page_title: Douglas B-18 Bolo
section_title: Aircraft on display
hierarchical_section_title: Douglas B-18 Bolo / Aircraft on display
caption_attribution_description: English: Douglas B-18 Bolo at Castle Air Museum Atwater
context_page_description: The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American medium bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, based on its DC-2, and was developed to replace the Martin B-10.
  By 1940, it was considered to be underpowered, to have inadequate defensive armament, and to carry too small a bomb load. Many were destroyed during the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines in December 1941.
  In 1942, the surviving B-18s were relegated to antisubmarine, transport duty, and training. A B-18 was one of the first American aircraft to sink a German U-boat, U-654 on 22 August 1942 in the Caribbean.
context_section_description: Only six B-18s still exist, five of them preserved or under restoration in museums in the United States:
  B-18
  36-446 – Kohala Mountains, Hawaii. Tail code "81 50R". Crash-landed due to engine failure on February 25, 1941. Crew was rescued and the aircraft was abandoned; it remains in a gulch on private land. The Air Force later recovered the nose turret for 37-029 and the dorsal turret for 37-469. There have been plans to recover the aircraft for the Pacific Air Museum in Honolulu.
  37-029 – Castle Air Museum at the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California.  Dropped from USAAF inventory in 1944, it was registered as NC52056 in 1945, later to N52056. The B-18 was used by Avery Aviation and then Hawkins and Powers, as a firebomber, dropping borate for many years.
  B-18A
  37-469 – National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. One of the first production Bolos, was delivered to Wright Field in 1937 for evaluation testing. Sold as N56847, converted to crop sprayer; by May 1969 stored derelict at Tucson, Arizona. It sat outdoors for many years before being restored to static display condition.  This aircraft has an incorrect dorsal turret. The museum has been attempting to locate a correct turret for this aircraft for many years.
  39-025 – Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum at the former Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. This Bolo spent World War II at several airfields as a bombardier trainer and as a light transport. It was dropped from inventory on 3 November 1944, and was later sold, acquiring the civil registry NC62477. It spent 14 years on the civil registry before going to Cuba in 1958. In November 1958 the aircraft was seized in Florida by US Treasury agents when it was hauling guns to Fidel Castro. In 1960, the aircraft was parked at Cannon AFB, New Mexico, until being presented to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB. It flew to the museum in April 1961. In 1988, the aircraft was transferred to the Wings Over The Rockies Aviation and Space Museum where it was restored though the 1990s. It is displayed there as AAC Ser. No. 39-522.
  B-18B
  37-505 – At the McChord Air Museum, McChord AFB, Washington. Sold as  N67947, then Mexican registration XB-JAJ. Acquired by Tucson Air Museum Foundation of Tucson, Arizona and stored at Watsonville, California. This was the last flyable B-18, making its final flight to Tucson on 10 April 1971. At Pima Air & Space Museum in 1973, it was subsequently acquired by the National Museum of the United States Air Force in 1981 and moved to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona for storage, then in 1983 put on display at the McChord Air Museum. Access to the McChord Air Museum is currently restricted to military personnel (active, reserve, national guard, retired), and their dependents unless a base visitor pass is acquired in advance.
  38-593 – Pima Air & Space Museum adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. This Bolo spent the early part of WWII on anti-submarine patrol. In 1943 began use a light transport. She was retired and struck from the inventory in 1945. Was operated as a firebomber as N66267, 1954–1970. In storage at Phoenix Goodyear Airport, Litchfield Park, Arizona by September 1969, then delivered to Pima on 5 September 1976. The aircraft sat outside in the desert for many years before being restored and moved indoors for display. The aircraft is still equipped with an antisubmarine search radar dome.
caption: B-18B at Castle Air Museum
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