2-1
A nagivator's bookcase found during Niku I (1989).
For a time, it seemed as though this might have been the "smoking gun" that would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Niku hypothesis was correct. Further examination of the numbers stamped on the bookcase proved, instead, that it was a Consolidated Aircraft Part Number 28F4023, officially described as Box-Furn., Navig. Book & Paper Stowage. Although designed for the PBY (Consolidated Model 28), this particular bookcase had been modified for installation in a B-24 type airplane. Early examples of the Consolidated Model 32 (B-24C and some B-24D/PB4Y-1 aircraft, a total of 1,653 machines) were equipped with PBY bookcases. Later, Consolidated designed a special bookcase for the Liberator which carried a 32F... part number.