Brief Description: New acquisitions in the NMUSAF workshop
I volunteer as a tour guide at the NMUSAF restoration shop on Fridays. I have included some snapshots of the latest arrivals in the shop. While I have see pictures of these planes before, I never guessed that any examples still existed. The two airframes are the Douglas XB-42 and the follow-on XB-43. The XB-42 is from about 1943 and was developed concurrently with the B-29 as a contingency measure in the event the B-29 wasn't successful. Believe it or not, the XB-42 aircraft has two Allison V-1710 engines producing 1800 HP each. The engines are connected via shafts to two counter-rotating pusher props in the tail.
The XB-43 is essentially the same airframe but has two Westinghouse J-35 jet engines replacing the Allisons. The XB-43 was to be our first all jet bomber but was never built in numbers. Unfortunately, someone cut the wings from the airframe rather than taking the time to properly remove them. That will add a huge number of hours to the restoration.
Working as a docent in the restoration shop is great. You just never know what artifact may show up from week to week.
