RB Conestoga

The RB-1 Conestoga was a twin-engine, stainless steel cargo aircraft designed during World War II by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although it did not see wartime service, it incorporated many innovations found in later military cargo aircraft.

Origins

World War II created a great demand for military transport planes in the United States. Because of initial fears of a shortage of aluminum, the U.S. Military explored the use of other materials for aircraft construction. Budd, the developer of the shotweld technique for welding stainless steel and a manufacturer of stainless steel railroad cars, automobile, bus, and truck bodies, hired an aeronautical engineering staff and worked with the U.S. Army and U. S. Navy to develop a new twin-engine transport plane. The Navy accepted the proposal for the new stainless steel aircraft, and placed an order for 200, to be designated RB-1. The Army followed with an order for 600, designated C-93.

The Conestoga was a twin-engine high-wing monoplane with tricycle landing gear. The elevated flight deck was contained in a distinctive, almost spherical nose section. Its two 1,200 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 air cooled 14-cylinder, twin-row, radial engines drove three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed, full-feathering propellers and powered a 24-volt electrical system.

Military history

The RB-1 first flew on October 31, 1943. During testing the prototype crashed, and the testing pilot reported that the stainless steel construction of the plane contributed to saving his life. The RB-1 had poor flying characteristics and there were construction delays due to cost overruns and problems with stainless steel fabrication. Aluminum production had become more plentiful by this time in the war, and other more conventional cargo planes (such as the Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando and the Douglas C-47 Skytrain) were being produced in large numbers. This caused the Army to cancel its order and the Navy to reduce its order from 200 to 25, of which 17 were delivered in March 1944.

These RB-1s never entered squadron service with the Navy, but a few were issued to Naval Air Stations as utility aircraft.

Civilian history

In 1945, the extant RB-1s had been transferred to the War Assets Administration (WAA) to be sold as war surplus. The WAA sold 14 Conestogas to the National Skyway Freight Corp as cargo aircraft for $28,642 each at a time when new C-47s were selling for approximately $100,000 each. The new company, founded by members of the AVG Flying Tigers struggled financially, shipping fruit and furniture from its base in Long Beach, California. There were at least three crashes of the Conestogas while in service with National Skyway Freight, one each in Virginia, Tennessee, and New Mexico.

In 1947 the Army (and later the Air Force) gave to National Skyway Freight a large contract for trans-Pacific freight, for which it leased military aircraft. The company changed its name to Flying Tiger and replaced the RB-1s with C-47s for its US freight routes. One of the remaining Budds was sold to the Tucker Motor Company to transport its demonstration car to auto shows around the U.S.

Innovations

The RB-1 was radical for its day, introducing many of the features now standard in military transports. The flight deck could accommodate three crew members, pilot and copilot side-by-side, the navigator behind them. Stairs connected the flight deck to the cargo area, which was 25 feet long with an unobstructed cross-section of 8 x 8 feet (2.4m) throughout its length. Cargo loading and unloading could be accomplished in two ways: through 40 x 60 inch (102 x 152 cm) doors on both sides of the fuselage or by an electrically operated 10 x 8 foot (3.0 x 2.4 m) ramp at the aft end of the cargo area under the upswept tail. The loading ramp, accessed by manually operated clam-shell doors, along with the tricycle landing gear, meant cargo could be loaded/unloaded at truck-bed height. A manually-operated two-ton (907 kg) hoist for unloading trucks and a one-ton winch for pulling cargo up the ramp were also provided in the cargo area. The aircraft could accommodate

• 24 paratroopers, or
• 24 stretchers and 16 sitting wounded, or
• 9,600 pounds of cargo, or
• a 1-1/2 ton truck, or
• the largest ambulance in use by the U.S. military.

Specifications

• Wing Span: 100 feet (30.48 meters)
• Length: 68 feet (20.73 meters)
• Height: 31 feet 9 inches (9.68 meters)
• Wing Area: 1,400 square feet (130.06 square meters)
• Empty Weight: 20,156 pounds (9,143 kg)
• Gross Weight: 33,860 pounds (15,359 kg)
• Fuel Capacity 994 U.S. gallons (3,763 liters)
• Maximum Speed: 197 mph at 7,500 feet (317 km/h at 2,286 meters)
• Cruising Speed: 165 mph (265.5 km/h)
• Maximum cruising range: 1,620 miles (2,607 km)

References

• Jane, Fred T. “The Budd Conestoga.” Jane’s Fighting Aircraft of World War II. London: Studio, 1946. p. 212-213. ISBN 1 85170 493 0.

External links

• History
• Editorial
• Pacific Aviation

See also

• List of military aircraft of the United States
• List of military aircraft of the United States (naval)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "RB Conestoga".