XB-8
XB-8 prototype
Role Bomber
Manufacturer General Aviation Corporation.[1]
Designer Fokker
First flight 20 October 1930 as XO-27, February 1931 as XB-8
Primary user United States Army Air Corps
Number built 7 (1 XB-8 + 2 YB-8 + 4 Y1B-8), all as Y1O-27

The Fokker XB-8 was a bomber built for the United States Army Air Corps in the 1930s, derived from the high-speed Fokker O-27 observation aircraft.

Design and development

Fokker O-27

During assembly, the second prototype XO-27 was converted to a bomber prototype, dubbed the XB-8. While the XB-8 was much faster than existing biplane bombers, it did not have the bomb capacity to be considered for production. Two YB-8s and 4 Y1B-8s were ordered, but these were changed mid-production to Y1O-27 configuration.

The wing of the XB-8 and XO-27 was built entirely from wood, although the fuselage was constructed of steel tubes covered with fabric with the exception of the nose which had a corrugated metal.[1] They featured the first retractable landing gear ever fitted to an Army Air Corps bomber or observation craft. The undercarriage retracted electrically. The crew was three in tandem position.[1]

Operational history

It competed against the Douglas Y1B-7/XO-36. Both promised to greatly exceed the performance of the large biplane bombers then used by the Army Air Corps. However, the Douglas XB-7 was markedly better in performance than the XB-8, and no further versions of Fokker's aircraft were built.

Operators

 United States

Specifications (XB-8)

Data from Fokker's Twilight.[2]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 4
  • Length: 47 ft 4 in (14.42 m)
  • Wingspan: 64 ft 4 in (19.60 m)
  • Height: 11 ft 6 in (3.50 m)
  • Wing area: 619 sq ft (57.5 m2)
  • Empty weight: 6,861 lb (3,112 kg)
  • Gross weight: 10,650 lb (4,824 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2 × Curtiss V-1570-23 "Conqueror" V12 engines, 600 hp (450 kW) each

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 160 mph (260 km/h, 140 kn)

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Cellier Flight 23 August 1934, p. 864
  2. ↑ Pelletier 2005, p. 64.

Bibliography

  • Cellier, Alfred (23 August 1934). "American Military Monoplanes". Flight. Vol. XXVI, no. 1339. pp. 862–865. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  • Pelletier, Alain J. "Fokker Twilight". Air Enthusiast, No. 117, May/June 2005, pp. 62–66. ISSN 0143-5450.
  • Wagner, Ray. American Combat Planes. New York: Doubleday, 1982. ISBN 0-930083-17-2.
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