OK - finally decided to ante up and buy this beautiful bird after thinking about and researching it for months. Plus, it helped that they are now on sale. I plan on building the plane just like my dad's. He was the Engineer on the "Queen Mae" in the Pacific with the Jolly Rogers. I have all his documentation on the plane, including a Christmas card he sent to my mom with a picture of the nose of the "Queen Mae", squadron books, patches, and even a several page write-up by my dad detailing his time in the USAAF from the time he entered service up through many of their missions. I will be contacting Callie-graphics to correct the tail number in their graphics. The proper tail number is 314, not 337. This is actually misquoted in several sites as 337, which is incorrect. Even one of the plastic models available has the incorrect information.
The Queen Mae was one of the newer planes at the time which was silver and not painted. Dad said that they did that to save several hundred pounds of paint (and the cost), and thus the non-painted planes were actually faster! He had some harrowing tales of some of the things that happened with the "Queen Mae" during the war. The "Queen Mae" was actually filmed upon return from the first bombing mission to one of the large Japanese islands (I can't remember the name off the top of my head), because it was the first plane back. I have been searching for several years through archives, but have not been able to find the film yet. I always wanted to ask dad before he passed away if he had anything to do with the naming of the plane as my mom's middle name was Mae.
Here is the correct information on the "Queen Mae":
Serial #: 44-40314
319th Bomb Squadron "Asterperious"
90th Bomb Group "Jolly Rogers"
The "Queen Mae" graphics was painted on the Starboard (right) side of the plane.
Serial #44-40314 was accepted by the Army Air Force on 20 March 1944, and passed through the Tucson modification center. It was then ferried to Fairfield, California to be united with its overseas ferry crew on 23 April 1944. On 29 April 1944 it left the USA and was accepted by the 5th Air Force on 10 May 1944 and eventually became the "Queen Mae" with the 319th Bomb Squadron of the 90th Bomb Group.
"Queen Mae" is recorded as being salvaged in the Philippines, post-war, on 28 June 1945. No reason was given, but since it was not due to an accident or combat, it can be safely assumed that, as not the most modern B-24 available, it was considered to be "war weary", gutted for useful parts, and the hulk dumped in one of the many aircraft graveyards which were systematically stripped after the war by scrappers.
There has been a deal of confusion about the "Queen Mae" due the elaborate art work on its nose. Some have thought this elaborate art work to be another of the well know Bartigan-painted 6PRG aircraft, but through thorough research it was confirmed that it was not. The nose art is the work of Al Merking, who was also responsible for the art on many of the 6PRG 7-F Photo recon versions of the B-24.
NOTE: Sarkis Bartigan was the artist responsible for the wonderful artwork on a number of the 43rd Bomb Group aircraft (not 6PRG) eg ("Dragon and Its Tail", "Michigan", "Cocktail Hour", and more)
From the middle of 1944, the B-24 Liberators of the 90th Bomb Group were natural metal finish. They were adorned with the Skull and Cross Bombs markings of the Jolly Rogers. Each of the various Squadrons had a different tail color background:
319th Squadron - Blue background. They were known as the "Asterperious" squadron
320th Squadron - Red background. They were known as the "Moby Dick" squadron, and the nose of the Liberators in this squadron were painted with a shark's nose.
321st Squadron - Green background. They were known as the "Bombs Away" squadron
400th Squadron - Black background. They were known and the "Black Pirate" squadron
-
I had to go look just to remind myself what came with it. It has no gear door servo because it never came with a gear door. It's not even offered as an option in the parts list or the upgrades section. You have to get the file to print one yourself. That's what threw me. I got the impression from his post that it came stock with the plane. I haven't flown mine in a while so I couldn't remember how it came.Leave a comment:
-
The B-24 does NOT come with a gear door servo. Since the gear doors are an upgrade you will need to supply a servo. A Freewing 9 gram servo for under $10 will get the job done.Leave a comment:
-
-
I had a buddy 3D print the doors for me, this winter I'll be working to get them installed.Leave a comment:
-
-
-
The gear doors should be on its own servo, which is connected up with the control board. When the retract switch is operated, the control board has a delay that opens the door first and closes it last. Yank out the gear plug from the RX but leave everything else hooked up to the control board and use a servo tester to run the retract. The door should open and close accordingly.Leave a comment:
-
How do you get the nose gear doors to go up or down when the gear retractsLeave a comment:
-
I'm going to buy the silver version soon and use a single 3s 8000mah Lipo for itLeave a comment:
-
-
Its a beauty, Cap'n, awesome pictures and video. I think you are ready to make a full-length movie. You just need some actors!Leave a comment:
-
On our last bit of fall sunshine in Western Washington, I was able to take to the skies with my recently built 78" wingspan Consolidated B-24J Liberator. This one in particular has been custom-painted and given a livery that matches a real bomber that flew in the South Pacific from 1944 to 1945 in World War II. This particular aircraft is from the 372nd Squadron, of the 307th Bomb Group. Known as the "Long Rangers" they flew missions that spanned thousands of miles, at night, over what was mostly open-ocean. My grandfather, Elwood T. Lippincott was Squadron Commander of the 372nd, and flew with many brave crews, including that of famed Olympic Runner, and the Subject of the film "Unbroken", Louis Zamperini. This is the first of two builds, with my next B-24 project will be an accurate representation of the plane that my grandfather flew on his first, and notable mission to bomb Wake Island in December of 1942.
Leave a comment:
-
Thank you all for your kind words of welcome and friendly advise. I can`t say enough about MotionRc, I ordered the plane on Sunday and it arrived today. I briefly looked at the contents and it looked great and very well packed. I will spread on my workbench this weekend to take a parts inventory .
Regards,
FrankLeave a comment:
-
-
Hey Frank,
I'm at work (ha ha, they don't know I'm on here) so I can't tell you what my timer is set for. But I'll say that I haven't really wrung it out yet to see how long I can fly. I'm using the same Admiral 3700's. The plane flies with the throttles cracked and I fly and fly until I get tired and then the batteries are at 3.9v per cell or something, so they obviously can go for a long time. Now if you fly like a maniac at full throttle, doing stuff this plane wasn't meant to do, I suppose it will use the batteries up a lot quicker!
I'll check when I get home and amend this post with what my timer is set for.Leave a comment:
Leave a comment: