Aviation Historian 6
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H.Carter - Fit for the King
Originally given the American military serial 40-2359 (c/n 11), Liberator AM920 was one of 20 bought for the RAF from the US Army Air Corps and delivered during April-August 1941. After a distinguished wartime career with BOAC as AM920, the inelegant but hardworking transport was given the civil registration G-AHYB in 1946.
The last word in Vietnamese luxury - this superb photograph of Consolidated Liberator F-VNNP, complete with whitewalled tyres, shows the much-travelled workhorse in its final colour scheme, while serving as a VIP transport for Bao Dai, the Vietnamese head of state during 1949-55. Following its long career with BOAC as AM920 and G-AHYB, it was one of five sold to French company STA Alpes Provence in April 195, initially being registered as F-BEFR. It was overhauled, appointed to a luxury configuration and put on the French colonial register as F-VNNP. Little is known about its ultimate fate.
Liberator II G-AHYF (formerly AL592) taxies out for another transatlantic flight for BOAC after receiving its civil registration in 1946, and is seen here in the corporation’s restrained post-war polished bare-metal scheme.
At the end of December 1945 AM920 was listed as being part of the BOAC fleet and based in Montreal. On August 19, 1946, the Liberator was given its new civil identity, G-AHYB, after which it continued to serve the route between Montreal and Prestwick until the spring of 1950, when it was offered for sale to a new owner in France.