Subject: Bomber Series--Huff-Daland/Keystone B-1

From: [email-masked]
Date: 14 Jun 94 16:21:46 GMT

>From [email-masked]

Huff-Daland and Co, Inc. of Ogdensburg, New York is not exactly one of 
the better known aircraft companies.  Only a relatively few people 
still remember this company today.  Nevertheless, during the late 
1920s and early 1930s, Huff-Daland (and its successor Keystone) was 
the primary manufacturer of biplane bombers for the US Army Air Corps.  

In particular, this company had the honor of producing the first entry 
in the B-for-bomber series.  This category had been introduced in 
1924 along with the LB (Light Bomber) and the HB (Heavy Bomber) 
categories.  However, over the years, the Army concluded that it made 
no sense to subdivide its bombers into light and heavy, and the LB and 
HB categories were eventually eliminated and LB and HB aircraft were 
assigned designations in the B category.  

The first entry in the B sequence was assigned to a twin-engined 
adaptation of the Huff-Daland XHB-1 single-engined heavy bomber.  As 
early as April of 1926, the Army had decided that single-engined 
bombers were unsatisfactory, concluding that the more conventional 
twin-engined configuration was safer and had the additional advantage 
of allowing for a gunner and/or bomb-aiming position to be mounted in 
the nose.  

The XB-1 (serial number 27-334) was originally powered by a pair of 
510 hp Packard 2A-1530 liquid-cooled engines, and took to the air for 
the first time in September of 1927.  The B-1 also differed from the 
XHB-1 in having a twin tail rather than a single tail.  Instead of a 
single rear gunner with his view being blocked by the tail assembly, 
there were now two gunners, one seated in the rear of each engine 
nacelle.  Twin Lewis guns were provided for each of these gunners, 
with a third pair provided for a gunner's position in the nose.  This 
arrangement was not exactly new, having been tried out on both British 
and German bombers during World War 1.  

A total of five crew members were carried.  A pilot and a copilot were 
seated side-by-side in a cockpit ahead of the wing, a gunner/ 
bombardier was seated in a nose position, and a gunner was seated in 
the rear of each engine nacelle.  

The Packard engines were later replaced by 600 hp Curtiss V-1570-5 
Conquerors, and the aircraft was redesignated XB-1B.  By this time, 
Huff-Daland had been reorganized as Keystone.  

The XB-1B found itself in competition with the Curtiss B-2 Condor, the 
Sikorsky S-37B Guardian, and the Fokker-Atlantic XLB-2 high-winged 
monoplane for Army production orders.  The Curtiss design was deemed 
to be the best of the lot, and only one example of the XB-1B was 
built.  

Specification of the Keystone XB-1B: 

Two 600 hp Curtiss V-1570-5 Conqueror liquid-cooled engines.  Maximum 
speed 117 mph at sea level, service ceiling 15,000 feet, range 700 
miles with 2508 pound bombload.  Weights: 9462 pounds empty, 16,500 
pounds gross, 17,039 pounds maximum.  Wingspan 85 feet, length 62 
feet, height 19 feet 3 inches, wing area 1604 square feet.  Armed with 
six Lewis machine guns, paired in engine nacelle and nose positions.  

Sources:

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

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

  American Warplanes, Bill Gunston

  Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation

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

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
263 Shuman Boulevard 		Naperville, Illinois 60566-7050