator C.Mk IX in the Royal Air Force.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
length 20.2 m
span 20.22 m
Max. Takeoff mass 25.674 t
drive four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-43 with 895 kW (1200 PS) each
Cruising speed 322 km / h
Range 4666 km

Incidents

From the first flight on August 24, 1942 to the end of operations in 1964, the Consolidated C-87 and C-109 suffered 151 total aircraft losses. 225 people were killed in 32 of them.

The worst accident was the crash on July 25, 1944 near Florida Island in the Solomon Islands . A machine with the registration number 41-11706 crashed into the jungle while approaching Guadalcanal Airport. There were a total of 27 deaths.

literature

  • ER Johnson: American Military Transport Aircraft , McFarland and Co., 2013, ISBN 978-0-7864-3974-4 . Pp. 145-148.
  • Susan Harris: Encyclopedia of Aircraft - Technology, Models, Data , Weltbild Verlag GmbH, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-89350-055-3 , p. 350
  • John Wegg: General Dynamics Aircraft and their Predecessors , Putnam Aeronautical, 1990, ISBN 0-85177-833-X . Pp. 86-90.
  • John M. Andrade: US Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909 , Midland Counties Publ., 1979, ISBN 0-904597-22-9 , p. 82.

Web links

Commons : Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of accidents with Consolidated C-87 and C-109 , Aviation Safety Network , accessed on August 11, 2018.
  2. ^ Accident report Consolidated C-87 41-11706 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 11, 2018.