B17 Modification

Archibald

Banned
Amen to that! Some of the best military kit ever built only came about because the "required spec" was completely ignored.

Dassault happily agree with you. Mirage III, Mirage F1 and Mirage 2000 (total 2700 aircrafts) all happened as "Dassault plan B" after the Armée de l'Air specifications (Plan A !) failed miserably.
 
Yeah but the payload was 30,000 lb of explosives. If the b-17 chassis could handle 30,000 lb of explosives surely there's a way to modify it to take a 12,000 lb bomb.

That said it's probably a lot of modification and wouldn't make economic sense.

No it was not 30,000lb or anything even close even when completely stripped down as an Aphrodite.
A Maximum 12000 lb of explosive for a trip of less than 400 miles....
but basically a blast weapon having no ground/armour penetration like a tallboy/grandslam.


BTW the normal bomb load for a B-17 was only 4,000 lbs for a flight of 1,000 miles.
A Mosquito could do as well and at greater speed and far less than half the cost.
 
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