Consolidated B-24 Liberator B-24J

The B-24J was the most numerous Liberator version and the only one built by all five factories involved in the programme. It derived from the B-24H, but shortages of the Emerson nose turret meant most aircraft from San Diego and Fort Worth received a modified, hydraulically powered Consolidated A-6 turret instead. The model also introduced the type C-1 autopilot and the M-1 series bombsight; any aircraft retrofitted with those two items automatically became a B-24J, as did B-24H sub-assemblies built by Ford and completed by other companies.

With 6,678 built, the B-24J is the Liberator that defines the type in popular memory: the bomber of the strategic offensive over Europe from English and Italian bases, and the long-range aircraft of the Pacific. Its Davis wing gave it the reach the B-17 lacked, at the cost of high wing loading that made it demanding to fly in formation and less tolerant of damage. In RAF service the B-24J corresponded to the Liberator B Mk.VIII.

The accumulated weight of successive turrets and equipment eventually eroded performance, and the Army asked for a lightened version: from that request came the B-24L and B-24M that closed production. In all, 18,482 B-24s were built by September 1945, the largest number of any bomber in history.