Goodyear Litchfield Park Privateers

PhantomAce08 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:41 am

Here are some pictures from Goodyear's Litchfield Park facilites in Arizona.....

phil65 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:12 am

Cool, But why is there never many people in these old photo's?

Ztex · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:25 am

Is the airplane in the first picture considered to be a PB4Y-1?
Looks like "D"ish with the Navy turret...I'm guessing this was a mod center.

Nice pics,
Z

Connery · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:33 am

Great pics!!! the PB4Y-2 is one of my favorites, so all the pics you post is most welcomed

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:39 am

The Litchfield NAS still exsists as the Litchfield Airport and the Goodyear factory buildings still exsist and are still in use, as are the large WWII hangars. The Navy closed Litchfield in the early 60s when it moved the storage of planes to Tucson. The airport is now operated by the city of phoenix.

ACarey · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:17 pm

Nices photos, I wish they could have been included in my book.

Tom Crawford · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:46 pm

Beautiful Pics...Educate me, did the PB4Y-"1" have twin tails (B-24).
I thought all Privateers had the single vertical stabilizer...Tom

Tom Crawford · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:48 pm

The first Picture has to be a B-24.....B-24 engines and cowling..

ACarey · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:53 pm

The first is a PB4Y-1 Liberator. USN and USMC had D, J, L, and M models.

Tom Crawford · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:17 pm

So I would suppose the Privateer (single tail) started with the PB4Y-2..

Connery · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:32 pm

Yes, the PB4Y-1 was a Navalized version of the standard B-24. Some models as you can see has the front Emerson turret replaced with the ERCO bow turret. The PB4Y-2 was created by replacing the twin vertical tails of the B-24 with a larger single vertical tail which provided more stability at the lower altitudes that the Navy flew them. That is also why the engine cowlings are different on the PB4Y-2. The Navy didn't fly at high altitude so they didn't need the super chargers. The PB4Y-2 also had the ERCO waist turrets and dual upper Martin turrets. The lower ball turret was removed because the two ERCO waist turrets could rotate down past 90 degrees to cover the area beneath the plane.

Tom Crawford · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:17 pm

Thanks for the reply Connery....

seabee1526 · **Joined:** Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:18 pm **Posts:** 459

Where would the prints / drawings for the Privateer conversions have ended up? Would they still be maintained in a Navy archive?

famvburg · **Joined:** Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:41 am **Posts:** 540

The Privateer was also a few feet longer.

ChrisK48 · **Joined:** Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:40 pm **Posts:** 131

Matt Gunsch wrote:

The Litchfield NAS still exsists as the Litchfield Airport and the Goodyear factory buildings still exsist and are still in use, as are the large WWII hangars. The Navy closed Litchfield in the early 60s when it moved the storage of planes to Tucson. The airport is now operated by the city of phoenix.

Actually, it's Phoenix Goodyear Airport.

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