Today we’re looking at the Douglas B-23 Dragon. This was developed from the lackluster B-18 Bolo, and while it may have been outclassed as a bomber, it became a somewhat exclusive luxury transport for company executives in the 1950s and 1960s. Several Dragons survive today, and they are considered as some of the most beautiful aircraft of their day.
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Producing these videos is a hobby of mine – and apparently its now a full-time job too! I have a passion for history, and personally own a large collection of books, journals and other texts, and endeavor to do as much research as possible. However if there are any mistakes, please don’t hesitate to reach out and correct anything 🙂
Sources:
Francillon. R(1988), McDonnel Douglas Aircraft Since 1920: Vol 1.
Smoke Jumper Magazine, Oct 2014, ‘Lloyyd Johnson tells true story of Loon Lake bomber crash’.
Jesse, William (1999), ‘Short-lived Dragon: The Douglas B-23’. Air Enthusiast (81)
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F.A.Q Section
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips 🙂
Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
Feel free to leave you questions below – I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open 🙂
Odd, bc of a comment thread where we were discussing the large, Boeing-like tail of the B-23, I got out my Jane’s Encyclo of Aviation to have a look, which stated the B-18 was based on the DC-3! Since the Air Force Museum, Boeing, Military History, Rex, and of course Wikipedia, all state it was based on the DC-2 (also, the timeline would be pretty tight, the DC-3 being built in the Fall of 1934, whereas the first flight of the Bolo was in 1935), I found my first Jane’s error! In fairness, Jane’s states the DC-3 was an enlarged DC-2 (with a different wing, not very minor), so maybe the writer used some liberties in interpolation.
What does this have to do with the B-23? Nothing, I guess. As Rex said, the B-23 was a redesign of the B-18 but took elements from the DC-3, like the wing. I thought the Dragon’s tail might have been transferred from the DC-3 as well, but they aren’t similar and the B-23’s is 1.5’ taller. The B-23’s R2600s are quite a bit more powerful than the DC-3’s R1830s, might this contribute to the larger tail?
Sorry, this turned into a rabbit hole.
Thank you for another interesting video
this plane is the story of so many other interwar planes: it just wasn’t much of an improvement over what it replaced and was already being supplanted by better designs that proved themselves
Very interesting. I've never heard of this aircraft before. Always something new to learn about in regards to pre-WW 2 aircraft designs.
It is impressive when you consider that 9 of the small production run of 38 survive. That's nearly a quarter of them!
Always thought there were nice looking aircraft.
I remember coming across a toy B-23 as a kid. To me, it looked like a botched B-17, with only 2 engines. It wasn't until much later that I learned about the B-23. That huge, sweeping tail still says, 'B-17' to me.
😂 looks like a chibi b-17
Flying down to Rio …
I thought this was the model we let be licensed to Russia for WWII who did two changes too all in production of adding the de-icing and a three fin tail to the model/ I thought then some were modified to be used also as a fighter plane for some still having the tail gunner/side gunners with a short nose in metal to have the pilot use the gun. with any extra space in nose not used by ammo was used for fuel with extra pilot who would go down to reload the ammo in front for the main pilot. The guns were different, what Russia had to work with already in military use but a similar equivalent. They were all called YB-23 Dragons by Russian military, the ones they used.
The excellent 1991 Disney film "Rocketeer" includes a Howard Hughes character who flies an actual, plushed-out B-23. This is but one small point of the great art direction of this fine film.
When I first found this channel I thought I had better than average knowledge of WW1 and WWII aircraft, you have proven me wrong. You continually amaze me with the beauties you bring to light. Keep em coming!
a lovely plane indeed…
You forgot to mention the B-23 joining the B-18 for Anti-Submarine Patrols off of the US Coast(s)~
A beautiful airplane. Too bad things moved too fast for this design.
The American He 111
Thanks Rex for the numbers in the Metric system. But if you just add the numbers on the screen, you don't have to read them out as well. Might be too many figures at the same time. I knew naught of this aircraft. Nice!
I saw a B-23 at an airshow in Livermore, CA back in the early 80s. It was a beautiful aircraft, restored in original Air Corps livery as I recall. I had never seen one before nor even heard of it even though being an aircraft nerd I thought I knew every plane that had ever graced the skies for the military so I was quite intrigued when I saw it. I've never forgotten it.
Sometimes the lesser known about can be better at unforeseen tasks
Would you ever consider the Fisher XP-75 Eagle at some point? Its got a few weird aspects to it. Cheers to whatever is next.
Please do a piece on the Loon lake dragon. I have been there and it’s a humbling sight, especially if you know the story of the crews survival.
Rex, Douglas dc5 / R4D 😉
Very informative as usual. Basically a good plane that is essentially forgotten today.
That tail is ridiculous lol
Its seems early aircraft designers didn't understand the benefits of streamlining very well.
Being that they had formidable range, I wonder if they were considered for anti-sub work?
You'd almost think this came from the same folks that drew the B-17.
I actually had a magazine many years ago with a brief article on this aircraft titled "The Reluctant Dragon". I agree that it was one of the best looking aircraft of its era.
That is an absolutely beautiful looking plane.
"Impromptu logging operation" is a great line
FAR TOO MANY ADVERTS _ UNSUBSCIBED
9:00 This doesn’t sound right. Howard Hughes owned TWA which was a rival to Pan Am.
I really hate how little love and representation inter war military aircraft get, and how often anything besides the big names gets swept to the side in terms of media exposure. I understand that they won't really have the same level of interest because they saw no combat or very little of it. I just want there to be more variety and instead of making things up or just using napkin blueprints (looking at you WG), we could really flesh out content in games with more of these, and have more stories for movies or add more content to minor or short stories with the less prominent. A shot of these dragons picking up gliders without landing, or top down of them gathering reconnaissance over a battlefield would be beautiful for wartime films. Unfortunately, with each passing decade, there's just fewer and fewer survivors to have real footage of old birds in flight. CGI is great, but a real shot can be felt through the screen.
I got to fly one of these back in the 1980’s. It was a nice pleasant flying bird.
Hi Rex, I'd give this video a Like+ if it exists in YT! What is those openings forward the main wheels?! Some sort of coolers?!
Ah, I have a son who is a pilot and we share an interest in historical aviation. Thanks for this, as always well done.
Always thought it would be interesting if the United States had to do with Germany did converting airliners into bombers and the like ( P-40 being advanced/improved like the Bf 109 was )
The love child of a DC-3 and an A-26. That would also be incest 😍😜
Dude, you are crushing it! Keep up the good and obscure work!
"Mr B-23, it seems we've finally found something you do well!"
If you had told me as a ten year old that there was such a thing as a B-23, I would have looked at you real funny. Things we learn!
Opening the bomb-bay doors was also quite useful for disposing of any awkward passengers.
"Anyone else want to drop out?"
this is a comment
Thanks. This definitely put me in the "what if" mode. Still, I think the Martin Baltimore and Douglas A-20, both of which were very much contemporary, were better overall. Wait a year and B-25's and 26's are on the horizon. Design competition is good and hindsight is 20-20.