Was originally going to do NOT-Silverbird but when I asked Kiwi he vetoed it so instead I did NOT-Consoloidated Model 36, the design which eventually led to the B-36. While the B-36 is distinctly post war, there isn't much on it that didn't exist during the war and I've always been of the opinion that if it had been given a higher priority, not seen extensive redesigns and the reshuffling of development to a locaction halfway across the country, it's entirely plausible that it could have been finished by the end of the war.
First deployed in the closing months of the war against The Imperial Repbulics the Arbalest, nicknamed "The Big A" was at the time, and still remains one of, the largest combat aircraft ever to enter service. In 1941 as the as the situation of the outer colonies was uncertain, the fear that the only air bases within range of the enemy homeland were vulnerable to attack lead to the start of "The Homeland Based Bomber Initiative.” The requirements laid out by the imitative were bold even by modern standards, a ferry range of 10,000 miles, a combat radius of 3,600 miles with a load equivalent to or exceeding that of the existing Trebuchet Bomber's standard 10,000 lb load, a cruise altitude in excess of 40,000 feet and a cruise speed of at least 225 mph. Out of multiple tenders three were chosen for further development, the Sparrow Aircraft Company's Model 305, a 6 engine stretched derivative of the Trebuchet, the Polaris Aerospace Model 60 and the infamous rocket bomber, the National Aerospace Model R (Roughly comparable to the German Silverbird). Soon after issues with Sparrow's Trebuchet production led to loss of confidence and rejection of the Model 305.
The other two bombers, the Model 60 and Model R were selected for further development. In keeping with the theme of naming heavy bombers after siege weapons, the project code name of Arbalest was chosen for the Model 60. The Model R was given the atypical name of Comet, possibly due to its radical design.
Development of the Arbalest was slow at first, by the time the selection had been made the front lines were stabilizing and the airbases in the outer colonies seemed to be secure from attack however a behind the scene developments resulted in the project's priority being greatly increased. A new "Special Weapon" was being developed and there were concerns that it would be both too large for the existing bombers and too powerful for them to safely use. In addition there was concerns over whether it could be securely and safely shipped to an overseas base. By contrast the Homeland Based Bombers would both be able to not only carry the bomb but also deploy it from the homeland. The Comet was given higher priority however the Arbalest was also fast tracked due to the high technical risk of the Comet.
The cutting edge technology of The Arbalest resulted in significant development times. The Big A" first flew in mid 1944 and was declared combat ready in spring 1945. By this time the war was nearing it's end and mass bombing of The Imperial Repbulics’ homeland was beginning in earnest. Despite the aircraft being declared combat ready, no bombing missions could be flown for nearly a month, the special weapon was not yet ready and for conventional missions the large size of Big A meant that the forward airfields had to be greatly expanded to accommodate them. Eventually in late spring training missions for the Special Weapon program began, in addition the expansion of the air field in the outer colony of New Hirock meant that the bombers could be forward deployed for conventional missions. Capable of carrying nearly 8 times the load of the Super-Trebuchet, the Arbalest gave the Heavy Attack Command a massive boost in capability. In later summer of 1945, the Special Weapon was finally ready for deployment. While the initial preference had been for delivery via the Comet, the disastrous first long range flight of the R occurred. The poor understanding of hyper sonic flight at the time had resulted in the calculated heating requirements for the Comet being well below what was actually required, mid flight the heating lead to structural failure of the air frame and the fatal breakup of the prototype. Preference for delivery of the special weapon quickly shifted to the Arbalest
The final design for the Arbalest represent the pinnacle of late-War technology. The size, speed, range and payload would be unmatched for nearly a decade. The aircraft's fuselage was over 160 ft long and 13 ft in diameter. From the ground to the tips of the twin tails, the overall height of the aircraft while landed was 31 ft. The wing was the largest wing fitted to any combat aircraft for several years, measuring 236 feet from tip to tip. Nearly 7 1/2 feet thick at the root there was enough space inside the wing for crew to conduct in flight engine maintenance. The thick wing allowed for the
6 engines to be mostly buried within it. Each engine had 28 cylinders and produced roughly 3,500 horsepower. Reliability of the engines was initially poor however it had greatly improved by the end of the war. The engine's power allowed the bomber to maintain a cruising speed of over 300 mph. The large wing also helped give the aircraft the ability to cruise at 45,000 ft while simultaneously giving it space to carry fuel to take on missions of over 4,000 miles.
A total bomb load of up to 80,000 pounds could be carried in the four internal bays (Although for longer missions only a fraction of that was be carried.) or larger weapons, the forward 2 and aft 2 bomb bays could be merged into two larger bays. At the time of entry into service, the bomber was the sole carrier of the Mk 1 Special Weapon. Only a few Special Weapon missions were undertaken during the war. Most combat missions were fire bombing missions and for this role the aircraft had a maximum load of 172 M-23 Cluster bombs. With each bomb carrying 38 submunitions, over 6,000 fire bombs could be dropped at once. More conventional high explosive bomb loads were equally impressive. The aircraft was also trialed with the Porpoise antiship glide bomb, 4 such weapons could be carried internally. While few such missions were undertaken, one was notable for successfully sinking the battleship Morei. F All of these weapons could be accurately laid on target through the use of Model 43 Bombing radar. The Model 43 was installed within a semi-retractable fairing between the radio compartment and the bomb bay. The Arbalest was the first Air Force bomber to enter service with a dedicated radar bombsight (Although earlier bombers had been retrofitted with them). In addition to the bombing radar, a standard Model 38 bombsight was fitted in the nose.
Flight crew was typical of the era with a pilot, copilot, navigator and two flight engineers.
As far the combat systems were concerned, there was a bombardier and two electronics operators. The Electronics Operators were responsible for operation of the bomber's radios, bombing radar and electronic-countermeasures. The reminder of the crew consisted of the gunners, rare among bombers was a dedicated gun captain. The gun captain was in charge of coordinating the gunners and distributing control of the gun turrets between stations with the secondary role of serving as an additional gunner.
The flight crew was split between the fore and aft sections, connected by a pressure tunnel locacted over the bomb bay.
The Forward section consisted of the nose compartment containing the bombardier and navigator's stations, the flight deck and the forward gunnery compartment, with the radio room locatced beneath it. The gunner's compartment contained the tunnel entrance for access to the rear of the aircraft. Crew layout of the fore section consisted of the bombardier and navigator in the nose, Pilot, Copilot and flight engineers on the flight deck, Two turret gunners in the compartment aft of the flight deck and the electronics operators in the radio compartment. (One for radio, one for radar). The aft section consisted of the rear gunnery compartment which also doubled as a crew rest area and the tunnel to the tail gun. The aft section was crewed by the gun captain, and three gunners, including the tail gunner.
Defensive armament was 16 x 20mm cannons in eight turrets. The fuselage turrets could retract when not in use to minimize drag and were remotely controlled from one of 7 fighting stations via the electro-mechanical A-GCS, (Arbalest Gun Control System). One station was on each side of the upper fuselage aft of the cockpit, and two were on each side fore of the crew rest area. The seventh station was the gun captain's station station located in upper part of the crew rest area. Each station was able to remotely operate multiple turrets, with the gun captain coordinating the control distribution. These sighting stations could also take control of the nose turret which could also be aimed via a periscope in the bombardier/navigator compartment. The tail guns were independent of the rest of the defensive armament and were controlled solely by the tail gunner's station.
The first image depicts "Magic Girl" one of the select Arbalests earmarked for the 1st Special Attack Command as she appeared on the final day of the war. Only her forward turrets are depicted as deployed and her bombing radar is shown retracted. Magical Girl has the distinction of having both dropped the first special weapon used in action and dropping more special weapons than any other aircraft during the war (3). He first special weapon was dropped as part of Operation Home Run. Taking off from the homeland she and accompanying observers flew to the enemy city of Agloe and dropped a single special weapon. Prior to this Magic Girl had done several practice drops with dummy weapons and served as an observer on multiple other missions. She later served as the observer aircraft for the next 4 test missions performed under the Operation Home Run test program, before rotating back into the delivery role as part of Operation Home Run Derby. Home Run Derby was the continual special bombing campaign started in support of End Game. During Home Run Derby she dropped two weapons in one mission on the Morei Line in support of the End Game landings. It was following this mission in which her crew painted the mushroom cloud background to her nose art. The surrender of The Imperial Repbulics occurred shortly before she was set to fly her 3rd bombing mission.
The second image depicts"Checkmate Queen", also on the last day of the war. Checkmate Queen is pictured with her turrets deployed and the Model 43 bombing radar extended. While the Arbalest is best known as the delivery system for the first special weapons, Checkmate Queen's career was far more typical for the type during the war. Unlike the Special Attack Command which flew from bases in the homeland, the majority of Checkmate Queen's missions were flown from New Hirock. The shorter distance allowed her and her brethren to carry a significantly greater bomb load than if they had operated from home. In total Checkmate queen flew 19 combat missions in support of Operation Endgame. While they were primarily fire bombing missions she also participated in one of the more unique air raids of the war, Operation Daybreak, the infamous Bat Bomb attack, which saw the air dropping of over a 2.5 million bats resulting in severe damage to the Imperial capitol. Difficulties in procuring sufficient numbers of bats as well as the logistical issues of reliably delivering those same bats alive to the front line meant that only a single operational sortie was flown using the weapons.
The final image depicts "Weird Science" the first nuclear powered aircraft. Completed too late to see service against the Imperial Repbulics, "Weird Science" was initially placed into reserve however growing tensions during the cold war led to her reactivation in 1948 as part of the newly formed Strategic Attack Command. During this time she stood on alert as part of the nuclear deterrent until the Arbalest II, a et powered derivative of the Model 60, began to enter service. She was placed in reserve in 1955before once again being reactivated three years later for use as a test aircraft under Project Marathon, the Shintari Air Force's project to develop nuclear powered aircraft.
Modifications for this program were extensive. The former Radio Room was converted into a reactor control room with stations for two Nuclear Flight Officers, the radio operator's station was moved forward to the navigator's compartment in place of the bombardier and the position of radar operator was eliminated. The forward gunner's station aft of the cockpit was converted into a small crew rest area. Internally the cockpit remained much the same, externally the windows/airframe was modified for improved radiation shielding. The aft guns were removed and the gunner’s windows painted over, the other gun turrets had previously been removed in 1952 in order to increase range. The bomb bay internals were completely replaced with the forward section being filled with radiation shielding and the rest of the bay aft being replaced with the Reactor and four nuclear turbojet engines. The reactor was fueled by a molten uranium salt mixture which doubled as the primary coolant. This transferred heat to the secondary coolant, a NaK alloy which transferred the thermal energy into the engines. The aircraft retained it’s piston engines and only powered up the reactor once at cruising altitude. The aircraft performed numerous test flights including a famous nonstop circumnavigation of the globe before it was retired in favor of new, more capable nuclear aircraft.
