Guardian of the Hemisphere - The Behemoth XB-19 World Bomber
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- The Douglas XB-19, also known as the Guardian of the Hemisphere, was the largest and heaviest bomber ever built by the United States Army Air Forces until 1946, when it was surpassed by the Hughes H-4 Hercules, the Spruce Goose, and the Convair B-36 Peacemaker.
Conceived in the 1930s, the Douglas XB-19 was meant to be the most innovative and powerful aircraft of its time, and a joint secret project between the US Army and the Douglas Aircraft company.
The XB-19 was a four-engine bomber with long-range capabilities that could fly continuously for over 24 hours due to its impressive 11,000-gallon fuel capacity. It would be manned by an 18-man crew, and it included bunks, seats, and even a galley kitchen.
Equipped with two 37-millimeter cannons, five .50 and six .30 caliber machine guns, the XB-19 surpassed the firepower of any other US warplane built until then.
But the development of the colossal 132-foot aircraft dragged on for three years, and as World War II quickly approached, so did technological advances.
Time was running against it, and the possibility of giving the Guardian of the Hemisphere a different use was latent. No one wanted to give up on one of America's earliest superweapons...
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Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.
All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.
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I'm a volunteer at the Hill Aerospace Museum and I can verify that the B-19 landing gear is still at Hill.
Yeah, the large tire and gear assembly in National Museum of the USAF is that for the XB-36. (Was replaced with 4 smaller wheels to reduce surface pressure to keep from damaging the concrete and paved infrastructure.)
@@ThorsonWiles Hill has both the XB-19 gear and a main landing gear for the B-36. Hill Air Force Base still fixes landing gear and the museum has landing gear exhibits from a number of aircraft to include the C-5 Galaxy.
Is this the one in northern Utah? If so, I've visited it once, and even got to touch and see the SR-71 blackbird there, but I've been to a number of air shows held at Hill Field Airforce Base nearby, though.
What a small world, I’m stationed at Hill 😂
@@ThorsonWiles typically, larger wheels decrease surface pressure given the larger ground-touching surface area of larger wheels…?
Mr worldwide
Lol
DALE!😎
>>> Pitbull
Lmao
"DALÉ!!"😎🍸🥂
While I appreciate the history, I really wish this guy didn't confuse everyone by showing totally different aircraft than those being discussed. 😕
okay so if he had to stick to only available relevant videos he would run out of video/images before he ran out of info... so we get info and have to deal with some filler...
@@wbnc66 I would agree if it was "some filler". But it is almost all filler.
@@wbnc66 Still photos "Ken Burns" style would be a better alternative
Yeah kinda wack.
Some of these are sloppy.
Dang I'm surprised I never heard of the XB19 before.
Only one XB-19 was built and flown. There was also the XB-15--ever hear of that Boeing product? Both were used for research and during World War Two both were used as heavy cargo haulers for expedited cargos OUTSIDE of war zones.
The XB-15 could make a good companion to this one. Nice job. Didn't realize there was that much film on this plane. Realize you use other bomber footage to fill out vid. Still a sweet B-19 video .
@4:46 "hey check out the pulse jets we're putting on this US made bomber, we'll need about 80 of 'em I reckn'"
Yea but @4:00 you can see the bolts and rivets that will hold it all together.
Those don't hold planes together😁
@@speedandstyletony What you see as bolts are temporary fasteners holding the metal plates together as they are being riveted. All those are removed and replaced by rivets.
This is kind of fascinating. My dad was an electrical engineer who worked on the engine controller system for the B-19 during WW II.
At 170 mph, it would be a sitting duck for fighters of that time.
This happened a lot to bomber projects. Many "fast bombers" were envisioned to outrun fighters as their main defense, but their performance was usually mediocre by the time they arrived in combat. They underestimated how quickly the performance of fighters would improve in the same period.
A common idiom at the time was "the bomber will always get through." That became less and less true in the subsequent years. Radar was still fairly limited. Fighters had short range. So the idea was that you could probably make surprise strikes at all sorts of targets that didn't have solid short range defenses. And if you just built enough bombers in big enough formations, you could strike even well defended targets. A bomber was a sitting duck for a fighter squadron. But 300 bombers would be enough to overwhelm that fighter squadron and hit the target even if there were losses. The defender couldn't necessarily mass their forces where the bombers were striking because they needed to spread out their forces to defend many potential targets. But the attacking power could basically commit 100% of their available bombers to a specific target on any given day. The strategic calculus changes *a lot* during the 1940's, but the XB-19 was built on rational ideas when it was first being designed. If the project had been more successful, it could have been a really significant early-war bomber for the first year or two.
Later in the war, I could imagine old B-19's having been adapted to an "AWACS" like role with the ability to stay on station for longer than other aircraft, with longer range radar than surface level warships.
Big, cumbersome, slow and underpowered
guaposneeze
With their long range, it seems the B-19 could have been adapted to maritime patrol work protecting the convoys in the North Atlantic.
@@guaposneeze Excellent points about saturation tactics, the AWACs Idea is interesting too. The RAF did experiment with converting a heavy bomber into a mobile RADAR platform, the dome was retractable and needed a large diesel engine as a generator. They tried it as both a ground and sea search RADAR, I wonder if the B-19 with its size and endurance could have performed that role.
Made famous by bugs bunny in the Cartoon “falling hare” with the gremlin. Apparently they don’t get very far with those “A” cards
True.
Huh. I never knew that was the XB-19 in the Gremlin episode.
@@eucliduschaumeau8813 that's the one
Air brakes ! , lol , best of bugs’ episodes , they hide those old toons from the public now , but fail to realize , those cartoons were intermission pieces for adults at movie theatres
@@leefithian3704 - I don't know why you think "they" are hiding these old toons... th-cam.com/video/zAPf5fSDGVk/w-d-xo.html
Edit: No offence to PhantomLover007, I'm sure it was an honest misremembrance, but that's clearly not the same bomber
The Great Depression hit way before 1938.... facts
True even before they blamed President Hoover, the Pandemic of 1918 Influenza they were just recovering from it and boom
Great job as always! I would love to hear the story of the C-124. In the early 80's I worked at a salvage yard in Tucson and we had one in very good condition. A guy bought and refurbished it to make it into a restaurant to be located in Las Vegas. It was too expensive and impractical to haul it by truck (wires, etc). So he made it air-worthy! When completed he had to fly it to Tucson Airport (5miles away) for FAA inspection. We watched it roll down Davis Monthan and take to the skies once more. It was a beautiful site I will never forget!
I flew out to Wake Island in a C-124 when in the Navy. It was a great hauler in its time.
@@pibbles-a-plenty1105 That must have been a trip to remember! What floor were you seated?
4:41 Probably a good thing they went with the tricycle undercarriage because those "tail dagger" setups often had their maintenance crews in stitches.
Stitches? No, the B-17's were not fabric covered.....
@Skunk Bucket. Stitches? Is that 'laughing type', or 'medical'?
@@rogerrendzak8055 supposed to be medically meant as he said “tail DAGGER “🗡 rather than tail DRAGGER so was a play on words in jest funny imo
Beautiful truly gorgeous eye catcher.
Just think of how many merchant ships would have been saved by this plane covering the mid-Atlantic gap.
Politicians didn’t want to make a sure thing , too easy , at the time , at the expense of our most nationalistic patriots who loved freedom , Roosevelt was opposite of Washington , he failed to obey the founding fathers rules , to not be a King or Dynasty in all but name , his father , ofcourse was epitome of an American leader ,
Probably not to many. That thing was SLOW. at 170mph A surfaced U-boat could probably shoot it down with it's deck-gun!
@@exidy-yt not if it was flying at altitude. The real issue was practicality and cost. It was cheaper to ship massive amounts of cargo on ships than limited amounts on an aircraft. Also, liberty ships were very cheap to begin with.
Dude check out the video on the B-25 gunship Dark did. That is what we should've had circling all coast lines we owned. Plus you'll understand (and I didnt think about it either) why high altitude bombers weren't effective against ships, even at low level. It's my favorite video they have done and has a ton of excellent footage. Enjoy
@@Triznac52 we did have the b-25 gunship doing maritime patrols (b-25g/j or something like that right? Though the Navy gave it a different designation). Had a 75 mm howitzer in the nose if I remember correctly.
We are definitely at a disadvantage not having more Aerospace companies
Or chip makers.
@@crankychris2 Potato, chocolate or Computer? lol
@@antr7493 Chips ahoy! ;))
Correct.
The alien UFOs negate that fact.
That was so interesting
I could see b17 b 29. And liberator in it 👍👍
Would have been really useful as a convoy escort across the Atlantic as it could have provided air cover in the Atlantic Gap.
Precisely. Probably would have been an ideal fit for the radar & other sub' hunting equipment of the period, and still had room for depth charges.
Yes, but the B24 was surely most flexible
@@alessiodecarolis
I agree, however, the B-24 didn't operate with Coastal Command until about 1942,
with the Mid-Atlantic gap being closed by the very long range Liberators in March 1943.
If I've understood correctly the B-19 could have patrolled the area sooner in the war.
Whether it could have been converted to such use any earlier is another issue though.
My thought was that if the B-19 could just have patrolled the area over conveys with no offensive capability it could have at least provided warning of U-Boats.
Thank goodness the Liberators were able to do the job
Logistics for just 1 plane. The pby Catalinas were great at the job, later b24 and privateers were used.
@@richardferg6455
cf my second comment.
The Catalina didn't have the range to cover the Mid-Atlantic gap.
The Privateer iirc would have entered service pretty much as the Battle of the Atlantic was already won.
Never heard a whisper about this plane growing up! Interesting video, nicely done.😊
First elevation dewing shown is that of a B-36...
And I think he meant the B24 instead of the B25 later on in the vid.
Looks like ship workers tightening steel boiler plate at 4:01
I have visited the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton many times, and every time I see that incredibly huge B-19 tire on display I am still blown away by its size. It is too bad the B-19 was scrapped, as it would have been amazing to behold. Something to consider is there would have been > 65,000 pounds of pressure on contact when that huge tire hit the runway on landing. That much pressure would have damaged many runways of that time. A visit to museum in Dayton should be on your buck list, no question.
Excellent excellent excellent! I would love to see an in-depth look at the p-61 Black Widow information on them is sparse at best.
Check his vids, he's already done a video on the P-61
Hope you're aware of the restoration going on at the Mid Atlantic Aìr Museum-there are some great pictures of the restoration on their website.
This is the first time I have heard of this ship. It's surprising that this plane functioned so well, apparently, but the B-29 engines kept overheating.
My father lived in Dayton, Ohio before the war and saw the XB-19 flying from Wright Field several times during flight test. Everyone joked its flight was so slow they thought it'd fall from the sky... lol... or hung in the air like a kite.
Now that distinction goes to the C-17. Those birds seem to hang motionless in the skies around Wright-Patt.
Why show the schematic of what appeared to be a Convair B-36 ( 0:22 ) when the narrator was describing the XB-19 as a four-motor bomber??
I wondered about that too!
I love the greatest generation ever but to scrape that beautiful plane is heartbreaking.,what a sight to behold today it would be.. dam
Yea, I would’ve loved to see that plane in a museum. But of course everything has to be scrapped
@@bittyjupiter3607 and it's a shame
The decision makers that had it scrapped were not the greatest generation. The greatest generation at this point in time were comprised of younger soldiers and junior officers.
During the war, any unused materialistic were immediately scraped for reuse for the war effort. I imagine that this tendency was hard to shake once the war was over.
They scrapped everything in existence back then. Super irritating.
@00:04:45 did you say "tail dagger design"? It is called "tail DRAGGER" as the tail wheel is dragging along.
Yep, that was an oof moment.
Hee hee hee, he said "tail dagger", hee hee hee!
Little known fact, but as a last resort, pilots would shift into reverse to skewer enemy planes on their tail. Yup.
;)
@@pills- Skewer those bandits on my Tail Dagger ... hee hee hee!
@@pills- 🤣🤣🤣🤣
the Best - in comment and material.... excellent!!!!
Imagine frying a steak in that
Even our KC-135 aircraft had galleys on board. It could be used to heat soup and the ovens could be used to heat TV style dinners. Nothing fancy but a hot meal could be made.
@@robertheinkel6225 Thats sounds like my kinda dinner
The mile high chef club XD
Fastest steak on the planet. xD
@@robertheinkel6225 Yeah but the B-19 had a galley spacious enough to bang in and not get burned
In-line V engines must be a sight to see.
Two in-line sixes make a V-12, hee hee hee!
Way underpowered which required a high surface area, low wing loading, high drag wing making her too slow. Douglas B-18 and B-23 suffered from the same problem. Also there were overheating issues on the big Wright 3350 radials in part because the cowling had retractable air scoops instead of simple cowling cooling flaps. The scoops had to be left open. The drag they created slowed the bomber further. Later in the war the original Allison 3420s with four bladed props were installed and it's designation changed to the XB-19A.
Might be fun to hear a bit about the Lancaster and other British bombers.
Seems like all we hear about for the Limeys is that bloody spitfire.
Perfection. Lancaster is a great bomber in my opinion
Nah, youre doing enough Bragging for us any way.
I’m rather fond of Tempest , sea fury , typhoon
Halifax.
@@petewood2350 how was that a brag?
Wanted the B-19, had to settle for the B-52...
Covering the f-107 and xf-108 would be cool
"Tail dagger"? Uhhh...tail DRAGGER
Imagine the illustrious career of the galley cook on the B19.
These dudes really said “let’s put wings on an apartment”
Thanks again....!
I enjoyed this episode, I particularly liked the backing soundtrack. Good job. (where can I find out about the music you used please?)
At 4 mins 24 seconds into the video, the photo of the B-19 shows it in its "B-19A" configuration, with paired Allison V-3420 engines. A modification done in 1943 that apparently greatly improved performance. Some sources (See Gunston's December 1991 article in "Aeroplane Monthly" magazine) say that in this guise it saw widespread use as a freighter until the end of the war.
Landing the plane looks like a great way to give the crew airsickness.
The b 19 is like the b 17's big brother
Not only because looks like the b 17 but bigger, but the b 36 is bigger by as much as the b 29 is bigger than the b 17
0:10 The Hughes H-4 wasnt a bomber, it was a transport flying boat.
ys we know but it was a bigger aircraft which was the point of mentioning it...
neither was the spruce goose, he's just talking about planes by size
".... was the largest and heaviest bomber built until 1946 when it was surpassed by the Hughes H4 Hercules, the Spruce Goose and the Convair B36 Peacemaker."
The H4 Hercules is the Spruce Goose.
Howard's over size model airplane to show he could do it. Must be a job keeping the termites away down in SoCal.
@@pibbles-a-plenty1105 I think his general idea was if it failed it wouldn't be from a lack of effort/resources
and yep I imagine pest control is a major budget item in the hanger
What is it about the planes of WW2 and the 30s that make them so beautiful
It's art deco
the nice thumbnail you know that's a female spider sweet the white one is male, but in Australia the white one is poisonous yes opposite
@@chain3519 that's gotta be the answer I love their designs
@@cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647 it's a tribute the the 7th Infantry division aka The Black Widows
@Otaku rexsame here dude
If they had left out half the unneeded luxury items the plane might have been capable of a higher speed.
They should have installed Merlin engines. A galley is a mobile kitchen. The term "galley kitchen" is redundant.
In the scifi show Firefly they are scrounging parts in a C5 cockpit and drive by the B19 cockpit and "greenhouse". That so needs to be on display in Dayton, where you can sit on a main landing tire. Never intended for service, it was meant to be a technology demonstrator. It and B15 both flew expedited cargo coast to coast during the war.
The WW2 Australian CAC Boomerang a very rare aircraft, only 250 built.
Bomber of the World! Craig!
The narrator is what I would call a "fast talker!" Imagine that guy selling you an insurance policy!
thanks didnt even know of the b19
4:42 why are you showing a pulsejet engine?
IF NOT FOR THE FACT THAT YOU'RE GETTING SHOT AT ALL THE TIME, THAT TAILGUNNER POSITION WAS A HELL OF A VIEW.
Iv touched that huge piece or rubber so many times over the years and never fully understood, that’s awesome!
I have a still picture of the B-19 in a 1042 copy of " Wings For Reading " a schoolbook from the old days .
I wonder what a fleet of XB-19s capable of running bombing raids from Hawaii to Japan would have done to the strategy of the Pacific Theater in WWII?
They are basically oversized B-17’s at this point, they are slow cannot fly as high as a B-29 and are bigger
I think Japan would have sunken into the Pacific Ocean if we took a fleet of 30 XB19’s and bombed the shit out of Japan.
@4:01 shows women riveting what looks like a dang bridge truss. Good lord man.
That was ship yard footage. This guy should not be making videos at all!
@@Ka9radio_Mobile9 Let's see you do a better job.
There is only so much stock footage of the era to work with.
He could at least use stock footage of planes.
@@kmcgovern2012 he did that's most of the video's footage. The real issue is that if he used all aircraft footage someone would complain it's not all of the subject plane in the specific video. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
In the SiFi show Firefly they go looking for parts and drive past the cockpit section in Davis Monthan, it's a shame that's not on display somewhere. There is a tire in Dayton you can sit on.
...The "Looney Tunes" cartoons "Falling Hare" and "Hare Lift" just passed through my mind because of XB-19 silhouette...
Do a video on the Lockheed P-2 Neptune .... KING OF THE SEA !
Interesting, but I do wonder what the footage of German V1 pulse jet engines is doing there!
Awesome! Thank you!
Interesting vid, one suggestion though: don't be afraid to use static images like drawings, photo's and blueprints of the *actual* subject, instead of filler footage from other out-of-context planes. Also, I think the Great Depression was already well under way when development of the XB19 started.
These videos would be more effective if the video content actually matched the spoken word content. For example: at time stamp .23 we are treated to line drawings of the B-36 during a discussion of the B-19. If this video was a school class project it would get an D- with note that it needs more work.
That's a good name, the B-19 Guardian.
5:25 - "During the early days of 1937..."
5:51 - "Then the Great Depression hit..."
5:56 - "By 1938..."
--The Depression hit in 1928. Do you guys even want to APPEAR to be credible?--
TH-cam-itis. Publish or die. Just a good story, don't worry about facts.
One watches Dark Skies for entertainment, not education.
@@Thomasnmi Agreed, but with how often the channel's focus is on WW2 era aviation that's a glaringly/distractingly stupid mistake. It was a pointless aside in the video even if it had been correct but placing the depression a year before the start of WW2 is unforgivably stupid ...like saying we won the war in '55, the moon landing was '79 (...shows a Gemini Titan II instead of the Saturn V), the fall of Saigon '85, the Berlin wall came down in '99 (shows the Kennedy "Ich bin ein Berliner..." speech), the dissolution of the Soviet Union was in 2001, and that 9/11 was only ten years ago.
I first heard about this plane on the 1980wcversion of Ripley's Believe It Or Not! It never saw action in World Wr II and the program was cancelled in 1949.
A Dark Skies video on the Draken would be cool.
I'd like to see a story about the 1971 Piper 140. The best low winged trainer ever made until now.
The Great Depression had already hit long before the project began.
Agreed. Suggesting Douglas was hit by the depression in 1937 is just silly.
Wow the mighty B19, what an amazing bomber...very B29 looking but actually an inspiration for the B29 not a copy
At 0+24 shows the plan drawings for B-36 while speaking of XB-19 ...
Wow. LOTS of random footage of B-17's (and the earlier XB-15) and B-24's, being presented as the B-19...but actually aircraft which had NOTHING to do with Douglas' XB-19.
keep's ya sharp! . . . . . . . whosh! . . Yaaa, Go Snoopy!
The TU-95 must've been inspired by this beast!
The TU-95 is based on the TU-4 which was a direct copy (reverse engineered) of the B-29. It is the super forts bastard child.
@@navyreviewer it isnt based on the Tu-4
The landing gear wheels are NOT the only surviving piece of this aircraft!
I had no idea you did old warbirds too... hooray for "suggested videos" popping up this morning :D Strange they didn't try the double-wasp majors later on to solve the lack of power problem before they gave up on it.
Imagine, you're flying at 30 thousand feet, and all the sudden the wings start flapping 30 feet up and 30 feet down.
Good Lord showing people riveting steel trusses, post war captured V-1 pulse jets, plywood wing construction of the Spruce Goose. A total travesty of the great story of the XB-19. 3/4 of the film didn't mean anything about the bomber.
He does this with a lot of his films. Very annoying.
Can you do the avro arrow please?
17 ft props...holy shit that's big
Very interesting. Everything that followed had to have some kind of input from this bomber? The tires are unreal... WOW...
Great video!
I'd love to see a video/s on Australian CAC aircraft. Wirraway, Boomerang, Kangaroo and CA-27 Sabre. A CAC Sabre struck power lines and managed to return to base, that aircraft is in a museum now I believe.
It would be interesting to have heard some commentary as to it's stability given the obvious porpoising on landing. I think you ignored the elephant in the room.
I'm glad someone else noticed. For such a huge heavy aircraft, it looked so unstable in pitch.
The "porpoising" on both take-off and landing of the first trial flight was due to the pilot coming to terms with the huge aircraft having a long delay between application of controls and the aircraft responding. Once this was understood pilots learnt not to over-compensate. - "You soon learnt to turn corners before you got there" - said Stanley Ulmstead, test pilot for the B-19 - See Bill Gunston's article "A Monster from Santa Monica" in the December 1991 edition of Aeroplane Monthly magazine.
The very accurate, wordy description makes me think they've done this for blind aviation enthusiasts.
Worldwide Prestige
I think Bugs Bunny test flew one of these once...
All of them cover all of them
I really enjoy your videos but the epic music was a little overpowering and distracting. Please do whatever you used to do. ☺️
Cool! I'd never heard of this one.
Your next video should be on the General Motors/Fisher Xp-75 Eagle, shared the same Allison-V3420 engine. Which for all you engine buffs is basically 2 Allison V1710's that share a common block, most the parts were interchangeable with the 1710. The crankshaft's were geared together to a single output prop shaft. Very rare engine only about 125-150 were ever made.
The guardian on the hemisphere. Just think about that title for a minute.
Report on Mosquito F for Freddie. The bomber that survived the most missions in WW2, at 213. Crashed in Canada after returning home to support the drive for war bonds.
Love the show.
Love your videos bro
Cool bomber history👍
One of the stars of the Disney Chipmunks movie was still able to get a job as narrator of this video.
I just got my second vaccine and it hit hard, so I binge watched/listened to all of these videos, god help me
..have you watched anymore recently??!
OF COURSE I HAVE, ARE YOU A MANIAC?!!?
I remember seeing a photo in a publication (Air Power, I think) showing the runway collapsed from the weight , under a main landing wheel.....
A full squadron of these aircraft would have easily made it to Japan directly from Hawaii and then landing in friendly China in early 1942 effectively making the Doolittle Raid unecessary.