Consolidated XB-41 Liberator image - Aircraft Lovers Group

The Consolidated XB-41 Liberator was a single Consolidated B-24D Liberator bomber, serial 41-11822, which was modified for the long-range escort role for U.S. Eighth Air Force bombing missions over Europe during World War II. Outfitted with fourteen .50 caliber defensive machine guns paired in two upper turrets, nose, tail and ventral turrets plus a pair at each waist window, the XB-41 carried 11,000 rounds of ammunition, stored in the bomb bay. It was powered by four 1,250 h.p. Pratt & Whitney R-1830-43 Twin Wasp radial engines. It received limited testing but stability problems, coupled with the unsatisfactory performance of similarly-converted YB-40 gunships derived from the B-17 Flying Fortress in actual operations, led to no further conversions of the Liberator as gunships. The XB-41 was never flown operationally.