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Behemoth bomber served as flying lab

In its time, it was the largest American aircraft ever built. On the eve of World War II, many an aviation enthusiast saw pictures of it in popular magazines and fantasized about becoming its pilot.

The one-of-a-kind Douglas XB-19 four-engined experimental bomber was a study in superlatives. It had a maximum weight of 162,000 pounds. Its main wheels were 8 feet across and its wing spanned 212 feet.

Yet it never dropped a bomb.

The XB-19 was never meant for mass production; it was “an effort to further the advancement of military aviation,” according to a 1935 document quoted by Rene J. Francillon in the book “McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920.”

Initially dubbed the XBLR-2, the XB-19 made its maiden flight June 27, 1941, flown by Stanley M. Umstead, described in Time magazine as “the Air Corps’s crack, cigar-chewing test pilot.”

It was viewed as an all-purpose test bed to shed light on the operation of large aircraft, including the B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators that were pouring from American factories.

Alexander Seversky, an air power advocate, wrote in “Victory Through Air Power” that a production version of the XB-19 could defeat Japan without an invasion. By the time this claim was repeated in a 1943 Disney film based on his book, the B-29 Superfortress was preparing to do exactly that.

In 1944, the XB-19’s 2,000-horsepower Wright R-3350 radial engines were replaced with four 2,600-horsepower Allison V-3420-11 liquid-cooled engines and it was redesignated the XB-19A.

In the April 2000 Skyways magazine, Roger Benson summarized the XB-19A’s contributions as a flying laboratory: The aircraft “tested all sorts of equipment and explored the then-unknowns of actual flight by a giant airplane,” Benson wrote. “Things now common such as power turrets, turbochargers, heavy duty tricycle landing gear, trim tabs, hydraulic controls and many other items were inaugurated or significantly improved.”

Near the end of the war, plans to convert the XB-19A into a cargo plane were set aside, and it was used in 1945 and 1946 for weather research.

The maiden flight of the B-36 Peacemaker on Aug. 8, 1946, ended the XB-19A’s run as the largest U.S. aircraft. Barely a week later, the XB-19A made its final flight Aug. 17 from Ohio to Davis-Monthan Field, Ariz.

The Air Force reclassified it as “Class 32 Museum Property.” However, the Air Force still had no museum of its own, and it was expensive to maintain the XB-19A outdoors in the Arizona sun. In 1949, the Air Force scrapped this unique and valuable airplane.

Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is co-author of “Hell Hawks,” a history of an American fighter group. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net. Army veteran Fred L. Borch is regimental historian for the Army Judge Advocate’s General Corps and the author of “The Air Force Cross.” His e-mail address is borchfj@aol.com.