Our friendly folks at Special Hobby have announced two 1/72 scale kits that have long been at the top of the wants list. Considering the source they are probably going to cost a fortune.
Consolidated B-32 Dominator...
...and (drum roll, please)...
Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave.
Along with the Mach 2 C-54 it appears that a lot of us are going to be very busy and very broke for quite awhile.
Only bits--the last was scrappd in 1949. I think the largest piece is an outer wing panel on exhibit in San Diego as a monument to aviation pioneer John Montgomery. NASM has a nose turret assembly, and there's a partial instrument panel owned by somebody or other. Frankly, the B-32 wasn't a very good airplane, especially by comparison with the B-29,though I have to agree that it looks mighty nice. Maybe that's just because, with a short service life, and barely more than a hundrerd units built, they just hadn't quite chased the bugs out of the systems. The mere fact that it even reached service is pretty amazing--basically one general in the SW Pacifc who couldn't get B-29s just pissed and moaned until they gave him B-32s; his point was that the damn things were being built, so they might as well be used. So they were.
If Special Hobby is making it, it might be fairly affordable. Ordered through NKR Models in Australia, their Me 264 was arounf $US25, though with the sinking US dollar, it would be about 15% more now. We'll see.
Nice timing! I've just about worked up the will to buy the Aviation USK mixed media B-32 when I read this. I'll wait. I have enough vac-u-forms in the que, don't need another.
FWIW I was told that the B-32 was offered as an upgraded B-24 when the B-29 program was fighting a lot of bugs (ever read about the "Battle of Kansas"?) The idea was if the B-29 proved to be too big a technological bite for the Army Air Forces to swallow the B-32 would take over as the next generation heavy bomber. After that, it simply was over run by circumstances.
I'm fairly sure from the reading I've done that it was one of the few competitors for the contract (that became the B-29) that made it to metal. IIRC, the Lockheed XB-30 was based on the Connie and the Martin XB-33 was a sort of 4-engined Marauder. I think I got this info from Lloyd Jones' book on US bombers.
Yes it is, I have it as well. But if you go looking for a copy, try to get the second edition, the aircraft drawings are much better than the first edition (those were hardly more than sketches).
-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger
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