The Consolidated B-24 Liberator: Reuben Fleet, the Factories, and the Product

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is the ultimate look at the B-17’s iconic stablemate from its origins on the drawing board to its emergence as America’s preeminent blue-collar bomber. It chronicles the life of aviation legend Reuben Fleet, founder of Consolidated Aircraft, alongside the design evolution of one of his greatest creations. Some 19,000 Liberators were built between 1940 and 1945, primarily at Ford and Consolidated in the United States, and the aircraft remains the most mass-produced bomber in history. Drawing on the document and photo collections at the National Museum of the USAF, the Pima Air & Space Museum, the archives of Consolidated Aircraft and the Ford Motor Company, and his own immense collection of published and unpublished material, author Bill Wolf has produced the last word on the design, development, and manufacture of the ever-popular B-24.