"AM912"

NAME

SER

BLK

SERIAL #

RCL/#

V#-P

PHOTO CREDITS

"AM912"

AM912

00-1

N/A

Info Contributor - Al Blue
While plans for production went forward, development continued on the XB-24...
[A number of improvements were mooted, but because of time factors, only those which could be made quickly were permitted. These were the turbo supercharged R-1830-41 engine, self-sealing gasoline tanks and armour-plate. The AAF wanted those modifications and so did not want their initial orders. CAC were able to convert planned serials 40-696-701 and 40-2349-2368 into the two British contracts and those airframes were never built, though the contracts were never officially cancelled.]
The planned B-24A production batch was actually 40-2349-2386. The serials 40-696-702 were to be YB-24s, but 40-696-701 were built as LB-30As with RAF serials AM258-263 and the AAF serials were later built as B-24Ds, thus the reason why the contract was not cancelled, but partially “converted” (see next paragraph).
The remaining serial in the contract, 40-702, was built as a YB-24, later being re-designated as the only ‘plain’ B-24 ever built. Serials 40-2349-2368, part of the B-24A contract, were converted (thus CAC carried them on the books as “B-24A conversions” – not physically converted but contractually converted) were built as LB-30Bs (the designation later changed to Liberator Is) with RAF serials AM910-929. This meant that those AAF serials were never built, effectively ‘not taken up, or more simplistically, never used, re-used or paid for by the AAF, nor were they actually cancelled.
The next portion of the B-24A contract, serials 40-2369-77, were built as AAF B-24As and remained so designated throughout their lives.
This left a number of contract B-24A serials unused - 40-2378-86. These were built as B-24Cs to complete the contract.
While it is possible to argue that the specific airframe which the CAF own originated in the AAC contract for B-24As, it never existed physically as a B-24A because it was built under a different contract, a British contract for LB-30Bs.
AM927 was built in May 1941. 40-2366 was built in February 1942.
There was only one 40-2366, and any association between it and AM927 is a symptom of misunderstanding the reality of the contract system. 40-2366 was an aircraft of the USAAF from February 1942. AM927 was never paid for by the British and remained owned by CAC until accepted by the AAF as the XC-87 on 1 Sep 42.

Research Team Comments: One of 20 B-24As originally ordered by AAF but diverted to the British under a contract by which the AAF B-24As were later replaced by 20 early B-24Ds (AM910 - AM929 [C/N 7 to 26]). Consolidated carried this plane as an LB-30B or "B-24A Conversion" on its records though it had been delivered to the British purchasing commission as a Liberator I in May.