LeO 451 late

LeO 451 late

LeO 451 early

B-26C

LeO 451 late

LeO 451 early

B-26C

France

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.0	3.0	3.0

Class:

Bomber

Frontline bomber

Research:5 600

Purchase:22 000

Show in game

This page is about the French medium bomber LeO 451 late. For other version, see LeO 451 early.

Description

The LeO 451 late is a Rank II French bomber with a battle rating of 3.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.79 "Project X".

General info

Flight Performance

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at 6,250 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	466	451	10500	31.3	32.2	3.1	3.1	550
Upgraded	517	490		28.8	30.0	9.6	5.8

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	X	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
550	340	400	400	270	~7	~6

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 315	< 310	< 350	> 340

Survivability and armour

• 12 mm behind the pilot
• 12 mm behind the dorsal gunner
• Self-sealing fuel tanks (2 in each wing)

A LeO 451 bomber with a fatal engine fire, which can be extremely difficult to extinguish before disintegrating.

Armaments

Offensive armament

• 1 x 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun, nose mounted (1500 rounds)

Suspended armament

The LeO 451 late can be outfitted with payload options of:

• 16 x 50 kg G.A.M.Mn 50 bombs (800 kg = total)
• 7 x 100 kg №.1 bombs (700 kg = total)
• 1 x 100 kg №.1 bombs + 6 x 200 kg №.1 bombs (1,300 kg = total)
• 2 x 500 kg №.2 bombs + 1 x 100 kg №.1 bombs + 4 x 200 kg №.1 bombs (1,900 kg = total)

Defensive armament

The LeO 451 late is defensively armed with:

• 1 x 20 mm Hispano 404 cannon, dorsal turret (120 rounds) + 2 x 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun (750 RPG)
• 1 x 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun, ventral turret (500 rounds)

Usage in battles

In Simulator Battles, the Leo 451 can be used as more than just a bomber. Due to the size of the aircraft, it is able to manoeuvre more like a heavy fighter allowing it to fight against other twin-engine aircraft or anything heavier. Unfortunately, the lack of proper offensive armament means that scoring hits will do little other than damage fuel and oil tank in most cases. In any kind of aerial combat, the dorsal gunner is one of the best options for scoring solid hits, especially when flying under other aircraft and firing upwards into them. Flying this close to get a shot comes with risks as flying in front of the enemies guns will also paint a target on your aircraft. For defending from fighters a good tactic is to gain some altitude so that when an enemy appears you can accelerate into a dive. A fast aircraft makes it much harder for fighters to close the distance giving the dorsal gunner and opportunity to do his job. While diving to make an aircraft fast can be a good thing, it is important to not go too fast as the wings are not invincible and will potentially rip off. Turning in this aircraft is relatively effective for a plane its size, though unfortunately, it does not handle like a sports car. Factors such as an empty bomb bay will increase its manoeuvrability to something closer to a heavy fighter.

When it comes to the ground attack role, the bombs are a gimmie, for destroying tanks and pillboxes, though, if lucky enough an entire armoured column may be destroyed. On the other hand, the nose gun can be used to attack lightly armoured ground targets such as trucks or anti-aircraft guns, while the 20 mm dorsal gun can be used to take out armoured cars.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Not controllable	Controllable Automatic pitch	Controllable	Not controllable	Combined	Controllable	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
IA	Fuselage Repair, Radiator		Offensive 7mm	Turret 20mm	100 GPs
II	Compressor	Airframe	New 7 mm MGs		200 GPs
III	Wings Repair	Engine	Turret 7 mm	New 20 mm cannons (turret)	500 GPs
IV	Engine Injection	Cover	New 7 mm MGs (turret)

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Dorsal gunner has large ammunition pool
• Comes included with an offensive armament
• Very manoeuvrable after the payload has been released
• Accelerates very fast in a dive
• Abilities allow for it to multifunction as a bomber, heavy fighter and attacker
• Powerful dorsal turret

Cons:

• Dorsal gunners main gun runs out of ammunition before the coaxial 7.5 mm machine gun
• Offensive armament is insufficient for most engagements
• Prone to engine fires
• Aircraft does not excel in any particular role
• Many blind spots for gunners

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ historical reference" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Name-vehicles/historical reference) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end of the article.

A LeO 451 bomber's final moments after a fatal engine fire.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example,

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• page on aircraft encyclopedia;
• other literature.

Lioré et Olivier (SNCASE)
Bombers	LeO 451 early · LeO 451 late

France bombers
Farman	F.222.2 · N.C.223.3
Latécoère	Late 298D
Potez	Potez 633
Liore et Olivier	LeO 451 early · LeO 451 late
Bloch	M.B.174A-3 · M.B.162 · M.B.175T
American	V-156-F · Martin 167-A3 · ▄A-35B · ▄SB2C-5 · B-26C · ▄PBY-5A Late · ▄PB4Y-2
British	Lancaster MR.7