Article 9156 of rec.aviation.military:
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From: jfb@usgp1.ih.att.com (Joe Baugher)
Subject: Bomber Series--Consolidated B-24 Liberator (37 of 38)
Message-ID: <D14ILu.6JH@ssbunews.ih.att.com>
Summary: PB4Y Privateer for US Navy
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Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 19:10:42 GMT
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Work on a B-24 variant more suited to the Navy's requirements began on 
May 3, 1943, when Consolidated/Vultee was instructed to allocate three 
PB4Y-1s for conversion into a more advanced patrol aircraft designated 
XPB4Y-2.  The company designation of Model 40 was applied to the 
project, but the project was eventually assigned the new model number 
100 in the old Vultee series.  The name *Sea Liberator* was initially 
assigned to the PB4Y-2, but this was quickly changed to *Privateer*.  

The Navy wanted a long-range maritime patrol aircraft which had a 
better performance at low altitudes.  Since most Navy Liberator 
missions were flow at low or medium altitudes, the turbosuperchargers 
of the PB4Y-1 were thought to be unnecessary and a considerable weight 
savings could be achieved if they were omitted.  The Navy also wanted 
to increase the Liberator's aerodynamic stability at low altitudes.  
In early 1942, Consolidated had demonstrated in wind tunnel tests that 
the Liberator would be more stable if the twin fins and rudders were 
replaced by a single tail fin and rudder.  In addition, the Navy 
wanted to add a flight engineer's station which would help to reduce 
pilot fatigue on long patrols.  

Three PB4Y-1s were allocated for the initial conversions.  Bureau of 
Aeronautics serials were 32086, 32095, and 32096.  A seven-foot 
extension was added to the forward fuselage to accommodate a flight 
engineer's station.  The engines were changed to the non-supercharged 
1200 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-94.  The oil cooler scoops were 
repositioned above and below the nacelle instead of on each side, 
changing the orientation of the elliptically-shaped nacelles from 
horizontal to vertical.  A tall vertical tail was planned which would 
increase the overall height of the aircraft to 29 feet 1 5/8 inches, 
but the XPB4Y-2 initially retained the twin-tail Liberator 
configuration while the new single-tail was being tested.  

The defensive armament was also beefed up.  The PB4Y-2 carried two 
Martin A-3 power turrets mounted on the dorsal spine, one immediately 
behind the cockpit and one immediately ahead of the vertical tail.  
The nose had the ERCO 250 SH ball turret that had also been 
retrofitted to some of the early PB4Y-1s that had been based on the 
glass-nosed B-24D.  The tail carried a standard Consolidated A-6B 
turret.  The flexible waist positions of the PB4Y-1 were replaced by 
ERCO 350 THE teardrop- shaped waist blisters.  Each of these blisters 
contained an internal powered ball turret which allowed both fore and 
aft traverse as well as up and down movement.  Each blister carried a 
pair of 0.50-inch machine guns.  When both turrets were depressed to 
maximum, the guns converged to a point 30 feet below the PB4Y-2.  
Consequently, the protection provided by these blisters against 
threats from below was deemed to be sufficiently adequate that it was 
decided that no additional ventral defensive armament was needed, and 
the Sperry belly ball turret fitted to many PB4Y-1s was omitted.  

Cabin heating was provided by Convair exhaust heat exchangers.  Eight 
JATO units could also be fitted.  

The first of three XPB4Y-2 prototypes flew on September 20, 1943.  
They were all initially flown without the single-tail modification, 
and the first two also retained the standard B-24 engine package.  All 
three were soon converted to the single-tail configuration, although 
the tail was initially smaller than that eventually used.  

On October 15, 1943, 660 PB4Y-2s were ordered, followed a year later 
by an order for a second batch of 710 machines.  All of them were to 
be built by Convair/San Diego.  First Privateer deliveries began in 
March of 1944.  The last of 739 Privateers was delivered in October of 
1945.  The remaining Privateers on the order were cancelled following 
V-J Day.  

Operational Privateers had numerous bumps and bulges underneath the 
fuselage and nose which housed various air-to-surface radar and radar 
countermeasures antennae.  Equipment that could be carried included 
AN/APR1 (100-950 MHz), AN/APR-2 (900-1000 MHz), and AN/APR-5 
(1000-3100 MHz) radar intercept receivers which included direction 
finders and pulse analyzers.  Also installed were AN/ARR-5 and 
AN/ARR-7 communications intercept receiver and AN/APT-1 *Dina* (90-220 
MHz), AN/APT-5 *Carpet* (450-720 MHz), and AN/APQ-2 *Rug* (450-720 
MHz) jammers.  

The Privateer entered Navy service during the late summer of 1944.  
VPB-118 and VPB-119 were the first Fleet squadrons to equip with the 
Privateer.  The first overseas deployment began on January 6, 1945, 
when VPB-118 left for operations in the Marianas.  By the end of the 
war, thirteen Navy squadrons were equipped with Privateers, and a 
further five squadrons had a combination of Privateers and Liberators 
flying with them.  

The Privateer was primarily used for patrol missions in support of 
amphibious operations during the latter stages of the Pacific war.  
The crew was typically 11 to 13.  Three squadrons (VPB-109, VPB-123, 
and VPB-124) were equipped with PB4Y-1Bs which carried an ASM-N-2 Bat 
anti-shipping radar-homing glide bomb underneath each wing.  The Bat 
was 12 feet long, hand a 10-foot wingspan, and weighed 1600 pounds.  
The first operational use of the Bat was on April 23, 1945 when a 
VPB-109 Privateer launched a pair of these gliding bombs against enemy 
shipping in Valikpapan harbor on Borneo.  

The first Privateer loss was 59477 from VPB-121, which went down on 
January 12, 1945.  61 PB4Y-2 Privateers were lost in action during the 
War.  No U-boat kills were made by Privateers.  

Following the end of the war, six Navy squadrons continued to fly the 
Privateer.  VP-61, based at NAS North island, did extensive photo 
mapping of Alaska between 1947 and 1949.  Some Navy Privateers were 
used for ELINT operations during the early years of the Cold War with 
the Soviet Union.  These missions could on occasion be quite 
dangerous.  On April 8, 1950, a VP-26 Privateer flying such a mission 
was shot down over the Baltic Sea by Soviet fighters.  

The Privateer flew numerous patrol missions during the Korean War in 
search of North Korean or Chinese seaborne infiltrators.  Privateers 
from VP-28, VP-772, and VP-871 flew flare missions in support of 
Marine Corps F7F Tigercat and F4U-5N Corsair night fighters.  They 
carried up to 250 high-intensity parachute flares, enough to provide 
target illumination for several teams of attack aircraft during a 
single night sortie.  

Numerous Navy Privateers were converted for various other missions.  
The PB4Y-2M was a meteorological research version obtained by removing 
the turrets and adding a B-24D-type nose transparency.  The PB4Y-2P 
was a photographic reconnaissance version.  The PB4Y-2S was an 
antisubmarine search version which carried additional radar, and the 
PB4Y-2K was a target drone version converted by the Naval Air 
Development Center.  

In 1951, the Privateer aircraft still in service were redesignated 
P4Y-2, P4Y-2B, and P4Y-2S.  During the early 1950s, Privateers from 
VP-23 flew hurricane-hunting missions out of Miami, Florida.  

The last Privateers left Fleet service in mid-1954.  I still remember 
seeing Navy Privateers flying low over my farm on the Eastern Shore of 
Maryland during the early to mid-1950s.  They were based, I believe, 
at the Chincoteague Naval Air Station in Virginia.  

The Coast Guard operated nine P4Y-2 Privateers out of bases at Barbers 
Point, Hawaii and at USCG Air Station San Francisco for search and 
rescue missions and for weather reconnaissance.  They were 
redesignated P4Y-2G for this role.  The nose turret was replaced by a 
large glazing similar to that of the earlier B-24D, and the waist 
sponsons were deleted and replaced by large bay windows.  

In 1950, 22 PB4Y-2S Privateers were provided to France's Aeronautique 
Navale.  They were based at Tan Son Nhut in French Indochina starting 
in November of 1950.  They were converted to PB4Y-2B configuration for 
standard bombing missions.  Four were lost in Indochina, six were 
returned to the US Navy, and the rest were flown to North Africa, 
where they saw action during the Algerian war of independence They 
also flew missions during the Suez incident of 1956.  The last 
Aeronavale Privateers were scrapped in early 1961 following 
re-equipment with the Lockheed P2V-6 Neptune.  

38 P4Y-2s were transferred to the Chinese Nationalist Air Force 
between May of 1952 and June of 1956.  They flew various missions 
against the Communist mainland, about which relatively few details are 
available, even today.  A total of four were lost in action.  The 
P4Y-2 flew its last combat mission in 1961, when a Chinese Nationalist 
Privateer was shot down by Burmese Hawker Sea Fury fighters while 
dropping supplies to rebels in the Shan State region.  

The Honduran Air Force used three Privateers in the transport role 
until the early 1970s.  

Under the new Tri-Service designation scheme introduced in September 
of 1962, the PB4Y-2 was redesignated P-4B.  At this time, the only 
Privateer still flying with the Navy was a QP4Y-2 being used to ferry 
personnel between the Pacific Missile Test Range (PMTC) at Point Mugu, 
California and St.  Nicholas Island.  It was redesignated QB-4B, 
although this aircraft had probably already been withdrawn from 
service by this time.  

A number of ex-USCG Privateers were converted into the aerial fire 
bombing role by Transaire Spraying Company of Canyon, Texas.  The 
R-1830-94 Twin Wasps were replaced by more powerful 1700-hp Wright 
R-2600 Cyclones.  These conversions (known as *Super Privateers*) 
could be identified by the presence of short-stack exhausts which 
protruded around the circumference of the nacelles.  They could carry 
up to 18,000 pounds of fire-retardant chemical.  Several Super 
Privateers were operated by Hawkins & Powers Aviation of Greybull, 
Wyoming in the fire-fighting role.  Some of these aircraft had their 
nose glazing replaced with North American F-86 Sabre canopies for 
improved visibility.  I believe that some of these fire-fighting 
Privateers are still flying.  Can anyone confirm?  

Another P4Y-2 was used for agricultural spraying by International Air 
Applicators, Inc.  

Several ex-Navy Privateers ended up serving with Latin American 
airlines.  A Brazilian Privateer registered as PT-BEG was in service 
in 1963.  A Mexican example was XB-DOD.  The Empresa Latino Americana 
de Aeronavagacion (ELDA) operated Privateers in freight routes in 
South America throughout the early 1960s, sometimes carrying 
passengers on a fill-up basis.  

PB4Y-2 BuNo 66304 is on display at the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola, 
Florida.  PB4Y-2 BuNo 59818 is at Chandler, Arizona.  

Serials of Consolidated-Vultee PB4Y-2 Privateer:

32000/32335		Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator
				32086, 32095, 32096 converted to XPB4Y-2
				Privateer.
59350/59999		Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer
				Redesignated P4Y-2 in 1951 and P-4 in 1962.
60000/60009		Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer
				redesignated P4Y-2 in 1951 and P-4 in 1962.
66245/66324		Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer
				redesignated P4Y-2 in 1951 and P-4 in 1962.
66325/66394		Cancelled contract for PB4Y-2 Privateer
66795/66999		Cancelled contract for PB4Y-2 Privateer	
67000/67054 		cancelled contract for PB4Y-2 Privateer
76839/77138		cancelled contract for PB4Y-2 Privateer
77000/77138		Cancelled contract for PB4Y-2 Privateer

Specification of Consolidated-Vultee PB4Y-2 Privateer:  

Four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-94 fourteen-cylinder unsupercharged air 
cooled radial engines rated at 1350 hp.  
Performance:  Maximum speed 248.5 mph at 12,000 feet.  Cruising speed 
158 mph.  Initial climb rate 1180 feet per minute.  An altitude of 
10,000 feet could be reached in 16.3 minutes.  Service ceiling 18,300 
feet.  Range 2630 miles with 4000 pound bombload.  Patrol range 2900 
miles with 3964 US gallons fuel. 
Dimensions:  wingspan 110 feet 0 inches, length 74 feet 7 inches, 
height 29 feet 1 1/2 inches, wing area 1048 square feet.  
Weights:  39,400 pounds empty, 64,000 pounds gross.  
Armament:  Twelve 0.50-inch machine guns distributed as follows:  two 
in nose turret, two in forward dorsal turret, two in rear dorsal 
turret, two in tail turret, two in left side blister turret, two in 
right side blister turret.  Bombload of 8000 pounds could be carried.  

Sources:

    Famous Bombers of the Second World War, William Green, 
    Doubleday, 1959.

    Liberator: America's Global Bomber, Alwyn T. Lloyd,
    Pictorial Histories Publishing Co, Inc, 1993.

    The Consolidated B-24J Liberator, Roger A. Freeman,
    Profile Publications, Inc. 1969.

    B-24 Liberator in Action, Larry Davis, Squadron/Signal Publications
    Inc, 1987.

    General Dynamics Aircraft and Their Predecesssors, John Wegg,
    Naval Institute Press, 1990.

    Consolidated B-24D-M Liberator IN USAAF-RAF-RAAF-MLD-IAF-CzechAF
    and CNAF Service, Ernest R. McDowell, Arco, 1970. 

    United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, Gordon Swanborough
    and Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute Press, 1990.

    American Combat Planes, 3rd Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner,
    Doubleday, 1982.

    Jane's American Fighting Aircraft of the 20th Century,  Michael
    J.H. Taylor, Mallard Press.


Joe Baugher			  **************************************
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