WWII Aircraft, Alfa Engines

[Fred Di Matteo <fredalfa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my recent visit to the Alfa Romeo Museo Storico, I viewed some of the
many aircraft engines Alfa built.  It reminded me of my WWII days flying
the Liberator B-24s in Combat missions around China.  I thought some of
you young'uns woukd like a bit of history.

Some information about the B24:

The B-24 Liberator was produced in greater quantities and flown in more
theaters of war by the air forces of more countries than any other four
engine bomber in World War II.  19,256 planes (in several versions) were

produced by Consolidated Vultee, Ford Motor Company, Douglas Aircraft
and
North American Aircraft between the years of 1939 and 1945. Today there
are
only two flight-worthy B-24's in existence, and it's history and role in

WW II is only dimly recalled except by those who flew in them.

The other four-engine heavy bomber, the Boeing B-17, received most of
the
publicity, particularly in the strategic air campaign against the
Germans in
Europe. Yet B-24's outnumbered the B-17's even there. B-24's could fly
higher, faster, farther, carry a bigger bombload and take more
punishment
from enemy fire than the fabled B-17. But as all B-24 crewmen knew, the
B-17
had one feature that the B-24 never had, a built-in press agent!   There

just
was no way for an airplane known as the "Box Car" to compete in the
public's
eye with the fabled "Flying Fortress."

A fully armed and combat-ready B-24 carried a crew of ten men. Its gross

weight when loaded was greater than 60,000 pounds. It had, in the most
common versions, four movable turrets, each with two .50 caliber machine

guns
and two individual .50s in the waist, making a total of ten. It was
powered
by four 1,200 horsepower engines and carried 2,750 gallons of fuel.
Many
B-24
missions were round trips of 1,500 miles and some extended ranges were
near
2,000 miles.

The most common bomb-load was ten 500 pound bombs or five 1,000
pounders.
It's operating environment against heavily defended targets in the
European
Theater was from 18,000 to 28,000 feet, although many missions
(particularly
in the Pacific) were flown at much lower altitudes. The planes were not
pressurized or heated; crewmen wore oxygen masks on high altitude
missions
and were exposed to temperatures that reached -30 degrees farenheit and
below.

The cold made me cry more than once! Fred Di Matteo

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