Had you heard of the B-32 Dominator prior to this video? What did you think about it? Welcome back! If you are new here make sure to hit subscribe to expand your knowledge on Military History and join the growing Premier History Community!
I knew an old Master Gunnery Sargent, Cecil Dragoo, who had served on Okinawa during WWII, and he mentioned seeing a large, strange looking, four engine aircraft there at the time. He has no idea what it was at the time, but later found out it was a Consolidated B-32 Dominator. He passed in 1988, one hell of a Marine.
Many B-32 components were made by Rohr Industries in Chula Vista, California. While clearing out one of their abandoned buildings several years ago, I saved a Dominator pilot/co-pilot main instrument panel from being thrown in the dumpster. It’s now securely hanging on my garage wall. It’s quite heavy!
In the 80s I worked with Don Worsham. Don, as a young engineer at Consolidated Ft Worth, worked on the ‘24 and ‘32. Because the war was on, material procurement was a problem. To keep the prototype projects moving, engineers devised work arounds. Don related B32 development suffered from this. We forget, for instance, Consolidated had the B24, ‘32, ‘36 and a couple of flying boats simultaneously on the drawing boards in the 40s. Nationwide, engineers, designers, draftsmen, not to mention production engineers, tool makers, and …. were thin.
super key historical contextual information to also remember and reremember and to learn anew! Very cool thank you! If Mr. Worsham was from Texas, I’ll bet he had a fantastic amazing old school Fort Worth accent, which is sorta in between the Dallas accent and a proper West Texas drawl. haha so I dunno obviously, but I am always fascinated by peoples’ personal stories and accents and such.
I certainly hope your 6:36 comment is well noted... Not just read... but read into between the lines. Consolidated... later to become General Dynamics... like other manufacturers were pushed beyond their Technological limits... but still produced the most amazing propeller drivin aircraft ever created or could physically be created due to scientific restrictions not yet understood. A nice footnote. The upper atmosphere jet stream was not discovered nor understood until those times. It's influence on routes/indicated and actual airspeed/ground speed was not hardly conceptual in those years.
on the flipside, and as a non-aviator speculating and wondering… if drag is increased on an air frame, does one not need longer take off and landing distances to a certain extent? In lieu of the absence of reverse pitch propellers?
@@nozrepNot sure what you mean. Reversible pitch propellers have nothing to do with airframe drag. They are like normal constant speed propellers, except that they can go beyond “flat pitch”, which simply causes drag, into reverse pitch, which actually propels some air forward creating some negative thrust.
Exactly. The Silverplate B-29’s used the Curtiss Electric reversible pitch props from the B-32 project for braking as well. They could back up too! If I remember correctly only the inner props were reversible on the B-32. Silverplates could reverse all 4.
I've heard of the B-32, read about it in a Martin Caiden book years ago. According to Caidin the B-32 was so loaded with bugs the development stretched out for years and by the time it was ready the war in the Pacific was essentially won and the need for the plane evaporated, in addition to which the Air Force had more than enough B-29's to last into the post-war era. An interesting "Might have been." By the way, I've also read the B-29 also had more than its share of bugs slowing the development program the Air Force began to have serious considerations about having the Avro "Lancaster" built here in the US under license as a B-17 / B-24 replacement! Now isn't THAT something to think about!
I've know about the B-32 for years. My dad spent two weeks in B-32 ground school at Fort Worth before the Air Corp decided they were not going to train any more B-32 pilots and sent him on to B-29 school. He had been flying the B-24 up to that point. He later scratch-built a large wood model of the B-32 which was in our house for years. I've always understood that the B-32 design was stripped of all of its advance features so that if the advanced technology B-29 failed, they would still have a conventional heavy bomber ready for service.
Oh yeah I’ve more than heard of the B32, I worked at the plant in Fort Worth Texas that built them, along with the B24, B36, B58, F111, F16,F22,F35. F16 #20 was in final assembly when I walked in and the F35 A, B&C models were on the Flight Line when I left 38 years later.
That is a sort - but awesome synopsis - bet you could probably write an interesting book on that time in your life. Perhaps shed some insight about how you and the others felt about the planes you guys were assembling...
I guess you could add to this, the B-24 Liberator, America's OTHER heavy bomber that was used to fly tons of missions, before the B-29 showed up on the scene. Since you forgot to mention it, just saying.
Thanks to the Dominator there was a ample supply of Wright R-3350 engines after the war. These engines powered everything from DC-7's, C-24 Globemasters, the Flying Boxcar, the Boeing KC-97 and more. It's sad they didn't save a single example of the B-32.
In his book Samura, Saburo Sakai mentions one last attack on a heavy American Bomber I believe he thought it was a B-29. Later it was confirmed it was infact a B-32. Most likely the same attack described in this video.
Exactly what I was thinking, did he forget about it or just ignore it. There were 12,731 B 17’s built and 18,500 B 24’s. Seems like it should at least get an honorable mention.
it’s ridiculous that it wasn’t mentioned, especially since it was so heavily utilized with the B17 already obsolete and only hung in because of the delays in the B29 development
because this was a video specifically about the b-32, that is why. Liberator also a great plane of course. Has videos of its own, if not of this channel, certainly of other channels readily available. Plus also I do not opine that, the Liberator is “forgotten” in the same way that he talks about the b-32 in this video. The Liberator had much more widespread use, if my learnings are correct about it. So yah, this video did not exclude the b-24, but it was just intentionally meant as a video about the b-32. So contextual consideration is always key!
My father was a bombardier on a B-25 during WW2, flew in B29s, B36s and later B52s during his 30-year career with the Army Air Corp and US Air Force. I also never heard of the B32. Thanks. Well done.
My father had a similar career although with the RAF and following WW2 starting with the Boeing Washington.... better known in the US as the B-29 flying a range of odd British aircraft finishing with the Nimrod MR2...I had heard of the B-32 like the Avro Lincoln likely they would have been pretty well known had the allies invaded the Japanese mainland, I guess we can all be thankful that that didn't happen.
@user-qm3fe1cv4y, That's an impressive flying career, the smaller models(as bombers go) right up through the more modern heavies! Deffinately sevice to be proud of, thanks for sharing.
@@mjc8281, Another impressive career, I had never known that the B-29 was known as "The Boeing Washington" by the British(thanks for sharing that), was your dad a test pilot or was he one of those highly skilled pilots that was qualified to fly just about everything available during his time of service?
@@toter-drache The RAF didn't have them very long I think only a handful of years in the early to mid-50s my understanding was that they had all been in storage for quite some time and in extremely poor shape, I should say he was actually a Co-Pilot on them it was his first posting out of flight training. He ironically then went onto fly the P2 Neptune which was another US aircraft that the RAF had for a fairly limited period of time, but had very long service life around the world, in fact he was a senior officer in the RAF by the Falklands War (1983) and the Argentine Naval Aviation deployed some former RAF P-2s that he had flown while in his early 20s against the RN fleet.
Tallest tail bomber was a problem for manufacturing and maintenance. I am 6'4" and touring Dayton through the interiors of the B-17 & B-29 is cramped. Jimmy Stewart flew the B-24s. I just wonder about the room inside the 32 as it relates to the pressure hull problem? After Hiroshima USAF had to have the higher altitude + heavy payload. Also the power plant for the 29s and 32s were prone to failure, so sharing a tried-out engine was a negative.
I've studied most of the bombers of the 20th century to some extent and always wondered why the B-32 Dominator was not more than just a footnote in history. It certainly seemed like a substantial plane with great range, but it appears that the plane made its debut too late in WWII to see much combat action. Had it appeared earlier in either the Pacific or the war against Germany, it would have almost surely been better remembered. No more money was allocated to the project after the war, since jet powered planes became the wave of the future.
Yes, I'd heard of it and believe it was politics that pushed the B-29 over the B-32. What most don't know is that when it looked like Britain was going to fall back in 1940, there was ANOTHER program started to produce a bomber that could reach Europe from North America and return. The B-32's builder also had that contract and was thus designing two bombers; the B-32 project was quietly impeded so that Boeing could get the required engines before Consolidated would. However, the very long range bomber project eventually resulted in the Consolidated B-36 Peacemaker, the largest bomber ever built and my favorite.
i definitely preferred the YB-49 - over the B-36 ugly duckling i have heard that there was political corruption in the selection process, in addition to possible sabotage of the YB-49 - that killed Northrop's original flying wing in favor of the B-36
Failed to include the b24 in your introduction. The 24 is more significant to the story as it actually carried the heavy payload faster than the b17s that often carried little more than the medium bombers of the time
The thing is - there are a lot of unanticipated failures in aircraft developments. So - because aircraft development can take a long time - it wasn't uncommon for the Government to let two or more contracts for pretty much the same thing. That way - if one of them failed - they'd still have the other one. All you have to do - is think about the Numerical Designations for all the bombers and fighters you know of - and wonder where all the missing numbers are in between the ones you are familiar with. Those were - as far as I know - for aircraft development projects - that - for whatever reason - never had enough aircraft made for you to hear about. Some of them never left the drawing board - some of them went into production and then were terminated for whatever reason. Some times - several aircraft development projects succeeded and went into full scale production. Here - one factor in this - was that at least two different factories making these planes - would be making more planes together than if they had just had one factory making them. In WWII - they wee trying to make as many planes as they could as fast as they could so more factories producing more planes - even of different types - was just fine. Then as with the B-24 - they had more than one factory making a plane. The B-17 & B-24 (though neither was a back up for the other) both went into full scale production. The B-25 and B-26 - were - as you can see from their numerical designations - contracted one right after the other. This was the same thing with the B-29 and B-32. Then you had the F4U and the F6F - both designed for about the same purpose but both put into production at the same time. Here - they had trouble with the F4U's Carrier Landing - (which is what both these aircraft were for) - so they initially used the F6F's for Carrier Aircraft and the F4U's as Land Based Fighters. This was also another factor in producing different designs. These aircraft were always different in some ways - and sometimes there would be advantages to using one aircraft over another. Thus - B-24's with their longer ranges - largely took over the role of Search or Patrol Aircraft from the B-17's. Had Japan not surrendered - I would imagine - that they would have kept on making B-32's and used them in addition to the B-29's for whatever they were still bombing - or - perhaps having greater range than the B-29's - they would have become dedicated recon aircraft. As it was - the Surrender of Japan curtailed the very short Careers of a number of aircraft. .
You talk about the B17, and then describe the B29 as "the other famous heavy bomber". So what about the B24, the most produced heavy bomber in history (18,000 built) Did it slip your mind?
Actually I think that the B24 Liberator may have flown more missions in Europe than the B17 did. Not sure why the liberator gets overlooked but it was a phenomenal aircraft just like the B17. Indeed, many of the pilots that flew both preferred the B24.
I never heard of the B-32 Dominator until I saw this video. I would like to know for how long was the B-32 in service after WW2, and if the aircraft was ever exported overseas.
Where did the concept of mounting guns facing aft in the engine nacelles originate from? I am aware of the Italians doing it with their four engine bomber, did not know the U.S. toyed with the concept. Thanks for gathering the information and putting this production together.
@@PremierHistorysame manufacturer, same initial design elements, same design team: it was an evolution of the B24, so mentioning it was needed especially as you ignored its role in bomber warfare
It was a very interesting bomber and not one example still exists. One was on display at the now Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona (Bone Yard) However rather than keeping it the USAF scrapped it in 1946 when the remaining inventory at Kingman, AZ were destroyed.
I saw a picture of three B-32s flying in formation in a 1955 Encyclopedia set my parents had. Too bad they didn't save one. There is one at the bottom of the Pacific that crashed and sank. Maybe the RV Petral can go find it.
Why does everyone forget the B 24. There were 2/3 more B 24 in the war than the B 17. The B 24 was faster, had more range and carried more bombs. The B 17 came old fly heavy there. The B 32 was based off of the B 24. yes I have. Same with the Hurricane and the Spitfire. Again 2/3 more Hurricanes in the Battle for Britain than the Spitfire. But it also hardly ever gets mentioned. I wish people would tell history correctly.
I had heard of it and it would have been a great plane but it seems they were too ambitious with too many new technologies as was the B29, that delayed them both, but it delayed the B32 longer,
no, it was really bad timing like a few other planes that came very late in the war…it worked, it was already in production, and proved itself: it just came at the very tail end of fighting
Only gets a slight mention mid way through and not at the start as I believed commenting on the B-17 and B-29 was enough to lead into the B-32. The video was by no means a comprehensive discussion on all heavy bombers of the war
@@PremierHistoryin other words, you couldn’t be bothered to actually research the plane’s history since the Liberator was closely linked to it beyond the tail
I read a story about including the photographer's death. The US should have demanded that the Japanese turn over the pilots who continued to fight days after the surrender.
this has to be a glitch in the matrix - I have had a keen interest military hardware of all kinds, land, sea and air, have read countless books in my 68 years and consumed gigabytes of video and yet have never heard of the B32 - this defies logic particularly as it performed combat missions in squadron service - it’s either a glitch in the matrix or I have slipped into a different timeline 🤪
Haha looks like sometimes these things can slip past us all Kenny! I must say a lot of feedback from people seems to have a similar theme though, the B-32 certainly hasn’t made a lot of history books and military history continues to surprise us all !
i had not heard of the B-32 dominator - tho i have heard of Consolidated - (Note: Consolidated became Convair after merging with Vultee) What i recall of Consolidated is that they were politically connected and used that connection to help kill Northrops YB-35/YB-49 in favor of their ugly duckling B-36 peacemaker. Given the chance - any kinks in the YB-35/YB-49 - could and would have been worked out. Sadly, due to political corruption in the selection process - and possible sabotage of Northrops YB-35/YB-49, America missed out on the original flying wings...
What buffoon sent two unescorted slow bombers to check if the Japanese were still intercepting US aircraft. Whoever gave that order at the end of the war should have been courts martialled.
I think I am a fairly knowledgeable student of the horrors humanity seems hellbent on inflicting upon ourselves, but this is the first time I have heard of this beast. Git to love what wandering around in the toob will gift you with.
no, it was actually a success. it got built and used, just because it didn’t have the extensive record like other planes doesn’t mean it was a failure.
@@bostonrailfan2427 Er, they had actually, watch the video again, paying particular attention to the part where where he mentions Hirohito’s surrender order of August 15.
@@AtheistOrphan listen again: he said INTENDED not actually surrendering. FYI he actually had to put up with an attempted coup by officers to surrender. they had not yet done it, he wanted to but he hadn’t yet gotten the military out of power yet
I first learned of this bomber when I came across B-32 technical manuals in the library of the A&P school I attended in 1980. Just outside of San Diego, CA there is a memorial to early aviation pioneer John J. Montgomery at Otay Mesa. It consists of a 93 foot high B-32 stainless steel static test wing panel which may be seen for miles.
I visited that wing in the park back in the mid 1990’s. The memorial plaque says, “John J. Montgomery made man’s first controlled winged flights from this hilltop in August of 1883.” It’s a low but scenic hilltop with a gentle-slope towards the prevailing sea breezes, overlooking the South Bay Area of San Diego.
in answer to the question at the end, yes I had sorta kinda heard about it. But also forgot. When a child, I was super SUPER fascinated with planes and military planes and WWII. Am still a huge fan of history! I read and studied books of planes for many hours. Mostly picture type books consumable for a young lad that I was. Not the more in depth historiographical tomes of analysis by proper historians which I would have been bewildered by as a young kid. hahaha. But yah! I did not remember the B-32 specifically. But as soon as you said “Dominator”, the bells and whistles of childhood memories went off in my brain, and I remembered that I had definitely learned or learnt about the Dominator while reading all those cool WWII planes picture books that I used to study while a child. If indeed the learning was only looking at a cool artist rendering in a picture and reading the specs on it and then moving on to the next cool plane picture to fantasize about. Circa, 1996 for this old ‘millennial’!
My father, Joseph Lacharite, was one of two photographers on the Hobo Queen on 18 August near Tokyo Bay. After he was wounded in both legs, a second blast mortally wounded Anthony Marchione. My father was not with his normal B24 crew that day.
My dad was finishing his Flight Engineer training on the B-32 at Ft. Worth TX when the war ended. It was unfortunate that the one that was going to the Smithsonian got its paperwork lost at Walnut Ridge and was scrapped with the rest. I believe it also has the distinction of the last shoot down of WWII on August 18, 1945. Great video.
For the most comprehensive history of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator, read “Last to Die: A Defeated Empire, a Forgotten Mission, and the Last American Killed in World War II” By Stephen Harding
It was a back up to the B 29 in case the B 29 failed to go into production or performed poorly in combat. The B-29 was so problematic and complicated that it is surprising the Dominator didn’t go into production.
it did go into full production but that stopped due to the war ending, and it was slated to replace its counterpart the B24 like the B29 was slated to replace the B17 had the redesign not been needed m it might have been heavily involved in Europe and Asia alongside the others
The B-32 had the same engines as the B-29 and they were problematic (mostly for over heating or catching fire). I suspect the B-32 would have had the same issue.
Yes I had heard of it before and that it arrived too late to play much of a role in the war. As an engineer I know what it is like to put tons of sweat and tears into a project, get the first pilot run through production then to have it suddenly cancelled. I am sure it would have provided good service if it turned out we had to invade Japan but between the atomic bomb and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the Japanese finally did the sensible thing and surrendered on the terms of the Allies. I have been told that there was more materiel in the supply pipeline and in the building stage than as much material as had been consumed in the war to date. But that was a better thing than if we did not have enough
My Grandfather Joesph Wells of the 5th AAF 380th BG 531st bomb squadron (best in the southwest) flew on 24's as a gunner in SWPT ,then was sent back to states to train other crews . He said that the base that he returned stateside to had 32's and that the armament systems were totally different.
Not many B32 were built. Unfinished new B32 at the factory were completed and then flown directly to the scap yard in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas and destroyed. NO B32 bombers exist today. Walnut Ridge air museum on field has pictures of the planes awaiting destruction, and B32. Thousands of planes awaiting death. The original smelter buildings are still there being used for other purposes today.
Had you heard of the B-32 Dominator prior to this video? What did you think about it?
Welcome back! If you are new here make sure to hit subscribe to expand your knowledge on Military History and join the growing Premier History Community!
no
Yes I had heard of the B-32 before the internet and knew it was to be a less complicated backup to the B-29.
I'd heard of the B-32 in other UA-cam videos. I tear up when I think of all the wonderful planes going from the factory to the scrap heap.
During my USAF service in the 1980's, I was taught the B-32 flew the last bombing mission of the war.
hey! where's the love for the b-24? there were more 24s over europe than 17s - come on, man!
I knew an old Master Gunnery Sargent, Cecil Dragoo, who had served on Okinawa during WWII, and he mentioned seeing a large, strange looking, four engine aircraft there at the time. He has no idea what it was at the time, but later found out it was a Consolidated B-32 Dominator. He passed in 1988, one hell of a Marine.
🙏🏽.....🇺🇲
Many B-32 components were made by Rohr Industries in Chula Vista, California. While clearing out one of their abandoned buildings several years ago, I saved a Dominator pilot/co-pilot main instrument panel from being thrown in the dumpster. It’s now securely hanging on my garage wall. It’s quite heavy!
Were there any instruments left in it?
Never heard of this airplane before, thanks for reviving its memory.
Thanks for sharing, glad you enjoyed the video
In the 80s I worked with Don Worsham. Don, as a young engineer at Consolidated Ft Worth, worked on the ‘24 and ‘32. Because the war was on, material procurement was a problem. To keep the prototype projects moving, engineers devised work arounds. Don related B32 development suffered from this.
We forget, for instance, Consolidated had the B24, ‘32, ‘36 and a couple of flying boats simultaneously on the drawing boards in the 40s. Nationwide, engineers, designers, draftsmen, not to mention production engineers, tool makers, and …. were thin.
super key historical contextual information to also remember and reremember and to learn anew! Very cool thank you! If Mr. Worsham was from Texas, I’ll bet he had a fantastic amazing old school Fort Worth accent, which is sorta in between the Dallas accent and a proper West Texas drawl. haha so I dunno obviously, but I am always fascinated by peoples’ personal stories and accents and such.
I certainly hope your 6:36 comment is well noted... Not just read... but read into between the lines.
Consolidated... later to become General Dynamics... like other manufacturers were pushed beyond their Technological limits... but still produced the most amazing propeller drivin aircraft ever created or could physically be created due to scientific restrictions not yet understood.
A nice footnote. The upper atmosphere jet stream was not discovered nor understood until those times. It's influence on routes/indicated and actual airspeed/ground speed was not hardly conceptual in those years.
Reversable pitch propellers are designed to shorten landing distances, not reduce drag.
on the flipside, and as a non-aviator speculating and wondering… if drag is increased on an air frame, does one not need longer take off and landing distances to a certain extent? In lieu of the absence of reverse pitch propellers?
@@nozrepNot sure what you mean. Reversible pitch propellers have nothing to do with airframe drag. They are like normal constant speed propellers, except that they can go beyond “flat pitch”, which simply causes drag, into reverse pitch, which actually propels some air forward creating some negative thrust.
Variable pitch to reduce drag.
Exactly. The Silverplate B-29’s used the Curtiss Electric reversible pitch props from the B-32 project for braking as well. They could back up too! If I remember correctly only the inner props were reversible on the B-32. Silverplates could reverse all 4.
I've heard of the B-32, read about it in a Martin Caiden book years ago. According to Caidin the B-32 was so loaded with bugs the development stretched out for years and by the time it was ready the war in the Pacific was essentially won and the need for the plane evaporated, in addition to which the Air Force had more than enough B-29's to last into the post-war era. An interesting "Might have been."
By the way, I've also read the B-29 also had more than its share of bugs slowing the development program the Air Force began to have serious considerations about having the Avro "Lancaster" built here in the US under license as a B-17 / B-24 replacement! Now isn't THAT something to think about!
I've know about the B-32 for years. My dad spent two weeks in B-32 ground school at Fort Worth before the Air Corp decided they were not going to train any more B-32 pilots and sent him on to B-29 school. He had been flying the B-24 up to that point. He later scratch-built a large wood model of the B-32 which was in our house for years.
I've always understood that the B-32 design was stripped of all of its advance features so that if the advanced technology B-29 failed, they would still have a conventional heavy bomber ready for service.
I had heard of the Dominator, but I was one of those who thought it was a failed project, and didn't even realize it had been in service!
A small number but yes!
Oh yeah I’ve more than heard of the B32, I worked at the plant in Fort Worth Texas that built them, along with the B24, B36, B58, F111, F16,F22,F35.
F16 #20 was in final assembly when I walked in and the F35 A, B&C models were on the Flight Line when I left 38 years later.
Please tell us more, you must have many stories .
Wow that’s amazing! I agree you must have many stories about that
What a great career you had.
That is a sort - but awesome synopsis - bet you could probably write an interesting book on that time in your life.
Perhaps shed some insight about how you and the others felt about the planes you guys were assembling...
I guess you could add to this, the B-24 Liberator, America's OTHER heavy bomber that was used to fly tons of missions, before the B-29 showed up on the scene. Since you forgot to mention it, just saying.
Shocking omission since over 18000 B24s were built. More than any other bomber in World War II if I am not mistaken
Thanks to the Dominator there was a ample supply of Wright R-3350 engines after the war. These engines powered everything from DC-7's, C-24 Globemasters, the Flying Boxcar, the Boeing KC-97 and more. It's sad they didn't save a single example of the B-32.
In his book Samura, Saburo Sakai mentions one last attack on a heavy American Bomber I believe he thought it was a B-29. Later it was confirmed it was infact a B-32. Most likely the same attack described in this video.
I read that book too in 1985. It was called "Samurai" by Martin Caidin and Saburo Sakai.
How about the unmentioned B24 Liberator?
Exactly what I was thinking, did he forget about it or just ignore it. There were 12,731 B 17’s built and 18,500 B 24’s. Seems like it should at least get an honorable mention.
@@HarryPrimate…and this plane was basically an evolution of the B24 to start with, right down to the tail pre-redesign
it’s ridiculous that it wasn’t mentioned, especially since it was so heavily utilized with the B17 already obsolete and only hung in because of the delays in the B29 development
because this was a video specifically about the b-32, that is why. Liberator also a great plane of course. Has videos of its own, if not of this channel, certainly of other channels readily available. Plus also I do not opine that, the Liberator is “forgotten” in the same way that he talks about the b-32 in this video. The Liberator had much more widespread use, if my learnings are correct about it. So yah, this video did not exclude the b-24, but it was just intentionally meant as a video about the b-32. So contextual consideration is always key!
@@bostonrailfan2427 no, it’s not ridiculous. Because this video was specifically meant by the video maker to be only about the b-32.
My father was a bombardier on a B-25 during WW2, flew in B29s, B36s and later B52s during his 30-year career with the Army Air Corp and US Air Force. I also never heard of the B32. Thanks. Well done.
Glad you learned something and enjoyed the video. You must be so proud of your fathers achievements, great story
My father had a similar career although with the RAF and following WW2 starting with the Boeing Washington.... better known in the US as the B-29 flying a range of odd British aircraft finishing with the Nimrod MR2...I had heard of the B-32 like the Avro Lincoln likely they would have been pretty well known had the allies invaded the Japanese mainland, I guess we can all be thankful that that didn't happen.
@user-qm3fe1cv4y, That's an impressive flying career, the smaller models(as bombers go) right up through the more modern heavies! Deffinately sevice to be proud of, thanks for sharing.
@@mjc8281, Another impressive career, I had never known that the B-29 was known as "The Boeing Washington" by the British(thanks for sharing that), was your dad a test pilot or was he one of those highly skilled pilots that was qualified to fly just about everything available during his time of service?
@@toter-drache The RAF didn't have them very long I think only a handful of years in the early to mid-50s my understanding was that they had all been in storage for quite some time and in extremely poor shape, I should say he was actually a Co-Pilot on them it was his first posting out of flight training. He ironically then went onto fly the P2 Neptune which was another US aircraft that the RAF had for a fairly limited period of time, but had very long service life around the world, in fact he was a senior officer in the RAF by the Falklands War (1983) and the Argentine Naval Aviation deployed some former RAF P-2s that he had flown while in his early 20s against the RN fleet.
Cracking, informative video! Cheers
Glad you enjoyed it
I am a pretty avid WW2 history buff and this is the first time I have heard of the B 32.
I knew about this plane. I have been looking for a model of it for years.
Tallest tail bomber was a problem for manufacturing and maintenance.
I am 6'4" and touring Dayton through the interiors of the B-17 & B-29 is cramped. Jimmy Stewart flew the B-24s.
I just wonder about the room inside the 32 as it relates to the pressure hull problem?
After Hiroshima USAF had to have the higher altitude + heavy payload.
Also the power plant for the 29s and 32s were prone to failure, so sharing a tried-out engine was a negative.
I've not only heard about it, but I'm a big proponent of this sadly underrated plane.
I've studied most of the bombers of the 20th century to some extent and always wondered why the B-32 Dominator was not more than just a footnote in history. It certainly seemed like a substantial plane with great range, but it appears that the plane made its debut too late in WWII to see much combat action. Had it appeared earlier in either the Pacific or the war against Germany, it would have almost surely been better remembered. No more money was allocated to the project after the war, since jet powered planes became the wave of the future.
I'm sad to admit that I hadn't heard of the B-32, it just goes to show that there is always more to learn.
With the Second World War there always seems to be some form of aircraft or fighting vehicle which goes under the radar!
@@PremierHistory Definitely
Can you imagine how much the NMUSAF at Wright-Patterson AFB would give for one?
Wow! I consider myself a WWII aviation nerd, but I too had never been aware of this plane!
I heard about the B-32 and its very short combat life.
What I didn't know was a crew member being the last aircrew casualty of the war.
I didn't know much about it until a customer sent me a 1/72 scale kit of this plane to build. Interesting. I good video. Thanks.
There is also the B25 Mitchel which was used in the carrier launched raid on Toyko, and the B24 Liberator.
Yes, I'd heard of it and believe it was politics that pushed the B-29 over the B-32. What most don't know is that when it looked like Britain was going to fall back in 1940, there was ANOTHER program started to produce a bomber that could reach Europe from North America and return. The B-32's builder also had that contract and was thus designing two bombers; the B-32 project was quietly impeded so that Boeing could get the required engines before Consolidated would. However, the very long range bomber project eventually resulted in the Consolidated B-36 Peacemaker, the largest bomber ever built and my favorite.
i definitely preferred the YB-49 - over the B-36 ugly duckling
i have heard that there was political corruption in the selection process,
in addition to possible sabotage of the YB-49 - that killed Northrop's original flying wing in favor of the B-36
Failed to include the b24 in your introduction. The 24 is more significant to the story as it actually carried the heavy payload faster than the b17s that often carried little more than the medium bombers of the time
The thing is - there are a lot of unanticipated failures in aircraft developments. So - because aircraft development can take a long time - it wasn't uncommon for the Government to let two or more contracts for pretty much the same thing. That way - if one of them failed - they'd still have the other one.
All you have to do - is think about the Numerical Designations for all the bombers and fighters you know of - and wonder where all the missing numbers are in between the ones you are familiar with. Those were - as far as I know - for aircraft development projects - that - for whatever reason - never had enough aircraft made for you to hear about. Some of them never left the drawing board - some of them went into production and then were terminated for whatever reason.
Some times - several aircraft development projects succeeded and went into full scale production. Here - one factor in this - was that at least two different factories making these planes - would be making more planes together than if they had just had one factory making them. In WWII - they wee trying to make as many planes as they could as fast as they could so more factories producing more planes - even of different types - was just fine. Then as with the B-24 - they had more than one factory making a plane.
The B-17 & B-24 (though neither was a back up for the other) both went into full scale production.
The B-25 and B-26 - were - as you can see from their numerical designations - contracted one right after the other.
This was the same thing with the B-29 and B-32.
Then you had the F4U and the F6F - both designed for about the same purpose but both put into production at the same time. Here - they had trouble with the F4U's Carrier Landing - (which is what both these aircraft were for) - so they initially used the F6F's for Carrier Aircraft and the F4U's as Land Based Fighters.
This was also another factor in producing different designs. These aircraft were always different in some ways - and sometimes there would be advantages to using one aircraft over another. Thus - B-24's with their longer ranges - largely took over the role of Search or Patrol Aircraft from the B-17's.
Had Japan not surrendered - I would imagine - that they would have kept on making B-32's and used them in addition to the B-29's for whatever they were still bombing - or - perhaps having greater range than the B-29's - they would have become dedicated recon aircraft.
As it was - the Surrender of Japan curtailed the very short Careers of a number of aircraft.
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Love the video. This was the first I had learned of this bomber. Great information.
Never heard of it. I am so glad you covered it.
How much did the development of this plane help Consolidated/Convair develop the B-36 Peacemaker?
I would suggest a lot, even modern car manufacturers seem to continue learning after every model and technological advancement
given the timing, they put what they learned, what they knew worked, and what was new into that plane
@@bostonrailfan2427 - but even then - ran into new problems with the B-36
You talk about the B17, and then describe the B29 as "the other famous heavy bomber". So what about the B24, the most produced heavy bomber in history (18,000 built) Did it slip your mind?
Actually I think that the B24 Liberator may have flown more missions in Europe than the B17 did. Not sure why the liberator gets overlooked but it was a phenomenal aircraft just like the B17. Indeed, many of the pilots that flew both preferred the B24.
Axis: we can barely build/fuel our tanks and planes
US: lets R&D a spare strategic bomber in case this other one doesnt work out
I never heard of the B-32 Dominator until I saw this video. I would like to know for how long was the B-32 in service after WW2, and if the aircraft was ever exported overseas.
Never exported. Retired after less than a year in service
Where did the concept of mounting guns facing aft in the engine nacelles originate from? I am aware of the Italians doing it with their four engine bomber, did not know the U.S. toyed with the concept. Thanks for gathering the information and putting this production together.
This was an interesting video
Until now, I had only heard about the B-32 in an alternate history video that had them fighting the Luftwaffe in 1946.
You forgot about the B24 . Another heavy bomber
Was mentioned in passing towards the middle of the video, just didn’t want to make it all about other heavy bombers and focus on the B-32
@@PremierHistory Then you ought to redo your narration. Your opening was open to misintepretation.
@@PremierHistory You need to rethink your introduction to the video. Badly worded.
@@PremierHistorysame manufacturer, same initial design elements, same design team: it was an evolution of the B24, so mentioning it was needed especially as you ignored its role in bomber warfare
Should we assume that there are no B32s in any museum now? Thanks.
I believe post war they were unfortunately all scrapped, a sad fate
Decent video, well done.
Thank you 🙏😊 didn't know about it till now
It was a very interesting bomber and not one example still exists. One was on display at the now Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona (Bone Yard) However rather than keeping it the USAF scrapped it in 1946 when the remaining inventory at Kingman, AZ were destroyed.
A true shame they are all gone
Excellent overview of a bomber I didnt even know existed
Never heard of it before.
Glad you have learned something new!
I heard about it years ago but this is the first real information I've found about it
Should have called it the superliberator
😊
Thanks!
I saw a picture of three B-32s flying in formation in a 1955 Encyclopedia set my parents had. Too bad they didn't save one. There is one at the bottom of the Pacific that crashed and sank. Maybe the RV Petral can go find it.
Never heard of B32 Dom.
knew about it decades before was a back-up in case the B-29 was a failure
I'm a airplane nerd, but I'd completely forgotten the B-32!
There were lots of parallel projects in case one of the projects didn’t work.
Why does everyone forget the B 24. There were 2/3 more B 24 in the war than the B 17. The B 24 was faster, had more range and carried more bombs. The B 17 came old fly heavy there. The B 32 was based off of the B 24. yes I have. Same with the Hurricane and the Spitfire. Again 2/3 more Hurricanes in the Battle for Britain than the Spitfire. But it also hardly ever gets mentioned. I wish people would tell history correctly.
Still waiting for gaijin to add this beautiful metal dragon. Shame it’s often left out of conversation
I had heard of it and it would have been a great plane but it seems they were too ambitious with too many new technologies as was the B29, that delayed them both, but it delayed the B32 longer,
Very true, had a lot of potential
no, it was really bad timing like a few other planes that came very late in the war…it worked, it was already in production, and proved itself: it just came at the very tail end of fighting
Thankyou
Thank you for watching!
How many B-32s were made? And there is always the B-19 but they only built 2 of those and that was it. 🙂
It came standard with tickle whips, handcuffs and and assortment of leather apparel
No. I had never heard of it.
I didn't reallize these actually saw combat
Did the engines of the B32 catch fire?
Wow
Thanks PYeitme
I had actually heard of the dominator you also forgot the d twenty four liberator which was Builds in greater numbers than any american bomber
the poor b-24. Never remembered
I knew the last man to die in WW2 was a B-32 gunner
Never heard of the B32
You must have been vaguely aware of the B-24?
Only gets a slight mention mid way through and not at the start as I believed commenting on the B-17 and B-29 was enough to lead into the B-32. The video was by no means a comprehensive discussion on all heavy bombers of the war
@@PremierHistoryin other words, you couldn’t be bothered to actually research the plane’s history since the Liberator was closely linked to it beyond the tail
Wow, that is an massive tail. I'm sure it impressed all the female birds.
Correct your dialog! It's not a B-52 but is a B-32
I saw one in 1945I did not know what it was I was just 15
Wow! Thanks for sharing one of the very few to watch this video who has actually seen one
I read a story about including the photographer's death. The US should have demanded that the Japanese turn over the pilots who continued to fight days after the surrender.
this has to be a glitch in the matrix - I have had a keen interest military hardware of all kinds, land, sea and air, have read countless books in my 68 years and consumed gigabytes of video and yet have never heard of the B32 - this defies logic particularly as it performed combat missions in squadron service - it’s either a glitch in the matrix or I have slipped into a different timeline 🤪
Haha looks like sometimes these things can slip past us all Kenny! I must say a lot of feedback from people seems to have a similar theme though, the B-32 certainly hasn’t made a lot of history books and military history continues to surprise us all !
It's not a Glitch, just wasn't a lot of Information on it, because the B-29 got all the attention, I have known about the B-32 for well over 20 years.
i had not heard of the B-32 dominator - tho i have heard of Consolidated - (Note: Consolidated became Convair after merging with Vultee)
What i recall of Consolidated is that they were politically connected and used that connection to help kill Northrops YB-35/YB-49 in favor of their
ugly duckling B-36 peacemaker. Given the chance - any kinks in the YB-35/YB-49 - could and would have been worked out.
Sadly, due to political corruption in the selection process - and possible sabotage of Northrops YB-35/YB-49, America missed out on the original flying wings...
What buffoon sent two unescorted slow bombers to check if the Japanese were still intercepting US aircraft. Whoever gave that order at the end of the war should have been courts martialled.
Consolidated's engineers weren't as good as Boeing's engineers, hence the B-29 became famous while the 32 is essentially forgotten.
Yes well Boeing seems to have met their match with 737MAX.
B-24?
I think I am a fairly knowledgeable student of the horrors humanity seems hellbent on inflicting upon ourselves, but this is the first time I have heard of this beast.
Git to love what wandering around in the toob will gift you with.
Why do you keep saying B52?
consolidated failure
Arguably yes, didn’t achieve its goals that’s for sure
@@PremierHistory The B-29 had a ton of faults to iron out before it could fulfill its role
no, it was actually a success. it got built and used, just because it didn’t have the extensive record like other planes doesn’t mean it was a failure.
@@Ralphieboyit had huge support from Boeing’s politicking, something Consolidated didn’t have
If the war had gone on it would have been used more.@@bostonrailfan2427
Imagine being killed a week after the surrender.
War sucks.
Have you never heard about the B24 dude? Seems as if it's your forgotten bomber. Not a good way to start to a video.
why did they want to provoke the Japanese after they surrendered
The purpose of the photo recon mission that day was to survey airfields around Tokyo for the upcoming surrender and occupation of Japan.
they hadn’t surrendered yet.
@@bostonrailfan2427 Er, they had actually, watch the video again, paying particular attention to the part where where he mentions Hirohito’s surrender order of August 15.
@@AtheistOrphan listen again: he said INTENDED not actually surrendering. FYI he actually had to put up with an attempted coup by officers to surrender. they had not yet done it, he wanted to but he hadn’t yet gotten the military out of power yet
Consoladated's B24 family? Only the most produced bomber ever made.
and sadly gets overshadowed by the lesser Brit planes and the PR darling B17 and B29s
I first learned of this bomber when I came across B-32 technical manuals in the library of the A&P school I attended in 1980. Just outside of San Diego, CA there is a memorial to early aviation pioneer John J. Montgomery at Otay Mesa. It consists of a 93 foot high B-32 stainless steel static test wing panel which may be seen for miles.
Thanks for sharing, certainly an interesting aircraft!
I visited that wing in the park back in the mid 1990’s.
The memorial plaque says,
“John J. Montgomery made man’s first controlled winged flights from this hilltop in August of 1883.”
It’s a low but scenic hilltop with a gentle-slope towards the prevailing sea breezes, overlooking the South Bay Area of San Diego.
in answer to the question at the end, yes I had sorta kinda heard about it. But also forgot. When a child, I was super SUPER fascinated with planes and military planes and WWII. Am still a huge fan of history! I read and studied books of planes for many hours. Mostly picture type books consumable for a young lad that I was. Not the more in depth historiographical tomes of analysis by proper historians which I would have been bewildered by as a young kid. hahaha. But yah! I did not remember the B-32 specifically. But as soon as you said “Dominator”, the bells and whistles of childhood memories went off in my brain, and I remembered that I had definitely learned or learnt about the Dominator while reading all those cool WWII planes picture books that I used to study while a child. If indeed the learning was only looking at a cool artist rendering in a picture and reading the specs on it and then moving on to the next cool plane picture to fantasize about. Circa, 1996 for this old ‘millennial’!
My father, Joseph Lacharite, was one of two photographers on the Hobo Queen on 18 August near Tokyo Bay. After he was wounded in both legs, a second blast mortally wounded Anthony Marchione. My father was not with his normal B24 crew that day.
My dad was finishing his Flight Engineer training on the B-32 at Ft. Worth TX when the war ended. It was unfortunate that the one that was going to the Smithsonian got its paperwork lost at Walnut Ridge and was scrapped with the rest. I believe it also has the distinction of the last shoot down of WWII on August 18, 1945. Great video.
For the most comprehensive history of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator, read
“Last to Die: A Defeated Empire, a Forgotten Mission, and the Last American Killed in World War II”
By Stephen Harding
Nice tip for everyone, thanks!
It was a back up to the B 29 in case the B 29 failed to go into production or performed poorly in combat. The B-29 was so problematic and complicated that it is surprising the Dominator didn’t go into production.
it did go into full production but that stopped due to the war ending, and it was slated to replace its counterpart the B24 like the B29 was slated to replace the B17
had the redesign not been needed m it might have been heavily involved in Europe and Asia alongside the others
The B-32 had the same engines as the B-29 and they were problematic (mostly for over heating or catching fire). I suspect the B-32 would have had the same issue.
By the end of WW2, design and testing had moved to jet aircraft.
Never heard of this plane before this video, thanks 👍🏻👍🏻
Yes I had heard of it before and that it arrived too late to play much of a role in the war. As an engineer I know what it is like to put tons of sweat and tears into a project, get the first pilot run through production then to have it suddenly cancelled. I am sure it would have provided good service if it turned out we had to invade Japan but between the atomic bomb and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the Japanese finally did the sensible thing and surrendered on the terms of the Allies.
I have been told that there was more materiel in the supply pipeline and in the building stage than as much material as had been consumed in the war to date. But that was a better thing than if we did not have enough
Amazing that you don't mention the B24 when you mention the B17 and B29. Talk about forgotten heavy binders.........
My Grandfather Joesph Wells of the 5th AAF 380th BG 531st bomb squadron (best in the southwest) flew on 24's as a gunner in SWPT ,then was sent back to states to train other crews . He said that the base that he returned stateside to had 32's and that the armament systems were totally different.
Not many B32 were built.
Unfinished new B32 at the factory were completed and then flown directly to the scap yard in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas and destroyed.
NO B32 bombers exist today.
Walnut Ridge air museum on field has pictures of the planes awaiting destruction, and B32. Thousands of planes awaiting death.
The original smelter buildings are still there being used for other purposes today.
What the heck is…… “the events of Pearl Harbor” ? Holy 💩 that’s like saying “the events of 9-11”
"On behalf of B-32's everywhere, thank you" ~ B-32's
I heard rumor that many of them were buried near Walnut Ridge, AR after the war. True?