B-18 Info Required (1 Viewer)

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dogsbody

Airman 1st Class
194
79
Jun 6, 2010
Northern Alberta, Canada
I came upon this image somewhere a few years ago and have just found it again. It's from some sort of advertisement.
Would anyone know anymore about this B-18? What squadron/airforce was it with? Are there any other images of it?


Chris
 

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Well I looked in "The Douglas B-18 and B-23 America's Forsaken Warriors" book and all I could find was a generic profile and an allusion to it being used for anti-submarine warfare. Though I thought this was the book I saw the picture in, there is one more I can check, so all hope is not lost. Standby...
 
From what I recall from a couple visits to the Air Force Museum, they were mostly used for bombardier and navigator training. I don't think they were ever used by an operational unit, but I might be mistaken about that. They could easily have been used for anti-submarine patrols, but I think they were relegated to training and some cargo hauling.
Of course, you're on sensory overload in Dayton, so I might be mistaken, and won't argue if someone can prove otherwise.
 
Perhaps the plane was painted in that scheme for a publicity shoot. The sad thing is that only six are still with us. One example is at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater California.
 
Whatever B-18/As were in Hawaii or the Philippines were pretty much destroyed on the ground. Others in the Canal zone and the Caribbean served longer.
Aside from the US the Canadians had 20, called Digby's. Brazil was the only other wartime operator and got 2 flyable units and perhaps 1 airframe for ground instruction. All three countries used then for ASW at times,
The Plane pictured is a B-18A, the plain B-18 having a round nose with gun turret.
douglas_bolo_1.jpg

By 1943 most had passed on to training schools or used as transports.
However 122 of the planes flying ASW in 1942 had radar fitted in a nose radar dome and had a MAD stinger at the rear.
800px-Douglas_B-18B_Pima.jpg

There were 217 of the B-18As built, in addition to the 132 B-18s.
This doesn't really help identify the plane in the first post but does tend to limit the possibilities.
 
I probably should have mentioned that I have Wolf's book. I just wish I could remember where I found the image in the first place. I've trawled through GOOGLE to no effect. I don't suppose it could be a Brazillian Bolo?


Chris
 
The Castle B-18 is an A model. Brazil only got a few B-18s but I'm not sure about which models they got. There appears to be name on the nose of the plane in the photo. That might give a clue as to which country it was in.
 
That means that it could be U.S., Canadian, or Australian with the name in English. I'm still leaning toward a publicity photo as the shark motif makes it look really menacing. I have the Execuform model of the B-18B which would look really sweet built up with that scheme.
 
Hi Chris, There was a B-24 unit in the Pacific that used the whale as the motif for their aircraft. They painted large 'whale' mouth and eye on the front of their aircraft. It was the 90th BG. Can't remember if all their sqns used this motif but the 320 BS certainly did.

Its a long shot, and there maybe no link to your photo.
 

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