Subject: Bomber Series--Huff-Daland LB-1

From: [email-masked] (joseph.f.baugher)
Date: 29 May 94 16:56:34 GMT

In the annals of aviation, Huff-Daland and Co, Inc. of Ogdensburg, Ney 
York is not exactly one of the better known aircraft companies.  Only 
a few aviation historians still remember this company today.  
Nevertheless, Huff-Daland and its successor Keystone manufactured a 
line of biplane bombers which served as the primary bomber aircraft of 
the US Army Air Corps in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  Although the 
Huff-Daland/Keystone series of bombers were relatively conservative in 
design and performance, the USAAC liked them because of their low 
cost, their reliability, and their stable flying characteristics.  

The Huff-Daland series of biplane bombers begins with the XLB-1 
(23-1250), which first appeared back in 1923.  Departing from prior 
bomber design practice, this aircraft was powered by a single enormous 
800 hp Packard 1A-2540 V-12 water-cooled engine instead of the more 
traditional pair of lower-powered engines.  It was a tapered-winged 
biplane with a single bay of struts, and was of fabric-covered 
steel-tube construction.  A single vertical tail was fitted.  It 
carried a crew of three, with two sitting side by side behind the 
engine and a gunner sitting in a position near the single tail.  The 
bombs were all carried internally, and the bomb aimer sighted through 
a window in the belly rather than from the normal nose position.  The 
armament consisted of two Lewis machine guns mounted on the gunner's 
position and two 0.30-inch Browning machine guns fixed on the leading 
edge of the lower wings.  A total bombload of 1500 pounds could be 
carried.  

Nine service-test LB-1s were ordered which were identical to the XLB-1 
except for the installation of an improved 2A-2540 engine plus the 
addition of a seat for a fourth crew member.  These planes were known 
as "Pegasus" by the Huff-Daland company, although this was not an 
official USAAC name.  Their serials were 26-377/385.  Army experience 
with these planes suggested that a single-engined format for bombers
was unsatisfactory from a safety standpoint.  The Army decided that
henceorth all of its bombers would have a multi-engined format.

Specification of the Huff-Daland LB-1: 

One 787 hp Packard 2A-2540 V-12 water-cooled engine.  Maximum speed 
121 mph at sea level, 117 mph at 6500 feet.  Cruising speed 114 mph.  
Landing speed 55 mph.  Service ceiling 14,425 feet, Absolute ceiling 
17,300 feet.  Initial climb rate 176 feet per minute.  An altitude of 
6500 feet could be attained in 23.5 minutes.  Range 940 miles.  
Weights: 5704 pounds empty, 10,346 pounds gross.  Wingspan 85 feet, 
length 62 feet, height 19 feet 3 inches, wing area 1604 square feet.  
Armed with two Lewis machine guns in the gunner's position plus two 
0.30 inch machine guns fixed on the leading edge of the lower wings.  

Sources:

Sources:

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

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

Joe Baugher			**************************************
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