B19 First Flight

[seacue]

http://users.erols.com/rcarpen/B19first.jpg

Flightline II - B-19 (http://www.coastcomp.com/av/fltline2/b19.htm)
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[411A]

My Dad was a design engineer at Douglas during the B-19 project, altho he mostly worked on the civil side...DC3/4....later on, DC6/7.
Make no mistake, this was a very large aeroplane.
When it was first rolled out onto the ramp at Clover Field, it cracked the concrete in several places.
It was not an especially efficient design, however, rather slow and underpowered.

[mustpost]

Thanks for this reminder, seacue, upon checking the contents of another letter are fascinating - this was an awful lot of metal which needed shaping..

Enclosed is a personal/business letter from the vice president of Keystone, a tool and supply contractor, to the president of Heller Brothers, a manufacturer of files used in building the plane, the contractor noting that "inasmuch as there was just a "helluva" lot of Heller Files used in the manufacturing of the Super-Giant ship, and as it is going to be our endeavor to see that Heller Tools are used in the construction of the duplication of this great ship, we know you will appreciate receiving this letter that traveled to you on the initial flight."


http://www.check-six.com/images/Museum/b19a.jpg

But - There were over 75,000 of the covers flown on the first flight of the Douglas B-19, and was a part of the largest single special airmail cargo of the time