Douglas B-18 Bolo Bomber | Behind the Wings 

Or "this old girl"

Pretty cool!

Or take a shot.

Because it was Very Cool 😎!

One trillion

Whoops, meant to say B-18.

Of course there is not much information about these mediocre bombers. It was a horrible bomber. What a waste when the B-17 should have become the main bomber like what MacArthur and Frank Andrews pushed hard for in 1934-35. B-17s were banned from R&D and production by Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig and the War Department from 1936-39. That prolonged WWII by 2 years. B-17s/B-24s in large numbers weren't available until late 1942/early 1943 and it was only in mid-1943 when they finally were able to make an impact in WWII. B-29s would have been ready by 1938-39 had the Army and War Department selected the B-17 as the Army heavy bomber and not the B-18 in 1935-36 under General Craig. The Army and War Department were filled with isolationists for 4 years after MacArthur finished his tenure as Army Chief of Staff. The isolationists claimed that B-17s were too "aggressive and threatening towards Japan and Germany" so they fully endorsed the horrible B-18s as a result. The B-18 Bolo fiasco which ended up foolishly banning B-17 R&D and production from 1936-39 and the horrible U.S. Navy torpedoes are never talked about because they were a mark of shame on the U.S. military pre-WWII and those failures ended up prolonging WWII by at least 2 years. Just imagine if B-17s/B-24s/B-29s and fully functional torpedoes were ready to go by 1938-39 and not in 1943. War would have ended so quickly in both the Pacific and Europe.

wt always skimps on bomb loads

Aviation Enthusiasts Belike, if you look in the bomb bay when the b18 is carrying a 2000lb bomb, it only takes up half of the bomb bay, hopefully they fix it sometime in the future.

THANK YOU

@@pilet1172 would be too op for the br and defense

These guys say 4,500 pounds of bombs. Range, empty no doubt, 2,100 miles. www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-18/tech.html

My Dad was stationed at Trinidad & Tobago during WWII, ground communications for anti-sub patrols.

Great duty station if you were in WW2.

My husband’s grandfather was stationed at Vernam in October 1942. He flew the Bolo w the 417th Bomb Sqd.

@@joydoering6939 Woow!, I would love to know more about him. My grand mother use to operate a shop south of the base in the village of Gim-Me- Mi-Bit and US service men use to buy goods from her, I would to know if he had picture of his time in Jamaica.

In my records, I see wear his sqadron was asign to Vernam Field in Sept. 1942 but the planes only came to there for repairs flown from Batista Field Cuba.

It is annoying.

It's to get a younger audience into aviation (i think)

So you understand.

Well given how some Americans are these days, it's not surprising

Mr Rogers shows us a bomber.

They actually liked the B-17 better but the model being tested crashed on takeoff. The control surfaces on the Model 299 (the Boeing YB17) were locked down to prevent wind from damaging the control surfaces and the pilots didn't unlock them. When they took off they couldn't control the aircraft and it crashed, killed both test pilots. Because Boeing couldn't complete the test program the Douglas aircraft won the competition. But the Army saw the Boeing aircraft was clearly a better aircraft and ordered a small number of aircraft for testing purposes.

The B-18 was a horrible bomber. What a waste when the B-17 should have become the main bomber like what MacArthur and Frank Andrews pushed hard for in 1934-35. B-17s were banned from R&D and production by Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig and the War Department from 1936-39. That prolonged WWII by 2 years. B-17s/B-24s in large numbers weren't available until late 1942/early 1943 and it was only in mid-1943 when they finally were able to make an impact in WWII. B-29s would have been ready by 1938-39 had the Army and War Department selected the B-17 as the Army heavy bomber and not the B-18 in 1935-36 under General Craig. The isolationists claimed that B-17s were too "aggressive and threatening towards Japan and Germany" so they fully endorsed the horrible B-18s as a result. The B-18 Bolo fiasco which ended up foolishly banning B-17 R&D and production from 1936-39 and the horrible U.S. Navy torpedoes are never talked about because they were a mark of shame on the U.S. military pre-WWII and those failures ended up prolonging WWII by at least 2 years. Just imagine if B-17s/B-24s/B-29s and fully functional torpedoes were ready to go by 1938-39 and not in 1943. War would have ended so quickly in both the Pacific and Europe.

B-18's were built using DC-2 parts. Manufacturing stopped in 1939 replaced by the B-23 which used DC-3 wings but they didn't last long either (38 built). The replacement A-20 displaced the DC-5 in production while the DC-3 (C-47, C-53 etc) got military priority.

My Grandmother built B-17s at the Long Beach plant at Douglas, its quite a story

@@kennysherrill6542 My mom never had any stories about her work as she said, she took it seriously. However after work there was Dancing and Partying to be done; go home shower and change clothes, go to work, and sleep at lunch. End of the shift, do it again until you couldn't do anymore. I would think your Grandma did too.

That may have been at Manchester, NH. It was called Grenier Field. My father was also there with B-18

My dumbass friend overuses the word "cool".

Jean-Guy Menard close enough

I'll let pass, you'd probably did from it anyway

Ayden Stockham died? did die?

@@jamesbulldogmiller I don't even know wtf I said in that comment I must've been tired as hell

This was the 1st thing I noticed..LOL

Lots of Cool things about this bomber should have been covered in this presentation. Very Cool 😎.

B-18s did absolutely nothing in WWII. All 12 or so B-18s in the Philippines and Australia were destroyed in December 1941 or within a few months. It was a horrible bomber. What a waste when the B-17 should have become the main bomber like what MacArthur and Frank Andrews pushed hard for in 1934-35. B-17s were banned from R&D and production by Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig and the War Department from 1936-39. That prolonged WWII by 2 years. B-17s/B-24s in large numbers weren't available until late 1942/early 1943 and it was only in mid-1943 when they finally were able to make an impact in WWII. B-29s would have been ready by 1938-39 had the Army and War Department selected the B-17 as the Army heavy bomber and not the B-18 in 1935-36 under General Craig. The isolationists claimed that B-17s were too "aggressive and threatening towards Japan and Germany" so they fully endorsed the horrible B-18s as a result. The B-18 Bolo fiasco which ended up foolishly banning B-17 R&D and production from 1936-39 and the horrible U.S. Navy torpedoes are never talked about because they were a mark of shame on the U.S. military pre-WWII and those failures ended up prolonging WWII by at least 2 years. Just imagine if B-17s/B-24s/B-29s and fully functional torpedoes were ready to go by 1938-39 and not in 1943. War would have ended so quickly in both the Pacific and Europe.

@ who brought up climate change... She was talking about how charasmatic and enthusiastic he is.

No, his talk sounds stupid and like a baby! He should use a more neutral and mature talk.

I'm sure it is. I was a weapons student in the late 80's and took a picture of it when I was stationed at Lowry. I had always hoped that it would be properly restored because it was such a rare aircraft. Go AMMO!!!

Because it was just a slip of the tongue.

I mean they ARE death charges tho

@@flufflepuffle6229 true, can't argue with you there

My husband’s grandfather was stationed at Zandrey Field in Suriname from Dec 1942- May 1943. He flew a B-18B.

No B-18 bolo/Digby was based on the DC-2. The B-23 Dragon was based off the DC-3

Yeah, would have been cool to hear that in the 8 minute video.

Poor T28

There is a great book on the B-18 written by Dan Hagedorn the former curator of the Museum of Flight. I think he lists all known aircraft. You might give that a try. MB

We have it scheduled! We are excited to show people what the inside looks like. Stay tuned!

(your imitation of Italians, cause I'm Italian😂)

I went to Lowry AFB IN 1973 and attended USN “A” school for combat photo interpretation located there at Lowry.

it is a DC-3. that was the basis for the aircraft.