AP 118 · No. 11 Section II · Aircraft Plate 188 / 356

Plate 188 of 356 · Second World War · Long-range maritime patrol bomber

Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer

PB4Y-2 BuNo 66261 (as 66304 ‘V514’), painted as Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer BuNo 66261, rebuilt from two airframes and displayed as BuNo 66304 ‘V514’ outdoors at the National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Florida: a four-engined long-range maritime patrol bomber developed from the B-24 Liberator, with a long fuselage, the slender high-aspect Davis wing spanning 33.5 m, four Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials in oval cowlings driving three-bladed propellers, a single tall fin and rudder, an Erco ball turret in the nose, teardrop waist blisters and a tricycle undercarriage, shown level on its wheels as displayed: sea blue on the top of the fuselage and nacelles, intermediate blue on the fuselage sides, fin and rudder, insignia white below, the star and bar with a blue outline under the flight deck, ‘V514’ in black behind it, ‘NAVY’ and ‘66304’ on the fin, and black propellers with yellow tips; the forward dorsal turret is missing as displayed, and the starboard side, which no photograph shows, mirrors the port (shape from the Bureau of Aeronautics three-view scaled to the published span and length, checked against a second three-view and photographs of this aircraft).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer BuNo 66261, rebuilt from two airframes and displayed as BuNo 66304 ‘V514’ outdoors at the National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Florida: a four-engined long-range maritime patrol bomber developed from the B-24 Liberator, with a long fuselage, the slender high-aspect Davis wing spanning 33.5 m, four Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials in oval cowlings driving three-bladed propellers, a single tall fin and rudder, an Erco ball turret in the nose, teardrop waist blisters and a tricycle undercarriage, shown level on its wheels as displayed: sea blue on the top of the fuselage and nacelles, intermediate blue on the fuselage sides, fin and rudder, insignia white below, the star and bar with a blue outline under the flight deck, ‘V514’ in black behind it, ‘NAVY’ and ‘66304’ on the fin, and black propellers with yellow tips; the forward dorsal turret is missing as displayed, and the starboard side, which no photograph shows, mirrors the port (shape from the Bureau of Aeronautics three-view scaled to the published span and length, checked against a second three-view and photographs of this aircraft). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.6 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (PB4Y-2); engine, crew and dimensions are for the PB4Y-2 BuNo 66261 (as 66304 ‘V514’) modelled here.

History

The PB4Y-2 Privateer

By 1943 the US Navy was flying B-24 Liberators, as the PB4Y-1, on long patrols over the sea, and asked Consolidated for a version designed for the job. The result kept the Liberator’s long, narrow Davis wing but had a fuselage 7 ft longer, with room for a flight engineer and more radio and radar operators, a single tall fin and rudder in place of the twin fins, two dorsal turrets, teardrop gun blisters in the waist, and engines without turbochargers, since the Navy patrolled at low level. The first XPB4Y-2, converted from a Liberator, flew on 20 September 1943, and production Privateers began reaching squadrons in 1944.

In the Pacific in 1945 Privateer squadrons flew long armed patrols, attacking Japanese shipping, aircraft and coastal targets far from their bases, and the Privateers of Patrol Bombing Squadron 109 carried the Bat, a radar-homing glide bomb that was the first fully automatic guided weapon used in combat. About 740 Privateers were built before production ended in October 1945.

After the war, renamed P4Y-2 in 1951, Privateers flew maritime patrol, electronic intelligence and flare-dropping missions over Korea, and the French Navy used them as bombers in Indochina and Algeria. The US Navy retired its last in 1954, though some flew on as radio-controlled target drones until 1964. Others became fire bombers in the United States and dropped retardant on forest fires until 2002. A handful survive, all in the United States.

This airframe

PB4Y-2 Privateer BuNo 66261, displayed as 66304 ‘V514’

BuNo 66261 (as 66304)The airframe modelled

BuNo 66261 left Navy service after the war, became the civil N7682C and was stripped for spares at Greybull, Wyoming, in 1959, then rebuilt there to its wartime Navy form with parts of BuNo 66304, whose identity it took. It was flown to the National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola, Florida, in January 1983, and stands outdoors there. None is in a UK museum. It was chosen because it keeps the Erco nose turret, the waist blisters and a dorsal turret, which most surviving Privateers lost as fire bombers. The model shows it level on its wheels as displayed, in the US Navy’s 1944 three-tone scheme: sea blue on the top of the fuselage and nacelles, intermediate blue on the fuselage sides, fin and rudder, insignia white below, the star and bar with its blue outline under the flight deck, ‘V514’ in black behind it, ‘NAVY’ and ‘66304’ on the fin, and black propellers with yellow tips. As displayed, the forward dorsal turret is missing and its ring covered, and the aft turret and waist blisters carry no guns. Its shape comes from a Bureau of Aeronautics three-view scaled to the published span and length, checked against a second three-view and photographs of this aircraft. Every usable photograph shows the port side, so the starboard side mirrors it, and the sea blue upper wings and the wing insignia follow standard Navy practice.

Where to see one

Not on charge

A few survive in the United States, some of them former water bombers. None is in a UK museum.

All 356 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.