page_title: Keystone LB-6
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: Keystone LB-6 / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: Keystone XLB-12 side view
context_page_description: The Keystone LB-6 and LB-7 were 1920s American light bombers, built by the Keystone Aircraft company for the United States Army Air Corps, called Panther by the company, but adoption of the name was rejected by the U.S. Army.
context_section_description: According to an article in the Baltimore Sun the XLB-12 Prototype was used on a refueling and bombing trial in April 1929.
  Big Bomber to be Refueled during Flight
  "The huge twin-motored army bomber (sic) which will take off from Dayton, O., fly to New York City and be refueled while in midair, after which she will drop bomb flares on the city and make a return flight to the Dayton army field. The flight is to be a practicable demonstration by the Army Air Corp of the value of refueling airplanes in the air when engaged in bombing expeditions over a long distance". The aircraft was wrecked in August the same year.
  Eight LB-6s and all operational LB-7s were delivered to the 20th and 96th Bomb Squadrons of the 2nd Bomb Group at Langley Field, Virginia, and the 11th Bomb Squadron of the 7th Bomb Group at Rockwell Field, California, between January and September 1929. The nine remaining LB-6s were sent to the 23rd and 72nd Bomb Squadrons, attached to 5th Composite Group at Luke Field, Hawaii, between July and September 1929. In May 1930 three LB-6s were re-engined to become LB-7s and transferred to the 25th Bomb Squadron of the 6th Composite Group based at France Field in the Panama Canal Zone, where they were all written off in 1931.
  Beginning in March 1931 the surviving bombers in the Continental United States were taken out of front-line service, re-designated the ZLB-6 and ZLB-7, and sent to the 40th School Squadron at Kelly Field, Texas, where all were scrapped or surveyed by April 1935. The Hawaiian LB-6s served until 1934, when they too were surveyed in-situ.
caption: XLB-12 port-side view
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