Boeing PW-9 (FB-5 / Model 15)

History of Boeing PW-9 (FB-5/15)

The Boeing PW-9 series is based on the company's "Type 15" aircraft, which in turn originated from the then superb German WWI biplane series Fokker D. VII, with details from being an American after the conflict . Boeing accumulated valuable aircraft design and production knowledge in the early days of building competing companies' aircraft systems to fulfill government contracts. Its official first military fighter program became the in-house Type 15. Boeing's first flight of the Model 15 was recorded on June 2, 1923, and was designated XPW-9 by the U.S. Army Air Service. The performance of the XPW-9 was excellent to the government observers present, and two additional XPW-9 prototypes were ordered - the second differing in that the split landing gear arrangement was well suited to the needs of the US Army, while the other Racks are then used for mass production of selected prototypes.

More conventional planes ended up installing a massive Curtiss-branded inline piston engine, which forced the plane's nose to take a rather low profile to accommodate the cooling system.

Following the success of the XPW-9 in testing, the aircraft entered production for the U.S. Army under the designation "PW-9" and became the "FB-1" under the U.S. Navy (USN) and the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC). The aircraft, known as the "FB," will be the U.S.

Navy's first dedicated carrier-based fighter jet. Unlike the traditional biplane structures of the past few years, Boeing used arc-welded tubes instead of wood to form the underbody of its PW-9. However, wings are traditionally built with wooden beams covered with fabric.

Production continued from 1923 to 1928, by which time several variants were developed, each with minor modifications and structural changes to the subsystems as required - mainly the type of engine installed and the operating controls and planes Surface flight and landing cables. Armament consisted of a 0.55 caliber heavy machine gun and a 0.30 caliber general purpose machine gun, although some were also equipped with a pair of 0.30 caliber machine guns in lieu of hybrid machine guns. All weapons are mounted in fixed forward firing positions in front of the pilot and behind the engine compartment - synchronised to fire through rotating propeller blades. Additionally, the FW-9 can be equipped with 2 x 122lb or 1 x 244lb drop bombs for limited attack missions.

The first US Air Forces received their PW-9s in October 1925, but very few Boeing aircraft actually served stateside throughout their lifetime.

Externally, the design of the PW-9 is characterized by its two-wing layout. The wing span is uneven, the upper assembly has a larger area and a wider span. The struts consist of a simple parallel arrangement with end-to-end cables.

The lower wing is attached to the underside of the forward fuselage, and the upper assembly is supported by struts. The engine is built into the forward compartment and drives a simple two-bladed propeller.

The pilot sits under the open-air cockpit stern and upper wing assembly with a reasonable view of his aircraft. A raised torso "spine" provides the headrest. The fins were conventional at the time, with a single vertical fin of a small area and a pair of horizontal planes.

The landing gear is fixed in place and arranged in a "tail drag" form, in which there are a pair of single wheel main gear struts and a tail skid.

The performance of the PW-9 base model stems from the installation of a water-cooled Curtiss D-12 inline V12 engine producing 435 horsepower. This gives the PW-9 a top speed of nearly 160 mph and a cruising speed of 142 mph. The service ceiling is rated at 18,925 feet.

According to Boeing records, Boeing delivered at least 157 PW-9 aircraft. These include 77 "FB" fighter and trainer aircraft delivered to the US Navy. Peru becomes the only foreign operator of the PW-9, five examples of the FB Navy trainer model.

Model 15/PW-9/FB went by various names, starting with the three XPW-9 prototypes mentioned above. This was followed by the base designation PW-9, which was used to designate 30 initial production models equipped with Curtiss D-12 series engines. The PW-9A appeared in 24 examples with modified D-12C series engines. An example based on the improved PW-9A became the PW-9B in 1927. The advent of the new D-12D engine produced 40 examples of the PW-9C model.

The 16 PW-9D prototypes became the last production models in the PW-9 series and featured improved rudder control. Boeing equipped the PW-9 with 510-horsepower Packard 1A-1500 series engines to produce the only prototype XP-4 (company designation Type 58).

A PW-9A was used as a converted single-seat trainer with Wright Hispano engines to become an AT-3.

The US Navy named its Model 15 "FB". This started with the first production FB-1s, 10 of which were delivered, but due to the lack of arresting hooks, they were only operated from land bases. It was only with the advent of two FB-2 models that the FB series became carrier capable and entered service on the USS Langley. The FB-2 was equipped with Packard 1A series (company designation Type 53) engines. The FB-3 then tested seaplane operations with Packard 1A engines (company name Type 55) in three examples.

A "one-off" prototype powered by a 450 hp Wright P-1 radial piston engine was born out of the Boeing Type 54 program to meet the FB-4 designation. At least 27 FB-5 variants were produced with 520 hp Packard 2A-1500 series engines (company designation Type 67).

Another "one-off" form, the FB-6 tested the Pratt & Whitney R-1340-B Wasp engine, while the FB-7 only went to the drawing board.

By the way, the name "PW-9" is derived from the official long name "Pursuit, Water-Cooled, Design 9".

Specification

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Changes