In 1939 the United States Army Air Corps invited the Consolidated Aircraft Company to submit a design study for a more modern prototype of the B-17 Flying Fortress. The resulting aircraft being the XB-24 of which the majority were sold to the British Royal Airforce. They assigned the name “Liberator” and subsequently this was adopted by the USAAC as the official name for the aircraft.
The shorter wing span, higher top speed and greater range made this aircraft ideal as a transport aspect at first. But due to its greater range the B-24 was eventually used as the standard heavy bomber and deployed throughout all theatres of war. The aircraft being the work horse against Germany, flying about a third of its heavy bomber strength and dropping hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs and incendiaries on many missions.
The B-24s only entry and rear exit made it virtually impossible for the flight crew and nose gunner to get to the rear of the aircraft while wearing parachutes. This gave the B-24 the sometimes dubious title of “The Flying Coffin”.
In all 18,482 B-24s were manufactured up until September 1945 of these; The Royal Australian Airforce used 287 in service as a Long Range Heavy Bomber in the South West Pacific during WW2.
Only 3 of the 18 plus thousand are in current airworthy condition worldwide!
In 1988 a team of enthusiasts and former Squadron members dedicated to the preservation of a part of history decided to form a meeting to examine the possibility of acquiring and restoring of a B-24 as a memorial to those that served with Liberators during WW2.
At this location you will be in the vicinity of what has been restoration work in progress since 1995. You do not have to enter the site to find this cache but I would suggest an opportunity on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays between 9.30am and 3.30pm is worth a visit.