[Old News] B-19 Arrives to Join Collection

[Noha307]

B-19 ARRIVES TO
JOIN COLLECTION
-----------
Biggest Pre-War Bomber
Wings to D-M From
Wright Field
-----------
The B-19, forerunner of the very
heavy bomber, which was com-
pleted in 1941, arrived at Davis-Monthan
field at 7:30 p.m. last night. It will
be temporarily stored alongside
the B-29 that dropped the first
atomic bomb; the B-24 flew Wen-
dell Willkie around the world, and
many other museum pieces des-
tined to become a part of the Army
Air Forces Museum to be estab-
lished at either Dayton or Cleve-
land, Ohio.

Piloted by Col. Albert Boyd,
chief test pilot at Wright field, and
a crew of five men, the giant ship
arrived at Davis-Monthan eight
hours and forty minutes after tak-
ing off from Dayton, Ohio.

Colonel Boyd, who has flown the
ship for experimental purposes
since it was accepted by the A.A.F.
in November, 1941, stated that this,
the first very heavy bomber type
ship, has been used extensively by
the Army Air Forces to secure
data about performance and sta-
bility features to be incorporated
in the engineering of the later B-24
and B-29's.

Powered by four 3,400 horse-
power Allison in-line engines, the
huge plane has a wing span of two
hundred and twelve feet.

Colonel Boyd and his crew de-
parted from Davis-Monthan for
Wright field two hours after their
arrival.

AAF-DOUGLAS B-19 BOMBER LANDS AT DAVIS-MONTHAN

What was once America's biggest, and least seen giant aircraft-the B-19-arrived at Davis-
Monthan Field last night to join a notable list of aircraft, stored here while awaiting construction
of an AAF museum at Wright Field, Ohio. The B-19 measures 212 feet tip to tip and her great
vertical stabilizer rises 42 feet in height. She is now powered with Allison liquid cooled engines,
and is still only exceed in size by the B-36.

(Source: “B-19 Arrives to Join Collection,” Arizona Daily Star, August 18, 1946, 15.)

Strangely, while the B-19 was indeed used to test Allison V-3420 engines for the XB-39 project, the accompanying picture in the article shows it with radial engines! So either the picture was a stock photo from an earlier date or the reporter got his information wrong and the aircraft was reconverted back to radials. Based on the use of the word "now" in the caption and the fact that the crew arrived late in the evening and departed only two hours later - making the above picture unlikely - I am leaning towards the former.

I had never heard of the Wendell Willkie trip before, but apparently the aircraft used was an LB-30 named "Gulliver".[1]

Previous Posts in the Series

• [Old News] Science Museum Bids for Famous Army Air Relics
• [Old News] Planes Exhibited in U. S. Museum
• [Old News] Build Special Museum For Goebel's Famous...
• [Old News] [Roosevelt Field Historical Museum]
• [Old News] Aviation Museum

[marine air]

So it's at the AF museum. Cool, Can't wait to go see it!

[JohnB]

For those interested...

There is another book on the XB-19 by William Wolf.

https://www.amazon.com/Douglas-XB-19-Am ... 554&sr=1-2

It's a paperback and has fewer pages from his earlier work, but it's less than half the cost.

[Noha307]

So it's at the AF museum. Cool, Can't wait to go see it!

Yeah, it's just missing the fuselage, wings, tail, engines, nose gear, and one of the main landing gear.

[Duggy009]

They used a stock photo,the XB-19A made its last flight on August 17, 1946 and she looked like this.

[quemerford]

I recall seeing a photo of the cockpit section on this site a few years back. I suspect that even if the XB-19 had survived post-war it would have been scrapped following unavoidable decades in the open.

[Duggy009]

I recall seeing a photo of the cockpit section on this site a few years back. I suspect that even if the XB-19 had survived post-war it would have been scrapped following unavoidable decades in the open.

Its nose section somehow ended up in a scrap yard on Alameda Street in Los Angeles, and was still visible there as late as 1955.
LINK - http://axis-and-allies-paintworks.com/e ... p?id=12884

[Kyleb]

Any sense as to why numerous aircraft of that period had slightly swept wings? Seems like a late '30's early 40's design fad. Maybe only an LA thing...

The obvious examples are the Yale, T-6, DC-2/3 and related aircraft, B-19, etc. Between the wing taper and the sweep, those aircraft had numerous features that drive tip stalls and snap rolls.

[bdk]

Between the wing taper and the sweep, those aircraft had numerous features that drive tip stalls and snap rolls.

I've often wondered that as well. Most of the NACA wind tunnel airfoil experiments in the 1930s were looking at two-dimensional data. Some of it was quite flawed. The 23000 series airfoils had the camber line bent down at the leading edge to improve the stall. Worked great in the wind tunnel with a perfectly smooth model, but not so much on a real airplane. That camber line change is where the airflow typically trips to induce the stall. The wings back then typically had some washout to reduce the tip stall tendencies you mention, but it was all a compromise between a docile stall and speed.

For the T-6, they swept the wing forward a bit compared to the Yale (and Boomerang).

[Noha307]

As a follow up, below is an article that mentions the fate of the collection that was gathered at Davis-Monthan:

Famed Planes
Dismantled At
Tucson Base

TUCSON, Apr. 1-(AP)-The
aircraft museum at Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base may be abandoned
in the near future, it was reported
Friday. The museum has been the
home of some of the most histor-
ical planes to come out of World
War II.

The Desert Airman, base news-
paper, says only 14 of the original
28 planes remain in the museum.
Twelve of the ships have been dis-
mantled and reclaimed for salvage.

Some of the remaining aircraft
are in various stages of dismantle-
ment. For months the famous
battle planes have been parked
next to hundreds of "cocooned"
B-29 superforts awaiting one last
move. This may be to a permanent
air force museum-or maybe to a
salvage yard to be sold for scrap.

One of the remaining ships is
the B-19 Guardian of the Hemi-
sphere. This is the only ship of
its kind ever built. It serves as
the flying laboratory that made
ppossible the present B-29s and
B-26s.

Another of the planes is the En-
ola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the
first atomic bomb August 6, 1945,
on Hiroshima, Japan.

The Nagasaki Boxcar is here.
This is the ship that dropped the
second atomic bomb which killed
100,000 Japanese and obliterated
the City of Nagasaki.

The plane that took the late
Wendell Willkie on his "one world"
flight has long been resting be-
neath the desert skies.

(Source: "Famed Planes Dismantled at Tucson Base," Arizona Republic, 2 April 1949, 15.)

Anyone have a copy of the 1949 edition of the Desert Airman?

A second article from March 27th more or less repeats the same information with a few additional interesting details. First, that the closure of the "museum" was due to "a shortage of funds" and, second, that another one of the aircraft present was a Ju 88 - which is certainly the airframe now at NMUSAF.[1] The claim of the museum being shuttered due to expense fits, as an article in November mentions that the USAF was "trying to cut costs".[2] The reason this is particularly interesting is because it seems to contradict the claim that some of the aircraft were scrapped because "some base commander didn't like them".

With the above information and a few inferences, it is possible to reconstruct a partial list of the 24 aircraft that were original stored at the "museum" in the Arizona desert. They include:

• B-29, 44-27297, "Bockscar"
• B-29, 44-86292, "Enola Gay"
• C-87, 41-11608/41-39600, "Gulliver"
• Ju 88 D-3, 430650
• XB-19A, 38-471

[Noha307]

Featured on the "line" at Davis-Monthan Field are (bottom to top) P-51 Mustang, P-80 jet fighter,
the JU-88 German medium bomber, XA-38, an experimental aircraft which never got into combat,
the "Enola Gay," B-29 which dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Within the main hangar (right)
most of the 5,500 persons visiting Davis-Monthan yesterday saw varied ground displays and demonstra-
tions as the Army Air Forces celebrated their 39th anniversary. (Photos by Sam Levitz.)

(Source: "Air Show and Plane Display Highlight AAF Birthday Here," Arizona Daily Star, 2 August 1946, 1.)

Since there were only two XA-38s built, it only took a quick Google search of both serial numbers to determine that 43-14406 was the one in the collection. You can just barely see the tail of the Ju 88 and the edge of the swastika at the extreme right of this photograph:

(Source: WW2Aircraft.net)

If you squint, the Ju 88 is visible in this thumbnail as well:

(Source: Cached Google image via Let Let Let Warplanes)

[Noha307]

WHEN YOU SEE.....
"Shot From The Sky"
YOU'LL "GET A WAR JOB and STAY
ON YOUR JOB to FINISH the JOB"!
-----
"SHOT FROM THE SKY" is a thrilling Exhibit
of CAPTURED ENEMY EQUIPMENT Pre-
sented by the U. S. ARMY AIR FORCES

SUNDAY and MONDAY, JAN. 21st, 22nd

NORTH CENTRAL at McDOWELL

SPONSORED BY PHOENIX
CHAMBER of COMMERCE
and
LOCAL WAR AGENCIES

"Shot From the Sky" includes almost 10,000
pieces of captured Axis warplanes and featured
three planes still in flying condition-a Junkers
88 medium bomber captured in the Mediterra-
nean theater, a Japanese Zero captured at Buna and
a Messerschmitt 109 fighter taken at an African
airfield.

Shown for the first time in the United States
is a Nazi robot bomb captured on Normandy's
rocket coast. One of Hitler's V-1 vengeance
weapons used against London and the south of
England last summer, the buzz bomb, is accom-
panied by explanatory charts and diagrams.

Other display pieces include a Japanese "Oscar"
pursuit ship and fuselages of a JU-88, ME-110,
Focke-Wulf 190, Japanese Mitsubishi "Betty" bomb-
er, ME-110, and wings, engines, propellers, tail
sections and landing gears of almost every type
of German and Japanese fighter and bomber.

A detachment of 53 WACS and 60 enlisted
men, representing every combat air force ex-
cept the 20th, accompany the exhibit. WACS
help set up the displays, assemble the Axis air-
planes and act as guides, lecturers and ushers
when the exhibit is in progress.

FREE
STAGE
PERFORMANCES
Afternoons at 3:30
Evenings at 7:30

In addition to this spectacular "SHOT
FROM THE SKY" EXPOSITION ... FREE
stage performances, featuring famous radio and
orchestras from in and around Phoenix will be
presented from the largest portable stage in
the country each afternoon at 3:30 o'clock and
each evening at 7:30 o'clock.

This Advertisement Sponsored by
Sears, Your Friendly Store in Downtown Phoenix

Employment recruiting
booths will be main-
tained by the U.S. Em-
ployment Service, War
Manpower Commission
and the Civil Service
Commission.

(Source: "[Shot from the Sky Advertisement]," Arizona Republic, 20 January 1945, 2.)

Arizona Republic, 20 January 1945, page 2, picture 4.png (345.05 KiB) Viewed 11150 times

Arizona Republic, 20 January 1945, page 2, picture 5.png (263.34 KiB) Viewed 11150 times

With the above information, we can add the following aircraft to the collection:

• A6M, Unknown
• Fw 190 F-8/R1, likely 931884[1]
• G4M3 Model 34, 2134/T2-2205[2]
• Ki-43-IIb, likely 6430[3]
• Me 110, Unknown

See a post in another thread for more information about the relationship of the "Shot from the Sky" exhibition to contemporary instances around the country.

EDIT (24-11-29): A quick correction to the above: Apparently the aircraft in the Shot from the Sky exhibition never made it to the collection at Davis-Monthan, as an article quoted in a later post states that the Ju 88 "is the only enemy aircraft in the museum".

Last edited by Noha307 on Fri Nov 29, 2024 12:37 am, edited 3 times in total.

[mike furline]

With the above information, we can add the following aircraft to the collection:

• A6M, Unknown
• Fw 190 F-8/R1, likely 931884[1]
• G4M3 Model 34, 2134/T2-2205[2]
• Ki-43-IIb, likely 6430[3]
• Me 110, Unknown

See a post in another thread for more information about the relationship of the "Shot from the Sky" exhibition to contemporary instances around the country.

Edit; The A6M was A6M2 EB-2/EB-200, #1 on engine cowling.

Last edited by mike furline on Sun Apr 21, 2024 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris Brame]

I thought the one with the "gills" cut into the accessory cowl was the one recovered from China, not Koga's?

[mike furline]

I thought the one with the "gills" cut into the accessory cowl was the one recovered from China, not Koga's?

Oops, you're correct. Edited above.