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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1716.PDF
FLIGHT JULY 31SI. 1941. BETTER U.S. BOATS and BOMBERS Britain is Reaping the Benefit of American Developments "Lease and Lend" Types Reviewed By .1. I. WADDINGTON Some 0/ the Latest EVER since the days ot the Douglas D.C.i and D.C.2.the United States have been trying to produce" Bigger and Better Aeroplanes," but in the summer of 1939, just before war was declared, the size oithe Douglas D.C.4 provoked a lot of comment and discus sion, and opinion was divided on the advisability of pro-ducing so-called giant civil aircraft. Many people con- sidered that, troni the operational point of view, a lot ofcapital was being locked away in one machine, particularly as they maintained that two D.C.3S would carry more andcost less to operate than one D.C.4. They did admit, how- ever, that the latter had one definite advantage—the abilityto carry its load non-stop from coast to coast. Maybe the opponents of the large aircraft were quitejustified in their views, but the development ot this type must be considered a great advantage to United States con-structors—and so to us, as customers—in the experience it gave them in the production of large bombing aircraft. There is also no doubt that the United States designersled the world in large civil aircraft, and in this way we may be very thankful, for we are now reaping the benefitof their experience in the shape of Flying Fortresses, Liberators, and even larger types yet to come.Again, in the large aircraft, the air-cooled engine comes into its own and so gives the American bomber the advantage oi engines on which the American engine manufac- turers have had long and extremely satisfactory experience.Perhaps the use of liquid-cooled engines of the Merlin- Vulture type might improve the already excellent perform-ance of these types, but an important point to be considered is the relative manufacturing capacity in the United Statesfor liquid-cooled and air-cooled engines. By using the latter in our large bombing aircraft we can utilise the immensecapacity of such firms as Pratt and Whitney and Wright, leaving the smaller capacity of Allisons to cater for thefighter aircraft which we are buying. Armament is Improving There is, however, the same old criticism still to belevelled at even the recent types of bombers which we are receiving from across the Atlantic—inferior armaments andarmour But we can hope to see this speedily rectified by the present collaboration between our armament experts andAmerican designers, and we shall see the results in the introduction ol power-operated turrets, wbich are alreadybeing fitted to certain American types. The Boeing Company, which first started operations in1916, is of chief prominence on this side of the Atlantic, because of two or its types—the transatlantic "Clipper"and the controversial Flying Fortress. The Clipper has achieved immortality, perpetuating itself in the verb "toclipper " Messages are being sent, for instance, "Please clipper latest news of Syrian invasion " Flying Fortress was obviously a name to stick in the minds of the publicand lay Press, but again this question of armament crops up, and although this aeroplane, B.17B, certainly flies;according to our standards it is hardly a fortress, as its U.S. armament comprises five single nfle-calibre guns, manuallyoperated and fixed almost arbitrarily in various portions ot the ship. Features of the Fortress .'.•/ •_•--•; ,-i: This aeroplane is very good looking, particularly in itsAlclad, unadorned by green, brown and black camouflage, and is a mid-wing monoplane powered with four 1,100 h.p.Cyclones G.R.1820 G205As, with interesting exhaust driven blowers. It carries a crew of seven to nine; span 103ft.,weight loaded 45,000 lb., with a disposal load of nearly 20,000 lb. Maximum speed 300 miles per hour at 14,000ft.,and it has a surface ceiling of 29,000ft., or 25,000ft. on three engines only. Its maximum range is 3,100 miles. Reverting to armament, an interesting feature of the nosegun is its mounting, which is set in the centre of a trans parent plastic moulding without any attachment by struc-tural members. The latest editions of this aircraft are B.17, C. D, and E,which vary principally in armament improvements, and fo» the manufacture of which, according to recent information, Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed-Vega are combining their resources. These three concerns should manage toproduce quite a large number of this type of aircraft, espe- cially when one considers the record of Boeings on the pro-duction side, for as early as 1933 they delivered 60 model 247 Transports to United Air Lines within a space of fivemonths Boeings have now been constructing large aircraft for along time and one can trace the first ancester of the Flying Fortress back to one of the first monoplane bombers putinto service by the United States Air Corps in 1931. This Boeing bomber was powered with two 575 h.p motors,carried a crew of five with a bomb load of 2,400 lb., at a top speed of 186 m.p.h. It had a ceiling of 20,000ft. and tareand gross weights of 8,900 lb. and 14,300 lb. respectively. It was, in fact, quite an advanced and efficient aeroplane,and was even equipped with a retractable undercarriage. We had to wait until 1934 before the R.A.F were giventhe Fairey Hendon monoplane ; in the year ot the 1931 Boeing bomber, we only had '' the shape of things tocome," indicated by the Fairey long-range high-wing mono- plane. Our nearest comparable service types of that yearwere the Vickers Virginia night bomber and the Boul- ton Paul Sidestrand day bomber which "straddled" theBoeing as regards size and which were slightly lower powered, each having two 450 h.p. Bristol motors. Takingthe Sidestrand as a more favourable comparison, we find that it was 20 miles an hour slower with approximately thesame ratio of gross to tare weight. , Another large aeroplane which has become well known by nameto the British public is the Libera- tor, produecd by Consolidated.This firm, which was established in 1923, had many years' success-ful experience with aeroplanes and biplane boats. In 1935 they pro-duced the P2Y1, ancestor of the PBY (Catalina). which was theirfirst jaonoplane type. In 1935 they were given a contract for 60of these boats—the largest United .... 300 m.p.n., seven miles high, "for 3,000-4,000 miles.
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