![]() The Consolidated B-24 Liberator’s extended Fowler wing flaps were controlled by the co-pilot under direction from the pilot. The larger and more efficiently placed Fowler flaps were able to counteract the faster landing speeds - giving the pilot greater control.Īs a consequence, the Liberator’s new area-increasing flaps offered far superior performance than the split flaps of the B-17. ![]() To this wing were added revolutionary Fowler Flaps which slid back and down the trailing edge of the wings - the forerunners to the modern airliners we are so familiar with today. This flexible, fully cantilevered, shoulder-wing configuration was the key to the B-24’s success as a heavy bomber and featured an extremely strong and robust box-like construction that enabled the aircraft to remain in the air even if one of its main wing structural members failed. Named after the self taught aeronautical engineer, David R Davis who had long been researching the question of what enabled a wing to lift a load in the face of air resistance, the answer was found in the design of what was called a ‘fluid foil’. Whilst this gave the flight crew fantastic ground visibility, it also only further exacerbated the terrors of the aircraft’s faster landing speed. With the B-24’s Prat and Whitney engines slung beneath, Consolidated were forced to introduce a radical tricycle undercarriage system. This gave the B-24’s shoulder -mounted Davis wing an incredible lift to weight ratio and climbing ability, although it did reduce its stall-speed and consequently required a much faster landing speed.įor most pilots who had flown the B-17 or the twin-engined Mitchell bomber with their reasonably sedate landing approach, sitting behind the control column of a B-24 descending to the runway at a significantly faster airspeed was often a very frightening experience. Where the sleek and streamlined B-17’s engines split the aircraft’s fat wing profile, Consolidated made the decision to keep their ‘Davis' wing’s upper surface undisturbed and suspend the B-24’s Pratt and Whitney engines beneath, with the top of the engine nacelles almost flush with the top of the airfoil. Unlike its main rival, Boeing’s B-17 Flying Fortress which had rolled of the production line less than five years earlier, the Consolidated Aircraft Company, whilst embracing the advantages of Boeing's four-engined configuration, shunned almost everything else about the B-17. Manufactured by General Electric, this rare Type DJII WWII Flap Position Indicator was installed in the US designed Consolidated B-24 Liberator, four-engined, heavy bomber.
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