This press photograph of two B-32s was originally captioned, “new headaches for the Mikado"!
The fourth production B-32-1-CF, 42-108474, photographed at Davis-Monthan AFB during the late Forties. This aircraft was earmarked for preservation at the Air Force Museum but it was scrapped in August 1949.
The Lady is Fresh begins her take-off roll for the first B-32 combat mission, on May 29, 1945.
Ground personnel inspect Hobo Queen II soon after its arrival at Clark Field on May 24, 1945. Note the crewman standing in the open navigator’s observation hatch.
Early photograph of 42-108531, one of the three Dominators assigned to the B-32 combat test. Note that the aircraft has not yet been fitted with the many nose-mounted communications, navigation and ECM antennae characteristic of combat-equipped B-32s.
These Dominators undergoing final assembly at Consolidated’s Fort Worth plant were never delivered to the USAAF. When the B-32 programme was terminated they were scrapped on site by the contractor.
The venerable Hobo Queen II at Yontan after its nosewheel collapsed on October 10, 1945.
After sustaining fairly heavy damage during the August 17 duel over Tokyo, 42-108539 was relegated to “hangar queen ” status and cannibalised for parts. Here she sits beside a taxi strip at Yontan, Okinawa, with only one engine and propeller still intact.
The remains of B-32 42-108544 lying in a coral pit at the end of the Yontan runway after the August 28 crash. All 13 aboard were killed.
