Warbird Information Exchange

Been comparing some numbers on the B-17 to other combat airplanes. Using the "standard" load out for a B-17 operating in Europe in 1945 please fill in the blanks below. (Wikipedia was helpful but did not provide all the answers.)

Empty weight
Fuel (gallons & pounds)
Bomb load
Machine guns & ammo weight
Crew weight
Max allowable gross weight of plane (were planes flown at max?)
Any weights I forgot?

Thanks in advance,
Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Ken: you would need to dig into AN01-20Ex-x to get the data. It will vary between models and installed equipment some.

Just looking for a realistic example. I figured the WIXBrainTrust would have this answered in a day.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

For a Brit Fort3, Max T.O. weight was 64,100#'s, 1700 gallons of fuel, with a total bomb load of 14,000#'s and it had a combat range of a little under 1300 miles, when flown at 150 knots true airspeed and at 5,000' altitude. Leave off 4,000#'s of bombs and the range goes up almost 1,000 miles at the same speeds and altitudes.

I appreciate the input, that is helpful. I thought the standard mission was flown in the 20-30,000' regime?

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

I couldn’t rotate, zoom and print the page out of the online manual I was looking at, so I could chase the performance curves better. Those two curves were just very easy to see.

Most missions probably were flown at 20k feet or higher.

According to a couple of manuals I have:

Empty wt. 34,500
Oil. 1,125
Fuel. 10,392
Bombardier. 200
Navigator. 200
Ammo (nose). 52
Books and map. 48
Pilot & Copilot. 400
Baggage. 50
FE. 200
Top turret ammo. 330
Bombs. 5000
Radio Op. 200
Ammo. 350
Equipment. 150
Ball gunner. 200
Ammo. 330
Waist gunner. 200
Ammo. 330
Door compartment. 330
Tail gunner. 200
Ammo. 200

Gross Weight. 54,987


This is from a B-17F manual dated 12-25-1942 revised 4-1-43

My Dad’s old manual lists a Tactical Empty weight of 41,000 lbs and max Gross of 64,500

I’m sure that block changes altered weights all through production

Also his manual listed total fuel (not counting bomb bay tanks) as 2780 gal

Hope this helps

Steve

Don't most t goes list a crew weight on the painted "data tag" ( for lack of a better word) beneath the cockpit?
Isn't it something like 120-150 lbs on some types?
If course I appreciate that a fully fitted-out bomber crewman would be more...

So, did the AAF have a standard "crew weight"?

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

The "usual" stenciling on the nose of B-17G models states max crew weight 1,200 lbs.

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Lake Dallas, Republic of Texas

Dean, thanks...
That's what I thought.
But 1200 ÷ 10 = 120... My dad was a B-17 pilot and was considered rather tall for the time at 5'10" ...But still he weighed more than 120 even when young and skinny.
I haven't been able to wear his A-2 since high school...

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

Aw shucks I was just under the bomb bay of the B-17G 44-83624 Sleepy Time Gal just at the excellent Dover AFB museum yesterday and they have a nice placard on the bomb bay answering the how many bombs could the B-17 carry question? with the reply that like most things aviation realted...it depends...., and a nice breakdown of "typical" bomb loads that varied quite a bit for how far into Europe the mission had to go. Quite a few variables depending on range, with I recall 4-8 thousand pounds of bombs being discussed.

IIRC, that data block was never updated from the original crew of 6.

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Best Regards;
Chuck Giese --- Volunteer helping to restore B-17G 44-85734 "Liberty Belle".

I was wondering if that was the case.

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

THANKS, that's the type of data I needed!
Ken

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."