AM914 or AM920?

[Peter C]

The caption for this photograph gives the aircraft as Liberator I AM914 under construction at Consolidated Aircraft with a construction number of C/N11
Construction number C/N11 relates to Liberator I AM920.

Any ideas of which aircraft is in the picture?

 

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

San Diego Air and Space Museum has a lot of Consolidated documents, they may have a list. I do not have construction numbers but early production was effectively chronological
1 XB-24/XB-24B accepted in July 1940 serial 39-556 became 39-680
6 LB-30A/YB-24 accepted in December 1940 serials AM258 to AM263
20 LB-30B/B-24A accepted March to May 1941 serials AM910 to AM929
1 B-24 accepted June 1941 serial 40-702
9 B-24A accepted June and July 1941 serials 40-2369 to 40-2377
LB-30 acceptances from August 1941.

The LB-30B and LB-30 were off the French contract F-677, the others from USAAF contracts. Britain records 25 Liberator I imports March to August 1941. In the above list AM914 is the scheduled 11th production aircraft.

 

[Peter C]

San Diego Air and Space Museum has a lot of Consolidated documents, they may have a list. I do not have construction numbers but early production was effectively chronological
1 XB-24/XB-24B accepted in July 1940 serial 39-556 became 39-680
6 LB-30A/YB-24 accepted in December 1940 serials AM258 to AM263
20 LB-30B/B-24A accepted March to May 1941 serials AM910 to AM929
1 B-24 accepted June 1941 serial 40-702
9 B-24A accepted June and July 1941 serials 40-2369 to 40-2377
LB-30 acceptances from August 1941.

The LB-30B and LB-30 were off the French contract F-677, the others from USAAF contracts. Britain records 25 Liberator I imports March to August 1941. In the above list AM914 is the scheduled 11th production aircraft.

Thank you for this, I have all of the above, I have contacted various people in the US but none bother to reply. I shall keep searching.

Once again thank you.

Regards, Peter.

 

[Peter C]

San Diego Air and Space Museum has a lot of Consolidated documents, they may have a list. I do not have construction numbers but early production was effectively chronological
1 XB-24/XB-24B accepted in July 1940 serial 39-556 became 39-680
6 LB-30A/YB-24 accepted in December 1940 serials AM258 to AM263
20 LB-30B/B-24A accepted March to May 1941 serials AM910 to AM929
1 B-24 accepted June 1941 serial 40-702
9 B-24A accepted June and July 1941 serials 40-2369 to 40-2377
LB-30 acceptances from August 1941.

The LB-30B and LB-30 were off the French contract F-677, the others from USAAF contracts. Britain records 25 Liberator I imports March to August 1941. In the above list AM914 is the scheduled 11th production aircraft.

I have emailed the library and archives department of the Museum you mention with a request for help, it would be nice to get a reply, if I do I'll post it on here.

 

[InvaderHistorical]

The caption for this photograph gives the aircraft as Liberator I AM914 under construction at Consolidated Aircraft with a construction number of C/N11
Construction number C/N11 relates to Liberator I AM920.

Any ideas of which aircraft is in the picture?


View attachment 760138

I can't say for sure what the specific model is as my expertise is in a different aircraft. What I can tell you based on more than a decade of doing military aviation History research is that photo captions are the single most frequently wrong sources I encounter. I always treat the caption itself with a grain of salt. There are really only two possibilities; either the caption has rhe c/n right and the model omis wrong, or else the model is right and they made a typo in the c/n. I don't know enough about the liberators to know, but are there enough differences between the 914 and 920 to be able to tell from the photo?

 

[Peter C]

I have received a reply from the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
They say they do not hold photographs of aircraft as a serial list.
I was sent two links to their photo list which I will have to search.

At least it was a reply.

 

[mjfur]

The first aircraft looks to have a #8 on the nose (Your photo above does appear to have a #11) the second aircraft look like #25, third aircraft looks like #24.

Found this
View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/22977903371/in/photolist-2n53rNo-cvdUjy-2n4ZyV3-2n4UbmV-dYRf8u-B1tL8M-26Jnke4-25D4Smw-237rJp4-dYKxk6-qUBeVU

1940 USAAC Serial Numbers

40-2349/2368 Consolidated B-24A-CO Liberator
MSN 1/20. Diverted to RAF as AM910/AM929. Prior to their construction, this serial batch was allocated to B-24As. When it was decided to substitute 20 B-24As for 20 LB-30s on the British contract, the planes were given British serial numbers and the AAF serials were reallocated to B-24Ds.
2349 to RAF as AM910. Used to test AXV radar and 20-mm cannon
pack. Crashed on landing at Nutts Corner Apr 13, 1942.
Nose section lay in Lincolnshire wood until the late 1960s.
2350 to RAF as AM911. Engine caught fire on takeoff, undercarriage collapsed
at Gibraltar May 23, 1943 and DBR
2351 to RAF as AM912. Nosewheel collapsed on landing at Boscombe Down May 16, 1941.
Not repaired and SOC Dec 11, 1941
2352 to RAF as AM913. Engine caught fire and fell off, crashed on approach
at Talbenny Jan 29, 1943
2353 to RAF as AM914. NFT Apr 16, 1945. To transport. SOC in
Canada in 1946
2354 to RAF as AM915. Flew into Achinoan Hill in cloud on arrival from
Canada near Campbeltown, Argyll Sep 1, 1941
2355 to RAF as AM916. Sold Aug 19, 1946. Salvaged Baledo Bridge, 1952
2356 to RAF as AM917. Sunk U-338 off Iceland Sep 20, 1943
with 120 Sqdn. SOC Mar 12, 1947
2357 to RAF as AM918. Later to G-AGDR with BOAC. Shot down in error over English Channel
near Plymouth, England Feb 15, 1942. All 9 aboard killed. Some databases have G-AGDR being
AM219 instead, but this appears to be in error.
2358 to RAF as AM919. Sank U-258 Apr 20, 1943, sank U-304
Apr 28, 1943. Undercarriage collapsed on landing at Reykjavik Jun 18, 1943.
Salvaged for spares
2359 to RAF as AM920. Sank U-254 Dec 8, 1942. To BOAC as
G-AHYB Feb 10, 1946. To Vietnam as F-VNNP Emperor Bao Dai