Subject: Bomber Series--Keystone LB-14

From: [email-masked]
Date: 13 Jun 94 16:56:17 GMT

>From [email-masked]

In 1930, three Keystone bombers were ordered under the designation 
LB-14.  They were to be equipped with single vertical tails and were 
to be powered by a pair of 525 hp Pratt & Whitney GR-1860 radials.  In 
1930, the USAAC abandoned its separate designation categories for 
light (LB) and heavy (HB) bombers, and classified them both under the 
B category.  The LB-14s that were ordered were completed as Y1B-5s 
with 525 hp Wright R-1750-3 engines.  However, it is uncertain if 
these were ever actually delivered.  

Specification of the Keystone Y1B-5: 

Two 525 hp Wright R-1750-3 air-cooled radial engines.  Maximum speed 
111 mph at sea level Weight: 13,100 pounds gross.  Wingspan 74 feet 9 
inches, length 48 feet 10 inches, height 15 feet 9 inches, wing area 
1145 square feet.  Two Lewis machine guns in an open gunner's position 
in the nose, two Lewis machine guns in an open dorsal gunner's 
position, one Lewis gun firing downward through an opening in the 
lower fuselage.  

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   	
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