Aircraft Quiz #73, back to exactly.

[Doug Robertson]

Once upon a time there was a huge (for the time) military bomber designed and built that flew, but just barely with six reciprocating engines driving eight propellers. Only one was ever built and flown.

1. Designer?

2a. Country?, and 2b.Military Service?

3. Year?

4a. Engines nomenclature?, and 4b.horsepower each?

5. Aircrew number and duties?

6a. Armament?, and 6b.Designed bomb load in pounds?

7. Number of landing gear wheels?

As usual, the specs and fuller story will follow.

[SunvisorFlyer]

Hey Doug, looks like this was double-posted, so I'm replying to the later post.

I have two guesses, though I don't have high confidence in either.

Tupolev ANT-16
1. Tupolev OKB

2a. Soviet Union and 2b. None? Experimental

3. 1933

4a. Mikulin AM-34 V-12 engines and 4b. 750 horsepower

5. Twelve & unknown

6a. 2x20mm cannon, 5x2x7.62mm machine guns and 6b. 22,046 lbs

7. Three or Five, I don't know if those side-by-side wheels are distinct

Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1
1. Walter Barling

2a. USA and 2b. US Army Air Service

3. 1923

4a. 6 Liberty L-12A engines and 4b. 420 horsepower

5. Seven- two pilots + five gunners

6a. 7x0.30 cal (7.62mm) machine guns and 6b. 5000 lbs

7. 8 or 10

[Doug Robertson]

Congrats on your second set of rapid response answers. (I don't know how the site stuttered in posting identical quiz input twice).

The post-WWI Barling Bomber was an early attempt in America to build a US Army bomber with little capital and not much drag reduction in a huge (for the time) stacked wings tri-plane with 120 foot wingspan yielding a top speed of only 96 mph. The Barling XNBL-1 stood for Experimental Night Bomber Long Range No. 1.

Here are my answers.

1. Walter Barling.

2a. USA, 2b. US Army Air Service.

3. 1923.

4. Six Liberty 12A piston engines of 420 Hp each driving 8 propellers.

5. Two pilots in a semi-enclosed cockpit and five gunners.

6. Armament was seven 7.5 mm machine guns in flexible mounts. The XNBL-1 theoretically could also carry a 5,000 lb bomb load.

7. There were ten wheels to the main tandem landing gear, eight in shock-absorber mounts with the forward two (of the ten) rigidly elevated under the fuselage nose to mainly prevent a nose-over.

There seemed to be no thought given to interference drag reduction or streamlining with the huge array of struts and interplane wires bracing the three stacked wings. The center wing of less fore and aft dimension was slightly shorter span than the top and the bottom wings and was secured centrally near the fuselage top.

The wide multi-tail consisted of two parallel horizontal stabilizers (adjusted in tailplane incidence from a lever in the cockpit) and four vertical stabilizers with four adjustable spaced small rudders. A braced strut below the fuselage was for tail protection, presumably if in an aggressive? takeoff climb.

The two pilots were semi-enclosed with NO forward vision because of the forward gunner ahead of them, but had several side windows.

Specifications

Crew-7
Powerplant-six 420 Hp Liberty 12A in-line piston engines
Wingspan-120 ft.
Length-65 ft.
Height-27 ft
Weight-42,569 lbs
Max speed-96 mph

[SunvisorFlyer]

Oh, I got it? Cool!

So the Barling Bomber had ten wheels and a tail-skid? That must have been fun to land. Also, with that forward gunner position, would that imply that pilots were doing a semi-IFR flying at all times?

[Doug Robertson]

There was actually an occasion when the Barling XNBL-1 tried to climb over the Appalachian mountains in a flight between Dayton, Ohio and Washington, D.C. but had to turn back because it couldn't make the climb. I have flown over that similar route and that Eastern range doesn't well-compare altitude wise with our Rocky mountain chain out west or the Sierras in California.

Oh, and I didn't mention that only one Barling XNBL-1 bomber was ever built, but it made the case for Military Air Power for a number of years, despite many cumbersome limitations.

Thanks again for winning the latest quiz, and quickly!