The bomber aircraft advanced in having many more styles of bomber planes such as: heavy, very heavy, and medium multi-engine bombers, and single-engine Navy scout bombers. The Boeing B-17 and the Consolidated B-24. The two types of planes were best remembered as the aircrafts that carried out the US strategic bombing offensive against Germany. Another one of the US bombing offensive against Germany was the high-altitude environment on the airmen. The B-17 and B-24 were pressurized or heated. The temperatures ranged from -30F to -50F at altitudes of 25,000 feet and above, which led to the making of a pressurized and heated suit. All bombers that flew at high altitude had to wear one to fly.
The B-29 was also a big advancement in bomber planes due to its very high aspect ratio wing being mounted vertically in the midposition on the long, slim fuselage. The B-29 was equipped with the earlier Boeing B-17, the B-29 had a tricycle landing gear with each leg having a two-wheel bogie and with the main gear retracting into the inboard engine nacelles.
…show more content…
They were very much lighter than the strategic types of aircrafts as the B-29. They used them for mostly short range bombing and ground support missions. The most known one is the North American B-25, known as the Mitchell, and the Martin B-26, also know as the Marauder. Both the B-25 and the B-26 had the tricycle gear, and these aircraft, together with the B-24, set a precedent for landing gear design in future Air Force bomber aircraft. The B-26 was equipped with two of the new 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney twin-row radial engines of 2000 horsepower each. Since the aircraft was intended to operate at medium to low altitudes, these engines were only mildly supercharged and developed 1490 horsepower each at 14 300 feet. The aircraft weighed 37 000 pounds fully loaded and the exceedingly high wing loading of 56.2 pounds per square