Readie
Chief Master Sergeant
Just as well the Euro wasn't around in WW2 eh Edgar !!
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It will pay to check on the (then) exchange rate; it could have been $4 to the £, but, as I was only 0-4 years old, during the war, it didn't really have much significance. I have a vague recollection of a downward devaluing, to $3, around 1960.
Edgar
Don't forget the Brits used the B-29 as well until the Canberra and V bombers started coming into service.
You and your B29's FYB
You are almost as bad as me with Merlin's and Spitfires...
Given the parlous state we found ourselves after 1945/46 we were pleased to have the B29, as a nuclear bomber to counter the Soviet threat before our own planes became available.
It was either the B29 or a huge catapult...
Such is the price of liberty
Just as US aircrews were pleased to know that while they tredged on during day missions, RAF Lancasters were keeping the fight round the clock!
Lancaster/B29 performance
Aircraft/TO weight/bomb load*/time to climb to-altitude/service ceiling@TO weight)/TO run/TO to 50ft/max speed at weight @ altitude
B I/72,000lb/22,000lb/50min-18,000ft/18,600ft/4350ft/?????/246mph at 72000lb @ 16,00ft
B29A/140,000lb/10,000lb/61.5min-20,000ft/24,000ft/5,230ft/7825ft/381mph at 101,500lb @ 25,000ft
BIII/63,000lb/14,000lb/35.8min-20,000ft/24,000ft/2,250ft/3900ft/287mph at 60,000lb @ 18,000ft
B29B/135,750lb/10,000/43.5min-20,000ft/30,250ft/4800ft/7125ft/395mph at 96,100lb @ 25,000ft
B VI/65,000lb/14,000lb/26min-20,000ftE/28,500ft/~2,000ftE/~3000ftE/313mph at 65,000lb @ 18,300ft
* B29 could increase bomb load to 20,000 lb by reducing fuel load with same TO, ceiling and climb performance
B = Lancaster
E = estimate
I haven't included range because the sources use different criteria such as fuel reserve which was only 5% for the B29 but typically ~20% for Lancaster.
Ranges as given, B29A = 3600nm for 10,000lb BL, Low/high mission profile; 2856nm for 20,000lb BL, Low/high mission profile; 3126nm for 10,000lb BL, high/high mission profile.
Lancaster I = 2200nm for 14000lb BL, high/high mission profile; at 72000lb (saddle tanks and 6000lb bomb load) TO range with reserves = 3017nm (~3200nm with 10% reserve and standard combat allowance), low/high mission profile.
sources.
Standard Aircraft Characteristics for B29A/B
mason, The Secret Years for lancaster.
In daylight raids from Tinian/Saipan the original B29 struggled to carry 7000lbs of bombs to Tokyo even though this was only a ~2600nm round trip. What's really needed are figures on fuel consumption and AMPG, from actual tests, for the aircraft under discussion.
Was that because they discovered the jetstream?
It was the best bomber to serve in WW2 based on eventual performance and ending the war in Japan. Thankfully the allies had others before the summer of 1945.I thought that the B-29 was the best bomber of WW-II?
The B-29 was far from a folly. Also, name me one bomber that existed during WWII that was fully capably of defending itself without fighter escort in contested skies.Some thoughts on the matter.
B-29 was, in hindsight, an expensive folly. It was a failure as a self-defending bomber, even against the Japanese.
General LeMay, as a pragmatic boss,( with his bean-counter buddy McNamara) stopped such fruitless ideology.
However, IMO, the punishment of Japanese civilians by mass burning was cruel & needless.
How exactly? Sailing U.S. minelayers into Tokyo bay and just casually drop them here and there?Minelaying, while effective, could've been effectively done by less expensive means.
You must be reading a far different history book than I am...The USN carrier forces were quite able to smash Nippon industry.
The B-36 was on the drawing board early in WWII...when it finally took to the air, it was the world's largest and most modern strategic bomber and would remain that way for several years.Cheap cruise missiles were a much more cost effective approach to mass city bombardment.
Weird that the B-36 was proceeded with, as a 'Mega Flying Fortress' bristling with gun turrets.
The Mosquito & Ar 234 pointed the way to the future, as had the V-weapons.
Have to disagree, Mosquito bomber ops showed that speed/evasion was the better option.
MiG-15's quickly drove the B-29's back into the night over Korea, a Canberra would've done better.
The stripped out lightweight B-36 which could use height to evade was another thing, but once nukes got compact, as noted, a fast jet would do it better.
I don't hold to mass bombing of cities, but a positive US appraisal of the V1 had Ford mass-making them as the 'Loon'..
A dedicated minelaying C-54 could've done that job at a fraction of the B-29's price.
For surgical strikes, i cannot think of any Mosquito missions that took out an aircraft factory or marshalling yard.Have to disagree, Mosquito bomber ops showed that speed/evasion was the better option.
Hello...no MiGs or Canberras in WWII...MiG-15's quickly drove the B-29's back into the night over Korea, a Canberra would've done better.
Again, no jets or B-36 in WWIIThe stripped out lightweight B-36 which could use height to evade was another thing, but once nukes got compact,
as noted, a fast jet would do it better.
They built over 1,300 of them and never used them.I don't hold to mass bombing of cities, but a positive US appraisal of the V1 had Ford mass-making them as the 'Loon'..
You have that backward.The USN wanted to confront the forces of Nippon, & destroy them, which they did.
If using unarmed cargo planes were an effective option, I am pretty sure that it would have been done.A dedicated minelaying C-54 could've done that job at a fraction of the B-29's price.
The Japanese sure as hell did have effective night fighters.B-29 mining ops were also done at night, NIppon nightfighters were ineffective.
The only jets that saw combat in WWII were:Jets were flying in WW2 , some even made combat. So were MiGs, just not MiG 15s
Most aircraft were obsolescent by the time they reached production.But the B-29 was an obsolescent idea when built, & in practice, over Korea a few years later.