Been googling a bit, but my WW2 aircraft book isnt with me:( What bomber had the biggest bomb load in WW2? Keep seing references to in eastern theatre or west, what had the most overall that was operational?
Cheers
Jon
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Been googling a bit, but my WW2 aircraft book isnt with me:( What bomber had the biggest bomb load in WW2? Keep seing references to in eastern theatre or west, what had the most overall that was operational?
Cheers
Jon
LOOKING FOR (whoops caps) u now
Probably the B-29
Given that they could carry 2 Grand Slams side by side, Skii's probably right...44,000lbs? What did they think they were going to bomb, FFS?
Thought B29 was 20,000lb and max on lanc was 22,000lb
Jon
EDIT
Just done some more searching on that and looks like the B29 was never operational with any grandslams. 3 test beds to try loading techniques but not clear if they ever carried the fully loaded bombs. The B-36 carried 2 dumy grandslams in 1948. Also a lot of places call the tall boy a small grandslam.
Its either the Lanc or the B-29, given that bombloads and types changed so often, I've heard both as being the largest bombload. Both around the 20,000lb mark IIRC
What was the load on the Condor?
They were big but I dunno about bomb capacity...
Not a lot tbh m8, the Condor was a converted air liner, carried a fairly light load specifically for anti-shipping attacks. Was a maritime patrol plane as opposed to a bomber IIRCQuote:
Originally Posted by [GSV]Trig
kk, in that case I'd say the Lanc carried more than the B29 due to the extra weight of the guns n all that leaving more room for bombs on the lanc
The I16......it had such huge stability with bombs ;) and mammoth lift :)
Think it was the lancaster as it did actually fly missions with the 22,000lb grand slam bombs iirc.
Okay, I've been at my encyclopedias.
Lancaster Mk I 22,000 lbs
Lancaster Mk II 14,000 lbs (it didn't have Merlin engines and its overall performance was much crappier than the Mk1)
B-29 20,000 lbs
The FW200 Condor was mainly used for recon and had no major payload.
I think the biggest payload the Luftwaffe came up with was the Mistel - over 8000 lbs. The JU188 could drop 6614 lbs.
The Italians had the Piaggio p.108B with a bomload of 7,700lb.
The Japanese had the Renzan, which could unleash 8,800lb.
Cheers Moby. I found some nice pics of the grandslam, hadnt realised how big it was.
Flibb