PB4Y-2 Consolidated Privateer interior and bomb bay details wanted

[lawqbarr]

Does anyone have a reliable drawing for the innards of the PB4Y-2 ?
I'm particularly interested in the bomb bay -
Some drawings depict the entire bomb bay (front and rear sections) filled with ancillary equipment water tanks etc ... but that can't be right
B-24 drawings are freely avaiable but I understand these are not accurate for the PB4Y-2 bomb bay
Any help gratefully received TIA ...
David

 

[mjfur]

Best I could find.

http://www.vpb-118.com/images/Cutaway.jpg

https://aviadejavu.ru/Images6/AE/AE06-5/48-1.jpg

https://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/1/9/4/6/4/5/webimg/438725508_tp.jpg

You could also purchase a manual for a few bucks, Avialogs: Aviation Library - Flight Manual PB4Y-2 Airplane

 

[MIflyer]

A recently deceased friend of mine flew as a radio operator on those in WWII with VP-109. I did an article on the unit for Aviation History.

The book Bombers in Blue gives some details. I could scan some pages if you would like.

You can download the PB4Y-2 flight manual here:

Aviation Archives

aviationarchives.blogspot.com

 

[lawqbarr]

A recently deceased friend of mine flew as a radio operator on those in WWII with VP-109. I did an article on the unit for Aviation History.

The book Bombers in Blue gives some details. I could scan some pages if you would like.

You can download the PB4Y-2 flight manual here:

Aviation Archives

aviationarchives.blogspot.com

Many thanks for your replies
The Flight manual was a great help, but still wonder where configuration drawings like the one attached come from ?!
The attached depicts equipment and an internal layout (including re-purposed bomb bays) which is substantially different to the Flight Manual

David

 

[MIflyer]

After WWII the Privateers still in USN service became much more focused on ECM and ELINT than bombing. Even in WWII they did very little high altitude level bombing and the turbosuperchargers present on the B-24 were removed on the PB4Y-2 version. So bomb bays became much less important after WWII. Even in WWII the airplane's main role was scouting, a result of the USN experience during the Battle of Midway where they found USAAF B-17's could pretty much go anywhere while the USN PBY's were vulnerable to any enemy aircraft they encountered and spent a lot of time ducking in and out of clouds to escape interception. The USN resorted to putting Navy officers on board the B-17's as observers and decided that had to get their own long range four-engined bombers. They initailly acquired modified B-24's, called the PB4Y-1 and some B-17's.

The flight manual reflects the original configuration of the airplane and shows the bomb bays intact. So does the book I have.

During WWII VPB-109 launched the Bat missile, which was a radar guided fire and forget weapon that was 20 years ahead of its time.

There is a book "The Reluctant Raiders" about VPB-109 you can buy for $7.95 from Hamiltonbook.com.

 

[elbmc1969]

During WWII VPB-109 launched the Bat missile, which was a radar guided fire and forget weapon that was 20 years ahead of its time.

Aside from the atrocious guidance system that was trying to do tasks that needed another 20 years of electronics advances to work ...

I guess that can be the definition of "ahead of its time!"

 

[MIflyer]

Biggest problems with the Bat were:

1. The crew could not know what target they were locked onto.
2. The missiles had been hauled around externally on the aircraft, stored outside, and were made of plywood. So aerodynamically they were none too good.
3. Unable to accurately determine the range to the target thus often launched from too far away for the altitude, and they did not make it to the target.
4. Turbos had been deleted from the PB4Y-2, so it was not a good airplane for high altitude.

Imagine an Alternate Universe story with the Bats being launched from B-29's and things could have been very interesting.