Subject: Bomber Series--Fokker B-8

From: [email-masked]
Date: 20 Jun 94 16:28:09 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The Fokker Aircraft Corporation of Teterboro, New Jersey (formerly 
known as the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation) was the American 
subsidiary of the famed Dutch-based Fokker corporation.  Fokker was a 
pioneering designer of monoplane aircraft for both the civilian and 
the military market.  

On June 19, 1929, the US Army Air Corps ordered two XO-27 prototypes 
from Fokker.  Serials were 29-327/328.  The XO-27 was a high-winged, 
cantilever monoplane powered by a pair of V-1570-9 Conqueror 
twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled engines mounted in the leading edge of 
the wing.  The wing was constructed entirely of wood, and the fuselage 
was of steel tube construction with fabric covering.  The landing gear 
was retractable, the first such to be fitted to an Army Air Corps 
observation or bombardment aircraft.  Three crew members could be 
carried in open cockpits.  Armament was to consist of two flexible 
0.30-inch machine guns, one operated by a gunner in a nose position 
and the other by a gunner in a dorsal position.  

In response to the Fokker design, the Douglas Aircraft Corporation 
submitted a competing proposal for a twin-engined observation 
monoplane.  On March 26, 1930, the Army ordered two example of the 
Douglas proposal, one being designated XO-35 and the other XO-36.  The 
two planes were to be almost identical to each other, with the primary 
difference being that the XO-35 was powered by geared Conquerors and 
the XO-36 by direct-drive Conquerors.  

The performance of the Douglas XO-35/36 and the Fokker XO-27 promised 
to greatly exceed that of the lumbering Keystone biplanes that were at 
that time the standard USAAC light bombers.  Consequently, in 1929 the 
Army decided to have the second prototype of both designs completed as 
a light bomber rather than as an observation plane.  The designation 
XB-8 was assigned to the Fokker design, XB-7 to the Douglas design.  

The XO-27 (29-327) was first tested at Wright Field on October 20, 
1930.  The prototype was later fitted with an enclosure over the 
pilot's cockpit and was fitted with geared V-1570-29 engines, being 
redesignated XO-27A.  

In 1930, Fokker-America was absorbed by the General Aviation 
Corporation, which was a subsidiary of General Motors, the large 
automobile manufacturing concern.  On April 11, 1931, the company 
received a contract for six service test YO-27s (31-587/592).  A month 
later, six service test YB-8s were ordered (31-598/603).  

The first YO-27 was flown on September 10, 1932, and was issued to the 
12th Observation Group based at Brooks Field, Texas.  The YO-27 had 
longer engine nacelles and was equipped with windows in the nose.  
There was a single Browning machine gun in a flexible position in the 
nose and another Browning machine gun in a flexible position in the 
rear cockpit.  

The XB-8 (29-328) was delivered to Wright Field in February of 1931.  
The XB-8 did not have as good a performance as the competing Douglas 
XB-7, and only one example of the XB-8 was built.  The six YB-8s that 
had been ordered by the Army were redesignated Y1O-27 before they were 
manufactured and were delivered as observation planes.  In any case, 
the advances in bomber design that took place in the early 1930s had 
become so rapid that both the XB-7 and XB-8 were deemed obsolete and 
no production was ordered for either design.  

In 1933, the General Motors Corporation underwent a major 
reorganization and joined its General Aviation Corporation subsidiary 
into a large conglomerate along with other GM-owned aircraft companies 
such as Berliner-Joyce and the Curtiss-Caproni Corporation.  This 
conglomerate was also known as the General Aviation Corporation.  The 
complex of General Motors aircraft plants was later organized as the 
Eastern Aircraft Division and was to manufacture thousands of aircraft 
under license during the Second World War.  

29-327 		Fokker XO-27 
29-328 		Fokker XB-8 
31-587/592 	Fokker YO-27 
31-598/603 	Fokker YB-8 (delivered as Y1O-27) 

Specification of the Fokker/General Aviation XB-8: 

Two 600 hp Curtiss V-1570-23 Conqueror twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled 
Vee engines.  Maximum speed: 160 mph at sea level.  Weights: 6861 pounds 
empty, 10,545 pounds gross.  Dimensions: wingspan 64 feet, length 47 
feet, height 11 feet 6 inches, wing area 619 square feet.  Armed with 
two 0.30-inch machine guns, one in a flexible nose position and the 
other in a flexible dorsal position.  

Sources:

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Third Edition, Doubleday, 1982.

  U.S. Army Aircraft, 1908-1946, James C. Fahey

Joe Baugher				AT&T Bell Laboratories
1000 E. Warrenville Road		Naperville, Illinois 60566-7013