As the Pacific War started to come to an end, the recon missions of the 386th continued with B-32 Dominators often working in small groups and conducting search missions of flying over the islands of Japan to conduct photographic reconnaissance. Hobo Queen was assigned to the 286th Bombardment Squadron after undergoing initial combat evaluation in the Philippines and attacking targets in Formosa.
Bomber crew demo serial number#
One was nicknamed Hobo Queen II, with aircraft serial number 42-108532. (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) Almost Not Used The Dominator was slightly smaller with a bit faster speed than normal cruising speed. Both were also fully pressurized, could arm themselves with up to 20,000 pounds of bombs, and could travel at 357 miles per hour. ( US Air Force photo)īoth the B-29 Superfortress and the B-32 Dominator used Wright’s R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone 18-cylinder radial engines that drove four large four-bladed propellers. Side view of the Consolidated XB-32 (S/N 41-142), taken on February 28, 1944. These would be later revised and improved like the more modern nose, cockpit glass, and the tall single vertical tail. They thought that the B-32 was not attractive at all. Its flight deck didn’t look good either to most observers. It had a cigar-shaped fuselage with a multi-paned “birdcage” nose. B-32Ĭonsolidated’s prototype was the B-32, a mega-bomber with Davis airfoil wings and the unmissable double tail like the B-24 Liberator. So, Consolidate and Boeing were racing to create a fully pressurized, streamlined, and massive heavy bomber that could effectively soar in the skies of Germany or maybe even Tokyo. It all boiled down to the pressurized fuselage of the B-29, enabling it to climb at high altitudes, while the B-32 was considered a low to medium altitude bomber only. However, some of its many important measurements like speed and the number of crew needed to operate the aircraft were the same. The Dominator’s development fell behind the Superfortress of Boeing. Even so, the company still produced more than 100 B-32 Dominators deployed in 1945, becoming part of the final air battles of the US before World War II ended. We now know that the B-29 would turn out to be the bomber aircraft that the military could ever dream of, making the B-32 unnecessary.
It was created mainly as a fallback in case the B-29 Superfortress failed to meet the expectations. The Consolidated B-32 Dominator was developed by Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, the company that produced the B-24 Liberator. Whenever we talk about the bombers of World War II, we usually think of the legendary Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the North American B-25 Mitchell, or maybe the Boeing B-29 Superfortress but rarely of the B-32 Dominator. Japan should’ve taken the hint when they bombed Pearl Harbor, which housed battleships and aircraft, on December 7, 1941. More importantly, the country largely contributed bombers and fighter planes that soared through the sky. They supplied the Allies with soldiers, weapons, and supplies. The United States played a significant role in the Second World War when they entered the chaos.
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