Monday, Oct. 07, 1940
B-l7s to Britain?
Most storied aircraft in the U. S. Army Air Corps today is the Flying Fortress, a monster, four-motored Boeing bomber. Since the first B-17 was delivered to the Air Corps in 1937, the Flying Fortresses have served the Army with the plodding but spectacular fidelity of a string of prize Percherons. Manned by veteran pilots, B-17s have made countless jumps to the Canal Zone and South America, have ranged far out to sea, made long, heavily loaded hops. None has crashed.
Last week at Virginia's Langley Field, at California's March Field, at other Army Air Corps stations where B-17s are stabled, rumors buzzed around the big ships like horseflies. Loudest rumor: that President Roosevelt planned to send 25 of the Army's 80-odd Flying Fortresses to Britain, in another transaction like his destroyer-bases deal. Grooming the big fellows after the day's flying was over, soldier-mechanics chewed over the goods and bads of such a transfer.
Long-range argument against the deal is that the B-17 is the Army's most effective weapon for reconnaissance and bombing against attacking naval forces, but no Air Corps men expect to use them at that kind of job so long as Britain's fleet is in British hands. More immediate objection is that the Army has too few Flying Fortresses, is using them day & night to train pilots in the most complicated job of flying the Air Corps has. But air officers admitted that the big rush for B-17 training will not be on for at least eight months, that they could get along fairly well meantime with 25 fewer ships. On order from Boeing are about 560 more, plus 76 of a similar type from Consolidated; deliveries are expected to begin around July 1, 1941. And Air Corps men, who favor all-out aid to Britain, could give plenty of reasons why the old B-17s are needed more in the British Isles than they are in the U. S.
Presumption is that if Britain gets Flying Fortresses they will be the first B-17s, which have a cruising speed of 250 m.p.h. --about 50 m.p.h slower than the new line of Flying Fortresses. Faster than most British bombers now flying, the old B-17s are still too slow for daylight raids.
Their obvious use would be in night bombing raids. For that job they carry the wickedest slug in the air. A fully loaded B-17 carries five tons of bombs in its belly, can lug them in any size, from 100 to 2,000 pounds. Its prodigious cruising range with full load is 3,000 miles; it can go out 1,200 miles and return, with 20% reserve in fuel. Operating from Britain, with tanks only half full, B-17s could bomb Berlin. With full tanks they could reach the great armament plants in Prague, mess up the vast new German munitions industries built up in Austria to put them out of the range of British bombers. They could swing down into the toe of Italy's boot, with plenty of gas to get home again. And to bomb Italian establishments in northern Africa they could fly from London to Alexandria, be ready for work as soon as they were serviced.
If Britain gets the B-17s, she would not have to wait long to get them on the job. The Royal Air Force has plenty of pilots experienced in four-motored ships. And if the Flying Fortresses were delivered in Canada, they would need no help in hopping across the Atlantic. The 1,850-mile jump from Newfoundland to the nearest English airdrome would be just a good workout for the Air Corps's sturdy Percherons.
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