The American Bomber Of Germany's Dreams: Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

Video Description

In this video, we take a look at the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, an American bomber and attack aircraft project from the middle of World War II. We first talk about the pursuit of the Schnellbomber, or fast bomber, and the problems the concept experienced. We talk about how Germany was the primary pursuer of the concept, and how America went the opposite route with large, lumbering bombers. We then talk about how the Douglas Aircraft Company, privately, ventured to make a fast bomber Germany could only have dreamt of. We talk about the surprisingly rapid progress of the XB-42 project, given its strange design that was in a similar vein to the Bell P-39 Airacobra and the Dornier Do 335. We talk about its strong flight performance out of the gate, how that performance improved, and how the project began to peter out with the end of WW2. We talk about the project's shift over to jet power, in the mixed-power XB-42A and the jet-powered XB-43 Jetmaster. We talk about how its performance and specs in the few years after WW2, despite improving, became far less impressive, and how that led to the project's quiet end.