Editing Consolidated B-24 Liberator (section)

=== Flying the B-24 ===
Lindell Hendrix, later a test pilot for [[Republic Aviation]], flew B-24s for the Eighth Air Force.<ref>Hendrix, Lindell ("Lin"), "Requiem for a Heavyweight", Wings, February 1978, A Sentry Magazine, page 20.</ref> Hendrix preferred the B-24 to the B-17. In Eighth Air Force combat configuration, the aircraft carried {{convert|8000|lb|kg}} of bombs. It could manage an altitude of no more than {{convert|25,000|ft|m|abbr=on}}, three or four thousand feet less than a B-17, but it flew {{convert|10|-|15|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} faster. Its lower altitude made it more vulnerable to flak. Hendrix figured that Germans understood it was easier to hit, and that it carried more bombs.

It was necessary when flying the B-24, to get "on step". This meant climbing to about {{convert|500|ft|m|abbr=on}} above cruise altitude, levelling off, achieving a cruise speed of {{convert|165|-|170|mph|km/h|abbr=on}}, then descending to assigned altitude. Failing to do this meant that the B-24 flew slightly nose high, and it used more fuel. The Davis wing made the B-24 sensitive to weight distribution. Hendrix claimed that a lightly loaded B-24 could out-turn a P-38 Lightning. A heavily loaded B-24 was difficult to fly at speeds of less than {{convert|160|mph|km/h|abbr=on}}. The B-24's controls were heavy, especially if the control rigging was not properly tensioned.

B-24s leaked fuel. Crews flew with the bomb bay doors slightly open to dissipate potentially explosive fumes. Hendrix did not permit smoking on his B-24, even though he was a smoker. Chain smoker [[Tex Thornton|"Tex" Thornton]], then in command of the US Army Air Corps' Statistical Control, flew across the Atlantic in a B-24, and was not permitted to smoke. Thornton's Statistical Control group demonstrated that Eighth Air Force B-24s were taking lower casualties than B-17s because they were being given shorter, safer missions. The B-17s actually delivered more bombs to the target than B-24s.<ref>Byrne, John A., The Whiz Kids: The Founding Fathers of American Business and the Legacy They Left Us, Currency Doubleday, Page 50</ref>