B-2 Condor

Curtiss Aircraft's B-2 Condor was a descendant of the Martin NBS-1, which was built by Curtiss for the Glenn L. Martin Company. There were a few differences, such as stronger materials and different engines, but they were not particularly important changes.

Development

The B-2 was a massive canvas biplane. Its twin engines sat in nacelles between the wings, flanking the fuselage. It had a twin set of rudders on a twin tail, which was somewhat antiquated even for the time it was built. At the end of each nacelle was a gunner position. In previous planes, the back-facing gunners had been in the fuselage, but their view there was obstructed. A similar arrangement was adopted in the competing Keystone XB-1.

The XB-2 competed for a production contract with the similar Keystone XB-1, Sikorsky S-37, and Fokker XLB-2. The other three were immediately ruled out, but the Army board appointed to make the contracts were strongly supportive of the smaller Keystone XLB-6, which cost a third as much as the B-2. Furthermore, the B-2 was large for the time and difficult to fit into existing hangars. However, the superior performance of the XB-2 soon wrought a policy change, and in 1928 a production run of 12 was ordered.

A later version of the B-2, dubbed the B-2A, featured dual controls for both the pilot and the copilot. Previously, the control wheel and the pitch controls could only be handled by one person at a time. This 'dual control' setup became standard on all bombers by the 1930s. There was no production line for the B-2A, though a B-2 was converted to follow its setup. The B-2 design was also used as a transport. A version of it was tested as the C-30 Condor.

The B-2 was quickly made obsolete by technological advances of the 1930s, and served only briefly with the Army Air Corps, being removed from service by 1934. Following production of the B-2, Curtiss Aircraft left the bomber business, and concentrated on the Hawk series of Pursuit Aircraft in the 1930s.