Niceoldguy58
Airman
- 94
- Mar 2, 2010
…is paved with good intentions...
While our (myself and co-author Nicholas A. Veronico) plan had been to have what we are confident will be The Definitive Book on the B-32 finished several years ago, life and its complications got in the way BIG TIME.
First came COVID, shutting down pretty much every archive and museum in the United States and the Western World, thus leaving quite a bit of data sitting in the files waiting for the opportunity to access it. In addition, health issues interfered in a massive manner. Both my co-author and myself were hit by physical maladies and injuries requiring hospitalization, extended treatment, and physical therapy. Add to that deaths within families and aging parents requiring great amounts of attention and we find ourselves in the position we are today.
This is not to say that work has stopped. Nick did a tremendous and impressive amount of research on the history of each and every B-32 produced. Part of this research appeared in the January 2022 issue of Air Classics magazine ("Mystery of the Missing Dominators"). I, on the other hand, have produced in-scale drawings of all the big, multi-engine aircraft and aircraft studies of both Consolidated and Boeing. I have attached one page of the Consolidated aircraft. I have continued in-depth research on the surprisingly-large number of gun turrets that were designed with the B-32 in mind. I have included a drawing of two the of more peculiar iterations of that as well, the A-18 top turret and A-19 bottom turret. I estimate that are roughly twenty different turret designs that were looked at for the B-32, and I have found drawings and photos of most, if not all, of these. I have also tracked down the location of the engineering drawings for the B-32, several variants, etc.
Our hope and intention is to have this book done by the end of this year (2023 - thought I should be specific). Note this is not a promise, but a VERY strong intention. By choosing not to fill this book with pages taken out of various B-32 manuals - and I have them all - we have taken the high-if-rocky road of original source materials. This has meant finding, identifying and copying literally tens of thousands of photos, documents and original drawings. The result will be a fascinating and eye-opening volume on the heavy bomber that almost was.
So that is where things stand today. Tomorrow it will be different!
AlanG
While our (myself and co-author Nicholas A. Veronico) plan had been to have what we are confident will be The Definitive Book on the B-32 finished several years ago, life and its complications got in the way BIG TIME.
First came COVID, shutting down pretty much every archive and museum in the United States and the Western World, thus leaving quite a bit of data sitting in the files waiting for the opportunity to access it. In addition, health issues interfered in a massive manner. Both my co-author and myself were hit by physical maladies and injuries requiring hospitalization, extended treatment, and physical therapy. Add to that deaths within families and aging parents requiring great amounts of attention and we find ourselves in the position we are today.
This is not to say that work has stopped. Nick did a tremendous and impressive amount of research on the history of each and every B-32 produced. Part of this research appeared in the January 2022 issue of Air Classics magazine ("Mystery of the Missing Dominators"). I, on the other hand, have produced in-scale drawings of all the big, multi-engine aircraft and aircraft studies of both Consolidated and Boeing. I have attached one page of the Consolidated aircraft. I have continued in-depth research on the surprisingly-large number of gun turrets that were designed with the B-32 in mind. I have included a drawing of two the of more peculiar iterations of that as well, the A-18 top turret and A-19 bottom turret. I estimate that are roughly twenty different turret designs that were looked at for the B-32, and I have found drawings and photos of most, if not all, of these. I have also tracked down the location of the engineering drawings for the B-32, several variants, etc.
Our hope and intention is to have this book done by the end of this year (2023 - thought I should be specific). Note this is not a promise, but a VERY strong intention. By choosing not to fill this book with pages taken out of various B-32 manuals - and I have them all - we have taken the high-if-rocky road of original source materials. This has meant finding, identifying and copying literally tens of thousands of photos, documents and original drawings. The result will be a fascinating and eye-opening volume on the heavy bomber that almost was.
So that is where things stand today. Tomorrow it will be different!
AlanG
