The Other Flying Fortress You Haven't Heard About

My Grandfather was an Engineer on a B24. He and his crew survived a crash in WW2. For whatever reason he stripped the wreck of instrumentation. I've still got it all stored along with throat mics, leather cap and gloves, goggles and 20 -25 instruments. The gyro compass is still stuck on Heading 226°. The direction they were going when they crashed out and lost vacuum. A moment frizen in time. I always thought it's kinda cool.

I recently did some commission model work for a guy whose grandfather owned a large farm in Texas during and after the war. He gave me a copy of a home video (in color!) of an airshow in Texas around 1951. It has a bunch of these aircraft as well as Hellcats and many other WW2 era aircraft but the real gem was a flyover by an early B-36 (before they put jets on it), escorted by several P-82 twin Mustangs. the P-82s landed and he got a bunch of footage of the flying and taxiing. Also a lot of footage of them flying their grandfather's Cessna "Bamboo Bomber" that he bought surplus after the war... landing it on dirt roads and such. Really cool footage. I need to post it to YouTube someday.

Being a modeler of 1/72 scale aircraft and a fan of all WWII subjects the PB4Y was one of my favorites. I happened to purchase two Matchbox kits of their PB4Y's in the early '70's and held on to them when (and I can't remember who or what) came out with a small decal sheet of one particular aircraft. A crude kit, I began sanding down all raised panel lines and rescribing them. I used the beautiful Squadron-Signal canopy set to replace the thick Matchbox fair and ended up selling it at an IPMS "Butch O'Hare" club show up at one of the last ones held at the Glenview Naval Air Station outside of Chicago. I still have the other kit but no add-ons for it. I wish some other manufacturer would put one out.😁

My father was a crew chief on both PBYs and PB4Ys, both 1 and 2. My mother worked on building them at Consolidated.

While I was a pilot at Hawkins and Powers Aviation in Greybull, Wy I had two rides(not as a pilot) in PB4Y-2's in the 1970's. That along with a ride in a KC-97 are among my favorite memories.

So little talked about. One of your finest, most informative documentaries yet! The La-11 encounter was never known until now. Very good sir.

My friend John Copp was a bird colonel Captain out of England. Thay sold him his B24 after the war , he lost.a propeller over Australia and landed it safely. He sent for another prop and all thay sent him was a block of wood and a draw knife. Thank you for your service John and god bless

PB4Y2 Privateers were noted for curing most of the handling characteristics that made pilots hate the standard B-24. B-24s were noted for being difficult and tiring to fly for long periods. Most former PB4Y (standard Navy B-24) pilots that wound up later flying the PB4Y2 were known to praise the newer version to high heaven. Better stability, better control at speed, less muscle needed to fly.

I used to watch those Super Privateers land for fuel at Fortuna Air Strip while they flew as Tankers for CDF. I thought they resembled a modified 24 with 29 engines and Tails, and some kind of fabbed up in a hurry nose’s. Amazing to see one of those tankers again, and hear its true history. Thanks. We watched quite a few B26’s a couple of Boxcars, one with a JATO assist pod mounted up high on its back. Liberators, mostly A-26 surplus or B-26’s surplus tankers. I will always picture in my memory a huge aircraft that seemed to have the same tail as a B-29 but much bigger or so it seemed. Thanks for your content. Great memories.

Thanks for this video. My father was a turret gunner in PB4Y2s in WWII. They flew anti-sub patrols out of San Diego and were scheduled to go to Okinawa to participate in the invasion of Japan but the war ended before they shipped out.

I worked with the BLM fire fighting teams a few summers 1968-1971. We had PB4Y2’s,B17’s, Grumman Goose, P51 two place spotter, various choppers ( I was on hellitack 1 year).

My grandad was a B-24 pilot. Very cool to see this other plane. A lot of people don't know that the reason the B-17 was considered tougher was it has low slung wings instead of high. When a Liberator would make a ditch landing, it would rip the bottom off the plane and kill far more crew than the B-17. Because the B-17 was protected from the bottom being shredded off by the wings and super strong connecting structure taking more of the grinding instead. Both were incredible planes.

Last year, Osprey published a book in their Duel series titled "H6K Mavis/H8K Emily vs PB4Y-1/2 Liberator/Privateer: Pacific Theater 1943-45"

I consider myself a knowledgeable person on most things in the aviation world. I am also an old baby boomer having grown up around WWII aviators, including my father who was a C-47 and then a B-25 bomber pilot. As such I believed I knew every WWII era aircraft, of both the Army Air Corp and the Navy. I had never seen or heard of the Privateer. I find it to be a truly fascinating aircraft. It was obviously a very capable airplane worthy to be well known for its service and contributions. Thank you so much for this very informative documentary video.

When i made the cross country move from south Florida to Phoenx alomg I-10 high on my list was an overnight at Pensacola to see the Naval Air Museum, particualarly the Privateer.Of course it rained like It does in Florida. The ;Larger Aircraft are outside. It happens that I had met General James Stewert and asked if he had ever flown a Privateer (having flown B-24's in the Army) his answer was that the Navy had offered a hop amd he felt the Privateer had better stability. The Navy needs more funding for a larger faciliility, its tiny commpared to the USAF Museum and yeah Im a Zoomie. But we built a building aroud a B-36! My respect as always to my brother service.

Thanks for this episode. I didn't know anything about the Privateers. They were a great design. Thanks for sharing! Stay Healthy!

The PB4Y-2 Privateer Spy-Plane was replaced by the Boeing RB-47H Stratojet. The RB-47H continued in service until the more capable RC-135 replaced it in the mid-1960s.

Great Video. Excellent content and coverage!👍

I was fortunate enough to see one of these operating as a tanker out of CalFire's Air Attack base in Rohnerville, California, in the late 70s or early 80s. The enormous tail was a dead giveaway.

One of these planes converted to a slurry bomber crashed on Mt. Graham in AZ not 20 miles from where I live. I hiked to the wreckage about 10 years ago. The father and son crew were both killed in the 1974 crash that was witnessed by the fire crews that were fighting the fire at the time.