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The Last Flight of Liberator 41-1133
The story of a B-24D Liberator bomber which crashed on Trail Peak, at Philmont Scout Ranch, near Cimarron, New Mexico, on April 22, 1942. The wreckage is the world's most visited military, or civil, crash site in the world. The book follows the crew, especially the two young pilots, during their training and up to the final moments of the roundtrip training flight between Albuquerque and Kansas City.
Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 30, 2022
An authoritative account of B-24 Liberator 41-1133, which crashed on 22 April 1942 with the loss of all crew. The site of its crash, just below the summit of 10,250' Trail Peak, is visited by thousands of Scouts every year as part of their trek at Philmont Scout Ranch. The first section provides a biography of each of the crew aboard the aircraft and describes the first leg of its Albuquerque to Kansas City round trip training flight. The second section describes the early WWII training program for pilots in detail. The third section covers the crash and its aftermath, with the author's reconstruction of the microburst conditions that were likely the ultimate cause of the crash.
At 400 pages, The Last Flight of Liberator 41-1133 is a wide-ranging volume, with a detailed look at the historical and cultural context. The look at the training schools themselves is fascinating; the demand for military pilots was so great that these schools were run largely by civilians--primarily TWA pilots for the schools described in the book. The narrative is also Scouting-focused, with emphasis on the role Scouting played in the crew's lives (especially Roland Jeffries, an Eagle Scout).
As a non-pilot, I found that the author did a good job keeping the descriptions of flight training and aircraft control from exceeding my grasp of aviation concepts. The wealth of photographs presented add to the impact, and the author's speculations on what the trainees might have faced had their lives not ended on that fateful flight help personalize the massive cost of WWII.
At 400 pages, The Last Flight of Liberator 41-1133 is a wide-ranging volume, with a detailed look at the historical and cultural context. The look at the training schools themselves is fascinating; the demand for military pilots was so great that these schools were run largely by civilians--primarily TWA pilots for the schools described in the book. The narrative is also Scouting-focused, with emphasis on the role Scouting played in the crew's lives (especially Roland Jeffries, an Eagle Scout).
As a non-pilot, I found that the author did a good job keeping the descriptions of flight training and aircraft control from exceeding my grasp of aviation concepts. The wealth of photographs presented add to the impact, and the author's speculations on what the trainees might have faced had their lives not ended on that fateful flight help personalize the massive cost of WWII.
January 24, 2020
GREAT BOOK SAD STORY.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews