TBF "Avenger"
Torpedo-Bomber
Grumman
© Michael Bykov
TBF-1 Avenger, Grumman.
TBF Avenger - the main torpedo bomber of World War II. First flown on 1 August 1941.
Avenger, as well as all airplanes of Grumman have been well designed and had a reliable design.
The airplane had a good manoeuvrability, therefore already in series production (TBF-1C) one nose 7,62 mm a machine gun have replaced with two on wing.
The Crew has usually consisten from three person, the pilot, bomber and the radio operator. The pilot shot from fixed forward machine guns and dumped a torpedo.
The place of bomber was in the lower tail part of a fuselage , he also shot from the under-fuselage machine gun.
The radio operator placed behind of the pilot and shot from a machine gun in turret.
Power plant: 14-cylinder radial engine of air cooling Wright R-2600-8 Cyclone 1700 hp (1268 kw).
Total 9836 "Avengers" of various modifications were produced.
Crew |
3 |
Dimensions |
Wing span, m |
16.51 |
Wing area, m2 |
45.52 |
Length, m |
12.2 |
Height, m |
5.00 |
Powerplant |
PE Wright R-2600-8 Cyclone, hp |
1700 |
Weight, kg: |
Empty weight (TBF-1C) |
4788 |
Maximum takeoff weight |
7876 |
Performance |
Maximum speed, km/h |
436 |
Service ceiling, m |
6830 |
Service range, km |
1778 |
Armament |
2 x 12.7-mm machine guns in the wing and one 7.62-mm machine gun in the turret |
2 + 1 |
Internal bomb load, kg |
907 |
References
- "Encyclopedia of military engineering" /Aerospace Publising/
- "American Warplanes of World War II" /under cor. David Donald/
- "Air War" /# 98, 99. Grumman Avenger/
|