Because I frequently look up military aircraft a lot on Wikipedia, and time and time again, I keep hearing how bombers are slower and less maneuverable than either fighters, attackers, or multirole aircraft. So does that mean that bombers are more heavily armored than the other three types of military aircraft? If not, and armor just weighs down *any* plane, why are bombers the largest, slowest, and leave maneuverable of the military aircraft, anyway?
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No aircraft really has a ton of armor. Which is why bullets can take them down. Even turning World War II bombers were shot down all the time by enemy aircraft with only bullets (no missiles yet). Some of them have some additional armor around the crew areas.
What makes them have different qualities is what they are used for.
Fighters and Multi-Role aircraft are designed to be fast and maneuverable.
Bombers are also designed to carry a lot of ordinance, and in order to do that, are usually much larger. We do have smaller bombers (like the B2) but other bombers are bigger.
The F35A is 51 feet in length, and has a maximum takeoff weight of 70k pounds.
The B52 is 159 feet in length, and has a maximum takeoff weight of 488k pounds.
The B52 can carry 70k poundsd of bombs. As much weight as the total F35A.
That’s what makes them slower.
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