The Fokker XB-8 was a

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

built for the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

in the 1930s, derived from the high-speed Fokker O-27 observation aircraft.

Design and development

During assembly, the second prototype XO-27 was converted to a bomber prototype, dubbed the XB-8. While the XB-8 was much faster than existing biplane bombers, it did not have the bomb capacity to be considered for production. Two YB-8s and 4 Y1B-8s were ordered, but these were changed mid-production to Y1O-27 configuration. The wing of the XB-8 and XO-27 was built entirely from wood, although the fuselage was constructed of steel tubes covered with fabric with the exception of the nose which had a corrugated metal. They featured the first retractable

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

ever fitted to an Army Air Corps bomber or observation craft. The undercarriage retracted electrically. Crew was three in tandem position.

Operational history

It competed against the

Douglas Y1B-7 The Douglas Y1B-7 was a 1930s American bomber aircraft. It was the first US monoplane given the ''B-'' 'bomber' designation. The monoplane was more practical and less expensive than the biplane, and the United States Army Air Corps chose to expe ...

/XO-36. Both promised to greatly exceed the performance of the large biplane bombers then used by the Army Air Corps. However, the Douglas XB-7 was markedly better in performance than the XB-8, and no further versions of Fokker's aircraft were built.

Operators

; *

Specifications (XB-8)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Pelletier, Alain J. "Fokker Twilight". ''Air Enthusiast'', No. 117, May/June 2005, pp. 62–66. ISSN 0143-5450. * Wagner, Ray. ''American Combat Planes''. New York: Doubleday, 1982. .

External links

O-27 USAAS 1000 Aircraft Photos

Army's Mystery Plane Passes Speed Test
– ''Popular Science
Atlantic (Fokker) XB-8
– National Museum of the US Air Force {{DEFAULTSORT:Fokker Xb-8 B-8 Fokker B-08 Mid-wing aircraft Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft