Douglas 423

The Douglas Model 423 was a bomber aircraft design developed by American aircraft manufacturer Douglas to compete with the Convair B-36 design for a major U.S. Army Air Force contract for an intercontinental bomber in 1941. Although identified as the Douglas XB-31 in some publications, the project documents indicate that it was designed much later than the R40-B competition.

Douglas Model 423
Role Heavy bomber
Manufacturer Douglas Aircraft
Status Design only
Primary user United States Army Air Force
Number built 0

Development

In April 1941, the possibility of Great Britain falling to Nazi Germany seemed very real, and so the United States Army Air Corps unveiled a competition for a long-range bomber with intercontinental range (10,000 miles), making it capable of conducting air-strikes on Nazi-occupied Europe from US bases. Douglas stated that it did not wish to produce an 'out-and-out 10,000-mile (16,090 km) airplane project', instead proposing the Model 423 with a range of 6,000 miles (9,654 km).[1] The Douglas Model 423 was eventually rejected in favor of the Consolidated Model 36, which became the Convair B-36 Peacemaker.

Specifications (Model 423)

(Note: The primary source labels this project as the XB-31, which was much smaller, earlier project, competing with the B-29 and B-32)

Data from McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920 : Volume I (erroneously labelled as XB-31)[2]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 8
  • Length: 117 ft 3 in (35.74 m)
  • Wingspan: 207 ft (63 m)
  • Height: 42 ft 7 in (12.98 m)
  • Wing area: 3,300 sq ft (310 m2)
  • Empty weight: 109,200 lb (49,532 kg)
  • Max takeoff weight: 198,000 lb (89,811 kg)
  • Powerplant: 4 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) each
  • Propellers: 3-bladed constant-speed propellers

Performance Armament

  • Guns:
    • 6× 0.50 in (13 mm) machine guns in remote ventral and dorsal turrets
    • 2× 37 mm (1.5 in) cannon
  • Bombs:
    • 25,000 lb (11,000 kg) of bombs
gollark: Bees aren't apioforms.
gollark: Hash it plus a random salt. Release the guesses and salt later.
gollark: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.11041
gollark: Okay, yes, I am wildly stereotyping very incorrectly, bipolar is over days to weeks.
gollark: You are unique in being very annoyed then regretting it, however.

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

Related lists

References

Citations
  1. Buttler, Tony, and Griffith, Alan, 2015. American Secret Projects: Fighters, Bombers, and Attack Aircraft, 1937–1945. Manchester: Crecy Publishing. ISBN 978-1906537487.
  2. Francillon, René J. (1988). McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920 : Volume I. London: Naval Institute Press. p. 607. ISBN 0870214284.

Bibliography
  • Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1979. ISBN 0-370-00050-1.
  • Jones, Lloyd S. U.S. Bombers: B-1 1928 to B-1 1980s. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, Inc., 1974. ISBN 0-8168-9126-5.
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