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82-763: The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American twin-engined heavy bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force (as the Digby ) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company from their DC-2 as a replacement for the Martin B-10 . By 1940 standards, it was slow, had an inadequate defensive armament, and carried too small

164-559: A Nagasaki airfield belonging to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and landing at Haneda Airport on the outskirts of Tokyo . The G3M first saw combat in Japan's expansionist campaigns on the Chinese mainland in what became known as the " Second Sino-Japanese War ", where the G3M was able to exploit its long-range capability when, during August–November 1937, the 1. Rengo Kōkūtai (a special unit)

246-595: A combat radius of 4,480 miles (7,210 km). During World War II, mass production techniques made available large, long-range heavy bombers in such quantities as to allow strategic bombing campaigns to be developed and employed. This culminated in August 1945, when B-29s of the United States Army Air Forces dropped atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The arrival of nuclear weapons and guided missiles permanently changed

328-657: A Japanese Mitsubishi G3M 2 named Nippon (which also had its first flight the same year as the B-18) flew from Tokyo to the US, and then around the world, with the stage from Chitose, Hokkaido to Nome, Alaska being over 2,500 mi (4,000 km). The military version (code named Nell during WW2) could also carry more than the B-18, further, faster, and was also better armed. Both types had roughly 7,000 ft (2,100 m) higher service ceilings as well. The Air Corps conceded that

410-483: A bomb load. By 1942, surviving B-18s were relegated to antisubmarine, training and transport duties. A B-18 was one of the first USAAF aircraft to sink a German U-boat , U-654 on 22 August 1942 in the Caribbean. In 1934, the United States Army Air Corps requested for a twin-engine heavy bomber with double the bomb load and range of the Martin B-10 then entering service. During the evaluation at Wright Field

492-590: A few landed safely at RAF bases in Cyprus and some in Turkey, where they were interned. Only 33 were undamaged. Damage to the refineries was soon repaired and oil production actually increased. By October 1942, a new Ford Motor Company plant at Willow Run Michigan was assembling Liberators. Production reached a rate of over one an hour in 1944 helping the B-24 to become the most produced US aircraft of all time. It became

574-491: A long-range torpedo bomber against Allied naval fleets, the G3M frequently operated with other G3M units in massive "wave" formation. Use of these large formations eliminated the need for singular high-precision bombing attacks. Later the Nakajima Company redesigned the G3M into the improved G3M3 (Model 23) with more powerful engines and increased fuel capacity. This version was manufactured only by Nakajima, being

656-691: A lot to Sikorsky's ideas; of similar size, it used just two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines and could carry up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs. The O/100 was designed at the beginning of the war for the Royal Navy specifically to sink the German High Seas Fleet in Kiel: the Navy called for “a bloody paralyser of an aircraft” Entering service in late 1916 and based near Dunkirk in France, it

738-523: A much heavier payload and a substantially longer range, which finally closed the mid-Atlantic gap . Some of the Douglas Digbys in Canadian service were converted into transports or used for training. Surviving USAAF B-18s ended their useful lives in training and transport roles, and saw no further combat action. Two B-18As were modified as unarmed cargo transports under the designation C-58 . At

820-553: A primary school, and injured 432 in East London. Initially, defence against air attack was poor, but by May 19, 1918, when 38 Gothas attacked London, six were shot down and another crashed on landing. German aircraft companies also built a number of giant bombers, collectively known as the Riesenflugzeug . Most were produced in very small numbers from 1917 onwards and several never entered service. The most numerous were

902-461: A range of 2,530 miles (4,070 km), while the B-29 (1944) delivered payloads in excess of 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) and had a range of 3,250 miles (5,230 km). By the late 1950s, the jet -powered Boeing B-52 Stratofortress , travelling at speeds of up to 650 miles per hour (1,050 km/h) (more than double that of a Lancaster), could deliver a payload of 70,000 pounds (32,000 kg), over

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984-515: A squadron of 10 was bombing German positions on the Eastern Front and by summer 1916 there were twenty. It was well-armed with nine machine guns, including a tail gun and initially was immune to German and Austro-Hungarian air attack. The Sikorsky bomber had a wingspan just a few feet shorter than that of a World War II Avro Lancaster , while being able to carry a bomb load of only 3% of the later aircraft. The Handley Page Type O /100 owed

1066-413: A war. This was certainly vindicated by the firebombing of Japanese cities and the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, as Japan's fragile housing and cottage industry made themselves easily vulnerable to attack, thus completely destroying Japanese industrial production (see Air Raids on Japan ). It was less evident that it held true for the bombing of Germany. During

1148-550: The Genzan Kōkūtai provided important support during the attack on HMS  Prince of Wales and Repulse (Force Z) near the Malayan coast. Prince of Wales and Repulse were the first two capital ships ever sunk exclusively by an air attack while at sea during war. The attack on Darwin , Australia on 19 February 1942, by 188 Japanese aircraft, included 27 G3Ms of the 1. Kōkūtai (1st Air Group) based at Ambon , in

1230-665: The Allies on August 15, and the Japanese government subsequently signed the official instrument of surrender on September 2, 1945. After World War II, the name strategic bomber came into use, for aircraft that could carry aircraft ordnances over long distances behind enemy lines. They were supplemented by smaller fighter-bombers with less range and lighter bomb load, for tactical strikes. Later these were called strike fighters , attack aircraft and multirole combat aircraft . When North Korea attacked South Korea in 1950

1312-653: The Armistice with Germany). The Vimy's intended use was to bomb industrial and railway targets in western Germany, which it could reach with its range of 900 miles (1,400 km) and a bomb load of just over a ton. The Vickers Vimy is best known as the aircraft that made the first Atlantic crossing from St John's Newfoundland to Clifden in Ireland piloted by the Englishman John Alcock and navigated by Scot Arthur Whitten Brown on June 14, 1919. Between

1394-708: The B-1 , B-52 and B-2 have been retained for the role of carpet bombing in several conflicts. The most prolific example (in terms of total bomb tonnage) is the U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress during the 1960s–early 1970s Vietnam War era, in Operation Menu , Operation Freedom Deal , and Operation Linebacker II . In 1987 the Soviet Tu-160 —the heaviest supersonic bomber/aircraft currently in active service—entered service; it can carry twelve long-range cruise missiles. The 2010 New START agreement between

1476-534: The Battle of Shanghai and Nanjing . The attacking G3M bombers and escorting fighters were often engaged by Curtiss Hawk III and Boeing P-26/281 fighters of the Chinese Air Force early on in the war. Later, from bases in occupied Chinese territories, it took part in the strategic carpet bombing of the Chinese heartland, its combat range being sufficient for the great distances involved. Most notably, it

1558-548: The Brazilian Air Force in 1942, and were used with a provisional conversion training unit set up under the provisions of Lend-Lease. They were later used for anti-submarine patrols. They were struck off at the end of the war. In 1940 the Royal Canadian Air Force acquired 20 B-18As (as the Douglas Digby Mark I ), and also used them for patrol duties, being immediately issued to 10 Squadron to replace

1640-572: The Chitose Kōkūtai on the first day of the war, with both civilian and US Navy infrastructure being heavily damaged on the ground. Other G3Ms of Chitose Kōkūtai , based in Kwajalein Atoll , attacked US Navy and civilian installations on Howland Island in the same period. The G3M was famous for taking part, along with the more advanced Mitsubishi G4M "Betty", in the sinking of two British capital ships on 10 December 1941. Nells from

1722-566: The Dutch East Indies . G3Ms attacked alongside 27 Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers. These bombers followed an 81-strong first wave of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, Aichi D3A dive bombers and Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers. G3Ms of the 701 Air Group put two torpedoes into heavy cruiser USS  Chicago on January 29, 1943 during the Battle of Rennell Island , paving the way for her sinking by further torpedoes dropped by G4M bombers

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1804-1019: The Heinkel He 177 which saw only limited use against the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom ) was published. After Wever's death, Ernst Udet , development director at the Air Ministry steered the Luftwaffe towards dive bombers instead. When Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939, the RAF had no heavy bomber yet in service; heavy bomber designs had started in 1936 and ordered in 1938. The Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster both originated as twin-engine "medium" bombers, but were rapidly redesigned for four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and rushed into service once

1886-636: The Imperial Japanese Navy requesting a bomber aircraft with a range unprecedented at the time. This principally stemmed from Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto 's influence in the Naval High Commission. The bomber was to have the capacity to accommodate an aerial torpedo capable of sinking an armoured battleship . The speed requirement submitted by the naval department was again also unprecedented , not only in Japanese but also in international bomber aviation, where in relation to

1968-538: The Junkers Ju 88 . Heavy bombers still needed defensive armament for protection, even at night. The Stirling's low operational ceiling of just 12,000 ft (3,700 m)—also caused by the thick wing—meant that it was usually picked on by night fighters; within five months, 67 of the 84 aircraft in service had been lost. The bomb bay layout limited the size and types of bombs carried and it was relegated to secondary duties such as tug and paratrooper transport. Due to

2050-594: The Supermarine Spitfire had very limited endurance. An early raid on Rouen-Sotteville rail yards in Brittany on August 17, 1942, required four Spitfire squadrons outbound and five more for the return trip. The USAAF chose to attack aircraft factories and component plants. On August 17, 1943, 230 Fortresses attacked a ball-bearing plant in Schweinfurt and again two months later, with 291 bombers, in

2132-675: The Takao Kōkūtai were deployed from Formosa in the opening of the Battle of the Philippines . On 8 December 1941, (7 December across the International Date Line ), G3Ms from the Mihoro Kōkūtai struck Singapore from bases in occupied French Indochina as one of many air raids during the Battle of Singapore , resulting in thousands of British and Asian civilians dead. Wake Island was similarly bombed by G3Ms from

2214-468: The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI of which 13 saw service, bombing Russia and London: four were shot down and six lost on landing. The R.VIs were larger than the standard Luftwaffe bombers of World War II. The Vickers Vimy , a long-range heavy bomber powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, was delivered to the newly formed Royal Air Force too late to see action (only one was in France at time of

2296-660: The second raid on Schweinfurt . The works was severely damaged but at a huge cost: 36 aircraft lost in the first raid, 77 in the second. Altogether 850 airmen were killed or captured; only 33 Fortresses returned from the October raid undamaged With the arrival of North American P-51 Mustangs and the fitting of drop tanks to increase the range of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt for the Big Week offensive, between February 20–25, 1944, bombers were escorted all

2378-512: The 10-ton Grand Slam could be carried. Barnes Wallis , deputy chief aircraft designer at Vickers , spent much time thinking about weapons that might shorten the war. He conceived his “Spherical Bomb, Surface Torpedo” after watching his daughter flip pebbles over water. Two versions of the ' bouncing bomb ' were developed: the smaller Highball was to be used against ships and attracted essential British Admiralty funding for his project. A 1,280 lb (580 kg) flying torpedo, of which half

2460-542: The B-17G model. In order to assemble combat boxes of several aircraft, and later combat wings formed of a number of boxes, assembly ships were used to speed up formation. Even this extra firepower, which increased empty weight by 20% and required more powerful versions of the Wright Cyclone engine, was insufficient to prevent serious losses in daylight. Escort fighters were needed but the RAF interceptors such as

2542-709: The B-18A was fitted with more powerful engines. Deliveries of B-18s to Army units began in the first half of 1937, with the first examples being test and evaluation aircraft being turned over to the Materiel Division at Wright Field , Ohio , the Technical Training Command at Chanute Field , Illinois , the Aberdeen Proving Ground , Maryland , and Lowry Field , Colorado. Deliveries to operational groups began in late 1937,

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2624-516: The Bolo was obsolete and unsuitable for its intended role. However, in spite of this, the B-18/B-18A was still the most numerous American bomber type deployed outside the continental United States at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor . The B-18 would be a stopgap until the more capable Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator became available in quantity. When war came to

2706-529: The G3M with a heavy payload, it lacked any form of defensive armour or self-sealing fuel tanks . This trait was maintained in the G3M's successor the G4M. The vulnerability of these bombers to fighters and surface gunfire earned them the unofficial nickname of "one shot lighter" or "the flying lighter" by Allied fighter pilots. The G3M has its origins in a specification submitted to the Mitsubishi company from

2788-406: The G3M's high speed – was considered sufficient against any form of ship-based AA guns or carrier-based fighters. The lightweight structure and complete lack of defensive machine guns and the additional crew necessary to operate them (features in the early prototype design) were considered essential to maintain the speed and high-altitude performance of the G3M with a heavy payload. Even after

2870-670: The Pacific, most of the B-18/B-18A aircraft based overseas in the Philippines and in Hawaii were destroyed on the ground in the initial Japanese onslaught. The few Bolos that remained played no significant role in subsequent operations. The B-18s remaining in the continental US and in the Caribbean were then deployed in a defensive role in anticipation of attacks on the US mainland. These attacks never materialized. B-17s supplanted B-18s in first-line service in 1942. Following this, 122 B-18As were modified for anti- submarine warfare. The bombardier

2952-723: The Tirpitz on November 12, 1944. Upkeep, the larger version of the bouncing bomb , was used to destroy the Mohne and Eder dams by Lancasters from the specially recruited and trained No. 617 Squadron RAF , often known as "the Dam Busters", under Wing Commander Guy Gibson . In March and April 1945, as the war in Europe was ending, Lancasters dropped Grand Slams and Tallboys on U-boat pens and railway viaducts across north Germany. At Bielefeld more than 100 yards (91 m) of railway viaduct

3034-678: The USAF responded with daylight bomber raids on supply lines through North Korea. B-29 Superfortresses flew from Japan on behalf of the United Nations , but the supply line for North Korea's army from the Soviet Union was physically and politically out of reach: North Korea for the most part lacked worthwhile strategic targets of its own. The Soviet-backed Northern forces easily routed the South Korean army. The distance to North Korea

3116-716: The United States of America and the Russian Federation defined a "heavy bomber" by two characteristics: Some notable heavy bombers are listed below Mitsubishi G3M The Yokosuka L3Y (Allied reporting name " Tina "), was a transport variant of the aircraft manufactured by the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal . The G3M bomber saw extensive use in the Pacific War . Attacks by G3M and G4M bombers resulted in

3198-401: The absence of British heavy bombers, 20 United States Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses were lent to the RAF, which during July 1941 commenced daylight attacks on warships and docks at Wilhelmshaven and Brest. These raids were complete failures. After eight aircraft were lost due to combat or breakdown and with many engine failures, the RAF stopped daylight bombing by September. It

3280-443: The aircraft to be unreliable, under-powered and hastened its withdrawal from service. Reaching squadrons early in 1942, the redesigned bomber with four Merlin engines and longer wings was renamed Avro Lancaster ; it could deliver a 14,000 lb (6,400 kg) load of bombs or up to 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) with special modifications. The Lancaster's bomb bay was undivided, so that bombs of extraordinary size and weight such as

3362-419: The bombardier's clear nose glazing as "cheek" positions, or midway along the rear fuselage sides as "waist" positions. U.S. bombers carried .50 caliber machine gun , and dorsal (spine/top of aircraft) and ventral (belly/bottom of aircraft) guns with powered turrets . All of these machine guns could defend against attack when beyond the range of fighter escort; eventually, a total of 13 machine guns were fitted in

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3444-659: The bombers were restricted to night interdiction and concentrated on destroying supply routes, including the bridges over the Yalu river into China. By the 1960s, manned heavy bombers could not match the intercontinental ballistic missile in the strategic nuclear role. More accurate precision-guided munitions ("smart bombs"), nuclear -armed missiles or bombs were able to be carried by smaller aircraft such as fighter-bombers and multirole fighters . Despite these technological innovations and new capabilities of other contemporary military aircraft , large strategic bombers such as

3526-597: The bombers were then switched to low-level, nighttime incendiary attacks for which they had not originally been designed (one variant, the B-29B was specially modified for low altitude night missions by removal of armament and other equipment). Japan burned furiously from the B-29 incendiary raids. On August 6, 1945, B-29 Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, B-29 Bockscar dropped another on Nagasaki. The war ended when Japan announced its surrender to

3608-677: The end of the war, remaining examples were sold as surplus on the commercial market. Some postwar B-18s were operated as cargo or crop-spraying aircraft by commercial operators. Six B-18s are known to exist, five of them preserved or under restoration in museums in the United States, and one is a wreck still located at its crash site: Data from McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920 : Volume I General characteristics Performance Armament Avionics Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering

3690-497: The envisaged Japanese battlegrounds of China and the Pacific, the bomber would need to not only cover long distances, but necessarily have exceptional speed to strike distant targets with a minimum attack time. Thus the G3M was an embodiment of Japanese military aircraft design in the brief period leading to the Pacific War , with powerful offensive armament (in this case in the form of bombs and torpedoes) and range and speed emphasised over protection and defensive capabilities. The G3M

3772-471: The expense of defence that its vulnerability to fighters and ground and surface gunfire earned it the unofficial nickname of "one shot lighter" by Allied fighter pilots. The bombsight used in the G3M was primitive compared to the mechanisms used in the G3M's contemporaries such as the B-17 Flying Fortress and Heinkel He 111 . Aside from the limited precision necessary in its naval role as

3854-538: The first being the 7th Bombardment Group at Hamilton Field , California . Production B-18s, with full military equipment, had a maximum speed of 217 mph (349 km/h), cruising speed of 167 mph (269 km/h), and combat range of 850 mi (1,370 km). By 1940, most USAAC bomber squadrons were equipped with B-18s or B-18As. However, the B-18/B-18A's deficiencies were made apparent when an all-red Soviet Ilyushin TsKB-30 named Moskva (a prototype for

3936-624: The following year, Douglas offered its DB-1 . It was competing against the Boeing Model 299 (later developed into the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress ) and Martin 146 . While the Boeing design was clearly superior, the 299's four engines eliminated it from consideration despite being the favorite, and the crash of the prototype — caused by taking off with the controls still locked — put its purchase on hold. The Martin 146

4018-453: The fuselage was narrower and deeper, and the wings were moved up to a mid-wing position to allow space under the spars for an enclosed bomb bay. Added armament included manually operated nose, dorsal, and ventral gun turrets. At one point, Preston Tucker 's firm received a contract to supply Tucker remote controlled gun turrets but these were unsuccessful, and were never used in service. The initial contract called for 133 B-18s (including

4100-434: The heavy bomber's once-central role in strategic warfare by the late 20th century. Heavy bombers have, nevertheless, been used to deliver conventional weapons in several regional conflicts since World War II (for example, B-52s in the Vietnam War ). Heavy bombers are now operated only by the air forces of the United States, Russia and China. They serve in both strategic and tactical bombing roles. The first heavy bomber

4182-400: The initial design suitable for bombing and it was first used on a variety of VIP transport and maritime patrol missions. Its long range, however, persuaded the USAAF to send 177 Liberators from Benghazi in Libya to bomb the Romanian oilfields on August 1, 1943, in Operation Tidal Wave . Due to navigational errors and alerted German flak batteries and fighters, only half returned to base although

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4264-578: The largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs ) and longest range ( takeoff to landing ) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the largest and most powerful military aircraft at any point in time. In the second half of the 20th century, heavy bombers were largely superseded by strategic bombers , which were often even larger in size, had much longer ranges and were capable of delivering nuclear bombs . Because of advances in aircraft design and engineering — especially in powerplants and aerodynamics —

4346-445: The logistics (including transport of fuel for the B-29 fleet over the Himalayan range ) of flying from these remote, primitive airfields were complicated and costly. The island of Saipan in the Marianas was assaulted to provide Pacific air bases from which to bomb Japanese cities . Initial high-level, daylight bombing raids using high-explosive bombs on Japanese cities with their wood and paper houses produced disappointing results;

4428-449: The modified final prototype, which did include three defensive machine gun emplacements, the G3M kept its lightweight structure and lacked any form of defensive armour or self-sealing fuel tanks , as these were considered to retard speed and altitude. This trait in Japanese bomber and fighter design manifested itself again in its successor, the Mitsubishi G4M , whose design so strongly emphasized fuel and bomb load for long-range strikes at

4510-413: The most rapidly produced in wartime. This version entered service in 1941, and was maintained in service for two years, and later used in 1943 alongside the G3M2 for long-range maritime reconnaissance with radar, due to its excellent long-range performance. Other G3M derivations were the transport versions, G3M-L and L3Y, the latter built by Yokosuka . The G3M flew for first time in 1935, taking off from

4592-423: The nature of military aviation and strategy . After the 1950s intercontinental ballistic missiles and ballistic missile submarines began to supersede heavy bombers in the strategic nuclear role. Along with the emergence of more accurate precision-guided munitions ("smart bombs") and nuclear -armed missiles , which could be carried and delivered by smaller aircraft, these technological advancements eclipsed

4674-462: The powerplant seriously delayed the B-29's operational service debut. The aircraft had four remotely operated twin-gun turrets on its fuselage , controlled through an analog computer sighting system; the operator could use any of a trio of Perspex ball stations. Only the tail gunner manually controlled his gun turret station in the rear of the airplane. B-29s were initially deployed to bases in India and China, from which they could reach Japan; but

4756-408: The prototype), using Wright R-1820 radial engines . The last B-18 of the run, designated DB-2 by the company, had a power-operated nose turret in a redesigned nose but this did not become standard. Additional contracts in 1937 (177 aircraft) and 1938 (40 aircraft) were for the B-18A , which had the bombardier 's position further forward over the nose- gunner 's station in a wedge shaped nose and

4838-407: The sinking of the Royal Navy battleship HMS  Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS  Repulse , the first time capital ships actively defending themselves were sunk solely by air power while in the open sea. G4Ms and G3Ms also sunk the heavy cruiser USS Chicago in an air attack during the Battle of Rennell Island . In order to maintain the speed and high-altitude performance of

4920-486: The size of payloads carried by heavy bombers has increased at rates greater than increases in the size of their airframes. The largest bombers of World War I , the Zeppelin-Staaken Riesenflugzeuge of Germany, could carry a payload of up to 4,400 pounds (2,000 kg) of bombs; by the latter half of World War II , the Avro Lancaster (introduced in 1942) routinely delivered payloads of 14,000 pounds (6,400 kg) (and sometimes up to 22,000 lb (10,000 kg)) and had

5002-467: The squadron's Westland Wapitis . Bolos and Digbys sank an additional two submarines during the course of the war. RCAF Eastern Air Command (EAC) Digbys carried out 11 attacks on U-boats. U-520 was confirmed sunk by Flying Officer F. Raymes' crew of No. 10 (BR) Squadron , on 30 October 1942. east of Newfoundland . However, the antisubmarine role was relatively short-lived, and the Bolos were superseded in this role in 1943 by B-24 Liberators, which had

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5084-400: The standard heavy bomber in the Pacific and the only one used by the RAAF. The SAAF used Liberators to drop weapons and ammunition during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The Avro Manchester was a twin-engine bomber powered by the ambitious 24-cylinder Rolls-Royce Vulture , but was rapidly redesigned for four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines due to technical problems with the Vulture which caused

5166-426: The technical problems of the larger Rolls-Royce Vulture emerged in the Avro Manchester . The Halifax joined squadrons in November 1940 and flew its first raid against Le Havre on the night of 11–12 March 1941. British heavy bomber designs often had three gun turrets with a total of 8 machine guns . In January 1941, the Short Stirling reached operational status and first combat missions were flown in February. It

5248-400: The twin-engine DB-3 which flew the same year as the B-18) made a non-stop flight from Moscow to North America in April 1939, a distance of 4,970 mi (8,000 km), which was well beyond the capabilities of the B-18. The TsKB-30/DB-3 was also 25% faster, was capable of carrying a bomb load 2.5 times as large as the B-18, and carried a heavier defensive armament. In August of the same year,

5330-414: The war, German industrial production actually increased , despite a sustained Allied bombing campaign. As the German Luftwaffe 's main task was to support the army, it never developed a successful heavy bomber. The prime proponent of strategic bombing, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff General Walther Wever , died in an air crash in 1936 on the very day that the specification for the Ural bomber (later won by

5412-469: The war, bombers continually managed to strike their targets, but suffered unacceptable losses in the absence of careful planning and escort fighters . Only the later de Havilland Mosquito light bomber was fast enough to evade fighters. Heavy bombers needed defensive armament for protection, which reduced their effective bomb payload. The second tenet was that strategic bombing of industrial capacity, power generation, oil refineries, and coal mines could win

5494-512: The wars, aviation opinion fixed on two tenets. The first was that “ the bomber will always get through .” The speed advantage of biplane fighters over bombers was insignificant, and it was believed that they would never catch them. Furthermore, there was no effective method of detecting incoming bombers at sufficiently long range to scramble fighters on an interception course. In practice, a combination of new radar technology and advances in monoplane fighter design eroded this disadvantage. Throughout

5576-490: The way to the target and back. Losses were reduced to 247 out of 3,500 sorties, still devastating but accepted at the time. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator and later version of the Fortress carried even more extensive defensive armament fitted into Sperry ball turrets . This was a superb defensive weapon that rotated a full 360 degrees horizontally with a 90-degree elevation. Its twin M2 Browning machine guns had an effective range of 1,000 yards (910 m). The Liberator

5658-400: Was Torpex torpedo explosive, it was developed specifically to sink the Tirpitz which was moored in Trondheim fjord behind torpedo nets. Development delays in the 'bouncing bomb' meant that another Barnes Wallis invention, the 5-ton Tallboy was deployed instead; two Tallboys dropped by Avro Lancasters from 25,000 ft (7,600 m) altitude hit at near- supersonic speed and capsized

5740-405: Was a minor improvement on the B-10, and was never seriously considered. During the depths of the Great Depression , the lower price of the DB-1 at $ 58,500 compared to $ 99,620 for the Model 299 also favored the Douglas entry, and it was ordered into immediate production in January 1936 as the B-18. The DB-1 design was modified from that of the DC-2. The wingspan was 4.5 ft (1.4 m) greater,

5822-425: Was based on the successful Short Sunderland flying boat and shared its Bristol Hercules radial engines, wing, and cockpit with a new fuselage. It carried up to 14,000 lb (6,400 kg) of bombs—almost twice the load of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress —but over just a 300-mile (480 km) radius. Due to its thick, short wing it was able to out-turn the main German night fighters, the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and

5904-745: Was clear that the B-17C model was not combat ready and that its five machine guns provided inadequate protection. Combat feedback enabled Boeing engineers to improve the aircraft; when the first model B-17E began operating from English airfields in July 1942, it had many more defensive gun positions including a vitally important tail gunner. Eventually, U.S. heavy bomber designs, optimized for formation flying, had 10 or more machine guns and/or cannons in both powered turrets and manually operated flexible mounts to deliver protective arcs of fire. These guns were located in tail turrets , side gun ports either just behind

5986-731: Was designed as an airliner . Igor Sikorsky , an engineer educated in St Petersburg, but born in Kiev of Polish-Russian ancestry designed the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets to fly between his birthplace and his new home. It did so briefly until August 1914, when the Russo-Balt wagon factory converted to a bomber version, with British Sunbeam Crusader V8 engines in place of the German ones in the passenger plane. By December 1914

6068-503: Was destroyed by Grand Slams creating an earthquake effect, which shook the foundations. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a development of the Fortress, but a larger design with four Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engines of much greater power, enabling it to fly higher, faster, further and with a bigger bomb load. The mammoth new Wright radial engines were susceptible to overheating if anything malfunctioned, and technical problems with

6150-776: Was established, operating alongside the Kanoya and Kizarazu Kōkūtai based in Taipei , Formosa , Omura , Kyūshū and Jeju Island . On 14 August of that same year, 42 G3Ms and seven Hiro G2H 1s, escorted by 12 Nakajima A4Ns and 12 Mitsubishi A5Ms of the 2. Rengo Kōkūtai (a unit consisting of the 12th and 13th kōkūtai ), departed from their bases to cross the East China Sea for the bombing of Hangzhou and Kwanteh , and performed, amongst other actions, terror bombing of coastal and inland targets in China, including bombing during

6232-473: Was involved in the round-the-clock bombing of Chongqing . When the Pacific War erupted with the invasion of Malaya and bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the G3M was by this time considered to be antiquated, but still three front-line units (the 22nd to 24th koku sentai ) were operating a total of 204 G3M2s in four kōkūtai (naval air corps) in the central Pacific and of these 54 aircraft from

6314-447: Was originally designed without any form of defensive weaponry, with its high-altitude performance being regarded as sufficient to evade enemy anti-aircraft guns and its high speed in combination with the planned high performance Mitsubishi A5M fighter envisaged as an armed escort considered sufficient to counter any enemy fighters. Even in the low-speed, low-level role of torpedo bomber, the superior fighter escort – combined with

6396-632: Was replaced by a search radar with a large radome . Magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) equipment was sometimes housed in a tail boom. These aircraft, designated B-18B , were used in the Caribbean on anti-submarine patrol. On 2 October 1942, a B-18A, piloted by Captain Howard Burhanna Jr. of the 99th Bomb Squadron , depth charged and sank the German submarine  U-512 north of Cayenne , French Guiana . Two aircraft were transferred to

6478-513: Was the result of a proposal to assemble Fortresses in Consolidated plants, with the company returning with its own design of a longer-range, faster and higher-flying aircraft that could carry an extra ton of bombs. Early orders were for France (delivered to the RAF after the fall of France) and Britain, already at war, with just a batch of 36 for the USAAF. Neither the USAAF nor the RAF judged

6560-489: Was too great for fighter escorts based in Japan, so the B-29s flew alone. In November, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s flown by Soviet pilots started to intercept the US bombers over North Korea. The MiG-15 was specifically designed to destroy US heavy bombers; it could out-perform any fighter deployed by United Nations air forces until the capable F-86 Sabre was produced in greater numbers and brought to Korea. After 28 B-29s were lost,

6642-457: Was used for daylight raids on naval targets, damaging a German destroyer. But after one was lost, the O/100 switched to night attacks. The uprated Handley Page Type O /400 could carry a 1,650 lb (750 kg) bomb, and wings of up to 40 were used by the newly formed, independent Royal Air Force from April 1918 to make strategic raids on German railway and industrial targets. A single O/400

6724-659: Was used to support T. E. Lawrence 's Sinai and Palestine Campaign . The Imperial German Air Service operated the Gotha bomber, which developed a series of marques. The Gotha G.IV operated from occupied Belgium from the Spring of 1917. It mounted several raids on London beginning in May 1917. Some reached no further than Folkestone or Sheerness on the Kent Coast. But on June 13, Gothas killed 162 civilians, including 18 children in

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