Given the unheard-of performance that was expected from this airplane, the companies involved weren’t exactly falling all over each other to present their ideas. “Jack” Northrop, the founder of the company, had been experimenting with flying wing designs since 1923 and had flown the N-1M flying wing demonstrator in 1940. Northrop had specifically been told to approach the project from a different angle-to develop a proposal based on its flying wing concepts. From the outset, Douglas’ participation was limited to development and testing of the experimental Allison V3420 V24 engine for use as a bomber power plant. Consolidated had its plate full, too, with PBYs and B-24s in production and the XB-32-a backup design to the B-29-under development. For Boeing, the situation was toughest: In addition to the urgent priority assigned to the XB-29 program, it was tooling up to build B-17s by the thousands. “Hap” Arnold and his band of idea men, felt that if anybody was able to close this technology gap, the four companies selected to participate in this project could do it. The Army Air Corps (soon to become the virtually autonomous U.S. Needless to say, the technology for such an aircraft did not exist at the time. It would be expected to perform this mission while cruising 275 mph at 25,000 feet, and be able, over shorter distances, to carry an additional bombload of up to 72,000 pounds. The competition called for an aircraft with a maximum speed of 450 mph, an operational ceiling of 45,000 feet and a combat radius, with 10,000-pound bombload, in excess of 5,000 miles.
to solicit proposals for an all-new bomber design. Army Air Corps officials met in secret with the Boeing Airplane Company, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, Douglas Aircraft Company and Northrop Aircraft Inc. What was needed was a bomber of truly intercontinental range, one capable of reaching targets in Europe or Asia from bases within the North American continent. The Boeing XB-29, even if it achieved its projected performance, would be of little value without overseas bases. These international conditions imposed upon the American military planning establishment a serious dilemma. It was entirely possible, therefore, that the United States would soon find itself completely hemmed in by hostile nations, with no access to operating bases outside the Western Hemisphere. On the other side of the world, Japan had already conquered one-third of China and clearly had designs on French Indochina and the rest of the Pacific Rim. The Germans had been stopped at the English Channel the previous summer, but they and their Italian allies had nearly pushed the British out of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, the gateway to the Middle East and India. In mid-941, it looked as if the Axis powers might sweep over the entire Eurasian landmass. military was convinced in 1941 that an intercontinental bomber was desperately needed.
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