Fokker XB-8

XB-8
Atlantic XB-8 prototype
Role Bomber
Manufacturer General Aviation Corporation.[1]
Designer Fokker
Primary user United States Army Air Corps
Number built 7 (1 XB-8 + 2 YB-8 + 4 Y1B-8), all as Y1O-27
Developed from Fokker O-27

The Fokker XB-8 was a bomber built for the United States Army Air Corps in the 1920s, derived from the high-speed Fokker O-27 observation aircraft.

Design and development

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. Crew was three in tandem position.[1]

Operational history

It competed against a design submitted by Douglas Aircraft Company, the 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

Performance

See also

Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
Related lists

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Cellier, Alfred (23 August 1934), "American Military Monoplanes", Flight, p. 864
  2. Pelletier 2005, p. 64.

Bibliography

  • 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.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fokker military aircraft.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.