Aviation and War Machine

The big and complicated B-24 was the most built US aircraft of WWII. The B-24 was more difficult to fly than the B-17, especially at high altitude, and although it was designed later it did not have a much better performance. But it was efficient and had longer range, due to the slender ‘Davis’ wing. It’s range made it much in demand for naval patrol tasks. The B-17 was often claimed to be sturdier and more reliable, but the B-24 actually suffered fewer losses. Some Liberators were stripped of their equipment and armament and used as transports called CB-24. 19256 built. Type: B-24D-85-CO Function: bomber Year: 1942 Crew: 10 Engines: 4 * 1200hp P&W R-1830-43 Wing Span: 33.52 m Length: 20.22 m Height: 5.46 m Wing Area: 97.36 m2 Empty Weight: 15413 kg Max.Weight: 27216 kg Speed: 488 km/h Ceiling: 9753 m Range: 3500 km Armament: 9-11 * mg 12.7mm 3629 kg payload Type: B-24J Function: bomber Year: 1943 Crew: 12 Engines: 4 * 895 kW P&W R-1830-65 Wing Span: 33.53 m Length: 20.47 m Height: 5.49 m Wing Area: 97.36 m2 Empty Weight: 16556 kg Max.Weight: 32296 kg Speed: 467 km/h Ceiling: 8535 m Range: 3480 km Armament: 10 * mg 12.7mm, 5806 kg payload Like the equally successful North American P-51 Mustang, the Liberator was designed in a great hurry. In January 1939, the United States Army Air Corps invited Consolidated to submit a design study for a bomber with greater range, higher speed, and greater altitude performance than the existing backbone of the Army Air Corps, the B-17 Flying Fortress. The contract for a prototype was awarded in March, requiring that it be ready before the end of the year. The design was simple in concept but advanced for its time. The 70,547 lb (32,000 kg) maximum takeoff weight was one of the highest of the time. It was the first American bomber to use tricycle landing gear instead of a tailwheel, and it featured long, thin wings with a high aspect ratio for maximum fuel efficiency. It also had a twin tail layout. Compared to the B-17, the B-24 was shorter, had 25% less wing area but a 6 foot (1.8 m) greater wingspan, and a substantially greater carrying capacity. Whereas the B-17 used 9-cylinder Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines, the B-24 used twin-row 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials of 1000 hp (746 kW). Consolidated finished the prototype, by then known as the XB-24, and had it ready for its first flight with just two days before the end of 1939. Seven more YB-24 development aircraft flew in 1940 and Consolidated began preparing production tooling. Early orders placed even before the XB-24 had flown included 36 for the United States Army Air Corps, 120 for the French Armée de l’Air, and 164 for the RAF. Most of the first production Liberators went to Britain, including all those originally ordered by the Armée de l’Air after France collapsed in 1940.

from : fighter-planes.com 

The big and complicated B-24 was the most built US aircraft of WWII. The B-24 was more difficult to fly than the B-17, especially at high altitude, and although it was designed later it did not have a much better performance. But it was efficient and had longer range, due to the slender ‘Davis’ wing. It’s range made it much in demand for naval patrol tasks. The B-17 was often claimed to be sturdier and more reliable, but the B-24 actually suffered fewer losses. Some Liberators were stripped of their equipment and armament and used as transports called CB-24. 19256 built. Type: B-24D-85-CO Function: bomber Year: 1942 Crew: 10 Engines: 4 * 1200hp P&W R-1830-43 Wing Span: 33.52 m Length: 20.22 m Height: 5.46 m Wing Area: 97.36 m2 Empty Weight: 15413 kg Max.Weight: 27216 kg Speed: 488 km/h Ceiling: 9753 m Range: 3500 km Armament: 9-11 * mg 12.7mm 3629 kg payload Type: B-24J Function: bomber Year: 1943 Crew: 12 Engines: 4 * 895 kW P&W R-1830-65 Wing Span: 33.53 m Length: 20.47 m Height: 5.49 m Wing Area: 97.36 m2 Empty Weight: 16556 kg Max.Weight: 32296 kg Speed: 467 km/h Ceiling: 8535 m Range: 3480 km Armament: 10 * mg 12.7mm, 5806 kg payload Like the equally successful North American P-51 Mustang, the Liberator was designed in a great hurry. In January 1939, the United States Army Air Corps invited Consolidated to submit a design study for a bomber with greater range, higher speed, and greater altitude performance than the existing backbone of the Army Air Corps, the B-17 Flying Fortress. The contract for a prototype was awarded in March, requiring that it be ready before the end of the year. The design was simple in concept but advanced for its time. The 70,547 lb (32,000 kg) maximum takeoff weight was one of the highest of the time. It was the first American bomber to use tricycle landing gear instead of a tailwheel, and it featured long, thin wings with a high aspect ratio for maximum fuel efficiency. It also had a twin tail layout. Compared to the B-17, the B-24 was shorter, had 25% less wing area but a 6 foot (1.8 m) greater wingspan, and a substantially greater carrying capacity. Whereas the B-17 used 9-cylinder Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines, the B-24 used twin-row 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radials of 1000 hp (746 kW). Consolidated finished the prototype, by then known as the XB-24, and had it ready for its first flight with just two days before the end of 1939. Seven more YB-24 development aircraft flew in 1940 and Consolidated began preparing production tooling. Early orders placed even before the XB-24 had flown included 36 for the United States Army Air Corps, 120 for the French Armée de l’Air, and 164 for the RAF. Most of the first production Liberators went to Britain, including all those originally ordered by the Armée de l’Air after France collapsed in 1940.

from : fighter-planes.com 

Russia’s new state-of-the-art S-400 missile defense system will be operational around Moscow by the beginning of July. The commander of the Russian Air Force, three-star Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, made the announcement Monday, RIA Novosti reported. RIA Novosti described the S-400 Triumf system, designated by NATO as the SA-21 Growler, as "a new air defense missile system developed by the Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family." "On July 1, one battalion of S-400 missile defense system will be put on combat duty to defend the airspace of Moscow and Central Russia," Zelin said. According to the RIA Novosti report, Zelin said an S-400 battalion was still undergoing training and it would become operational on July 1, operating out of the town of Elektrostal in the Moscow oblast, or region. RIA Novosti said the S-400 "has been designed to intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles), or twice the range of the MIM-104 Patriot, and 2.5 times that of the S-300PMU-2." The news agency noted that in April, Col. Gen. Yury Solovyov, the head of Russia’s Air Defense Forces Special Command, previously known as the Moscow Military District Air Defense Command, said the S-400 system could also be used for limited purposes in missile and space defense. However, it was not designed to destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles, he said. RIA Novosti also quoted Solovyov as claiming that the S-400 had the ability to destroy stealth aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with an effective range of up to 2,200 miles and a speed of up to 3 miles per second, or 10,800 miles per hour. RIA Novosti said Russia’s Air Defense Forces have more than 30 regiments equipped with S-300 missile system, which will all eventually be re-equipped with the S-400s. Russia has sold the S-300 system to Iran.

Britain’s defence ministry said Monday it had placed a 200-million-pound (295-million-euro, 395-million-dollar) contract to construct a new nuclear-powered attack submarine, it said Monday. The 7,800-tonne vessel, to be named HMS Audacious, will be the fourth in the Astute class of submarines, which are the largest and most powerful of their type ever built in Britain for the Royal Navy. Assembly is expected to start later this year at the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, north-west England, where three other Astute class vessels — Astute, Ambush and Artful — are already under construction. The defence equipment and support minister Lord Paul Drayson said in a statement: "Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to the attack submarine programme… "It also demonstrates our commitment to the Royal Navy, which needs these submarines to fulfil its duties around the globe." HMS Astute is to be launched next month, said First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band. The Astute class submarines will replace the two Swiftsure and seven Trafalgar class vessels that have been in service since the 1970s and 1980s respectively. They will be equipped with improved communications systems to support joint operations and an enhanced ability to operate in shallower coastal waters. Astute class boats have a maximum dived displacement of 7,800 tonnes, are 97 metres (318-feet) long, have a crew of 98 and will be equipped with Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles. They will carry more of these weapons than existing submarines. The order comes amid opposition to government proposals to renew Britain’s Trident missile nuclear deterrent, which is carried by four Vanguard class submarines.

Iraq’s defence ministry will buy new weapons worth more than 1.5 billion dollars (1.11 billion euros), including helicopters and US rifles, the minister announced on Monday. The purchases will be made possible by a 26 percent increase in the country’s defence budget, to 4.1 billion dollars (three billion euros) for the current fiscal year. "The Iraqi government has signed a contract with the American government to set up a foreign weapons sales office to buy weapons that Iraq needs," Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed said at a Baghdad press conference. "This programme will help Iraq to buy modern weapons and to ensure arrival of these weapons when the ministry asks for them," he added. Iraq has started importing American-made M-16 and M-4 rifles, which are slowly replacing the ubiquitous Soviet-designed AK-47 Kalashnikov among the Iraqi forces struggling to bring order to the country. Mohammed is also looking to beef up the country’s air force and navy with the purchase of 29 Soviet-designed M-17 helicopters, six reconnaissance planes, 10 patrol boats from Italy and 26 from the United States. The gradual switchover from the AK-47 to the M-16 began earlier this month, when a graduating class of Iraqi military recruits became the first of 1,600 rookie soldiers to start receiving the weapons. The M-16 fires a 5.56mm round, standard among most modern armies and lighter than the 7.62mm used in the rugged Kalashnikov. Iraq is awash with Kalashnikovs looted from ousted dictator Saddam Hussein’s defunct armed forces, smuggled from around the region by militants and imported by the United States to arm new Iraqi security units. Many go missing from official stocks, but the new generation of US-made weapons will be issued to individual soldiers, whose photographs and biometric data will be recorded next to their guns’ serial numbers to deter fraud.