The Wittemann-Lewis NBL-1 "Barling Bomber" was designed by Walter H. Barling and was commissioned by the US Army, who were looking for a long range strategic bomber in the post WW1 era. The airplane could carry 5000 lbs of bombs, weighed 42,529 lbs, and was powered by 6 Liberty engines. Only one was built. It was underpowered, poor aerodynamically and was scrapped (burned) in 1930.
Were the gun stations manually or automatically manned? If they were manual, then there must have been a crew of nearly a dozen people in the plane!
ReplyDeleteIn those days I'd have to think they were manual. But they did only make one and give up on the idea :-)
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