Keystone B-6A USAF Museum Bomber Virtual Aircraft Gallery (original) (raw)

Keystone B-6AThe Keystone B-6A was the last biplane bomber purchased by the US Army Air Corps. The conservative Army leadership was slow to accept new design concepts in aircraft construction and tended to favor traditional and proven designs over radical unproven ones. This resulted in a design stagnation of about ten years. The basic design and performance of the B-6A was little different from the Martin NBS-1 ordered in 1921.

The acceptance of the single wing bomber would be slow. The B-7 and B-8 bombers were ordered in 1929, but they were originally designed as high speed observation planes. The conversion to the bomber role was done while the prototypes were under construction.

Some Keystone bombers remained in service until the early 1940s serving in secondary roles such as observation and reconnaissance.

Notes:

SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 74 ft. 9 in.
Length: 48 ft. 10 in.
Height: 17 ft. 2 in.
Weight: 13,350 lbs. gross
Armament: three Browning .30-cal. machine guns and 2,500 pounds of bombs
Engines: Two Wright R-1820-1 radials of 575 hp. each
Crew: Five

PERFORMANCE
Top speed: 120 mph. at sea level
Cruising speed: 103 mph.
Service ceiling: 14,100 ft.
Range: 825 miles (approx. 350 miles with full bomb load)

Keystone B-6A Photo Gallery