Douglas B-18 Bolo (8517)

This aircraft was developed to replace the Martin B-10 and was based on the Douglas DC-2 commercial transport. It competed with an early version of the Boeing B-17 and won out. By 1939 it was considered to be underpowered, to have inadequate defensive armament and carried too small a bomb load. Some were destroyed at Pearl Harbor and in 1942 were relegated to anti-submarine or transport duty. A B-18 was the first American aircraft to sink a U-Boar. This is the oldest aircraft in the Castle Air Museum collection, built in 1938.