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Holiday 2018
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Disponible en línea en español.
For starters let’s take a look at the planes Larry flew in: the Consolidated-
Vultee PB4Y-2 Privateer, the PBY Catalina, and the “PB4Y2-1”??? I’m very
familiar with the PBY Catalina and I know there was a Navy version of
the B-24 with a (very) tall single tail (I always wondered why, and always
felt the twin tails were much more aesthetically appealing), that had to be
the PB4Y-2, but I really didn’t know much about it. Let’s do some poking
around:
PB4Y-2 Privateer
The Consolidated-Vultee PB4Y-2 Privateer was externally similar to the
B-24 Liberator, but the fuselage was lengthened eight feet to accommodate
a flight engineer’s station—the Navy wanted a flight engineer to help
reduce pilot fatigue on long over-water patrol flights—and it had a tall
single vertical stabilizer to increase stability and aircraft handling at the
low to medium altitudes of maritime patrol.
The PB4Y-2 had twelve 50-caliber Browning machine guns in six power-
operated turrets: the B-24’s ventral, retractable Sperry ball turret was
omitted. Surprisingly, turbochargers were omitted from the Privateer’s
Pratt and Whitney engines as maritime patrol missions were not usually
flown at high altitude. This improved performance and saved weight. The
Privateer cruised at 175 m.p.h. and had a range of 2,820 miles.
739 Privateers were delivered to the Navy and several squadrons served
in the Pacific through August 1945. Best info is that there are three
airworthy survivors, all in the USA.
Larry at the Naval Aviation
Monument in Virginia Beach in 2015.
From the left, me - Larry Keefe, Jerry Kaiserman (my
buddy, when we missed the train in Georgia and spent the
long week end together in the brig.) Tom Gibbons (part of
our air crew) Taken in jacksonville fl after graduation from
flight school and receiving our air crew wings.