Consolidated B-24J Liberator, N7866 / 1470, Pima Air & Space Museum
This picture is © Martin Laycock and may not be used or published without permission.
Registration: N7866
Construction Number: 1470
Code Number: 20
Model Consolidated B-24J Liberator
Operator: Pima Air & Space Museum
Airport: Tucson - Pima Air and Space Museum, USA - Arizona
Photographer: Martin Laycock
Date Taken: 10/1992
Date Submitted: 08/07/2009
This B-24J was built by the Convair plant at Fort Worth, Texas in 1944, being completed on 7 September of that year. She was allocated to the Royal Air Force under the Lend-Lease agreement receiving the serial KH304. She was ferried to the UK in November 1944, and then onwards to India, arriving in Jodhpur in December. She served initially with 354 Squadron, based at Cuttack, until May 1945. She was then transferred as a reserve aircraft to 203 Squadron, based in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) but with a detachment at St Thomas' Mount, Madras. After the war, like other Liberators in the theatre, KH 304 was delivered to 322 Maintenance Unit, Kanpur, for storage and disposal. KH 304 was officially struck-off RAF charge on 11 April 1946. The aircraft was subsequently refurbished and restored to flying condition by the Indian Air Force and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. She assumed the IAF serial HE-877 and served with No 6 Squadron, the specialist Maritime Reconnaissance squadron of the Indian Air Force who were the world's last mainstream operator of the B-24 Liberator until their retirement in 1968. This aircraft was one of the more intensively used Indian B-24s, accumulating a total of 39,000 flying hours in IAF service. This figure does not include her time in RAF service. In particular, HE-877 provided photographic survey support to the first successful conquest of Everest, by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, in 1953. Several of the spectacular publicity photographs of Mount Everest released to the media at that time were taken by this aircraft. She was donated to the Pima Air and Space Museum by the Indian government and began her ferry flight to Tucson on 28 March 1968. For the flight she was given the US civil registration N7866. Her route was Pune-Karachi-Mehrabad-Athens-Naples-Torrejon-Lajes-Newfoundland-Forestville-Washington-Fort Worth, finally arriving in Tucson on 27 April 1969. In this photograph, her port side represents an aircraft of the 9th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Group. She has since been moved inside Hangar 3 and wears the markings of an aircraft of the 446th Bomb Group, named 'Bungay Buckaroo' on her port side. On her starboard side she wears the markings of No. 6 Squadron, Indian Air Force, complete with 'Flying Dragons' nose art.
Picture ID:1181890