Here is an aircraft type I tried to avoid for years ! Although I find the B-24 to be a fascinating aircraft, I also know that it is an aircraft with an extraordinary numbers of variants and equipment options. My notes on the topic add up to more than 15 pages, and is not yet complete !

There are so many variations of the Liberator, including within a same variant or even production block, that newly-produced aircraft were generally flown to regional modification centers to be “harmonized” before being sent to operational units. Even despite this, mechanics in Liberator units often complained that all of their charges were different, making maintenance and logistics something of a nightmare.

I do get a smile out of it when I recall that almost half of all Liberators were license-built at the Ford’s Willow Run factory in the state of Michigan, and that Ford – along with Taylor – is often considered as one of the “fathers of standardization”.