主题：【贴图】驼峰航线 -- MacArthur

The U.S. Army Air Force also converted 218 B-24Ds and B-24Es into C-109 tankers. These tankers were used in all theaters but they were most heavily employed transporting fuel in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater, flying over the "Hump." C-109s flew from India, over the Himalayas, to B-29 bases in China. With all armor and military equipment removed to save weight, a C-109 could carry almost 2,905 gal (11,000 L) of fuel, over 22,000 lb (10,000 kg). However, while a combat-loaded B-24 could safely take off with room to spare from a 6000-foot runway, a loaded C-109 required every foot of such a runway to break ground, and crashes were not uncommon. With its forward fuel tank filled to capacity, the C-109 tanker version proved to be longitudinally unstable while airborne as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-24_Liberator

http://www.donnan.com/cbi.htm

以下是引用

The first challenge with a heavy load was making it up to altitude, so the B-24 could successfully cross The Hump. Weight was such a factor, that most of the armor plate had been stripped out of Miss Mandy when she arrived in the CBI Theater so the Liberator could haul more payload.