Douglas B-23 Dragon
The Douglas B-23 Dragon was a twin-engined medium bomber developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company as a successor to the B-18 Bolo, working from the DC-3 airliner. First flown in 1939, it was the first American bomber fitted with a tail gun, but the B-25 Mitchell and B-26 Marauder soon outclassed it and only 38 were built. None saw combat: the type flew patrol, training, transport and test work, eighteen aircraft becoming UC-67 utility transports. Declared surplus after the war, many Dragons flew on as executive transports, and a handful survive today.
Why It Mattered
The B-23 Dragon began as Douglas's attempt to make a modern medium bomber out of the B-18 Bolo, a redesign at first called the XB-22. The Army Air Corps thought well enough of the redesign to order the final 38 B-18As on an existing contract to be finished as B-23s instead. The Pima Air & Space Museum records the Dragon as the first American bomber fitted with a tail gun. But the type appeared just as the North American B-25 Mitchell and Martin B-26 Marauder reset the standard for medium bombers, and production stopped at 38 aircraft. Vintage Aviation News describes the Dragon as a rare link to a transitional period in American bomber development.
Design Notes
This time Douglas worked from the DC-3, and the bomber's wing closely followed the airliner's. Two Wright R-2600-3 radial engines of 1,600 horsepower each gave the aircraft a maximum speed of 282 mph and a cruising speed of 210 mph. The crew numbered six, and the armament was three .30-calibre machine guns and a single .50-calibre gun in the tail. That tail gun sat in a glazed position and was aimed by a gunner in a prone position through a telescopic sight. Vintage Aviation News calls the tail turret a revolutionary design at the time. An internal bomb bay could carry up to 2,000 pounds of bombs.
Operational History
The first B-23 flew on 27 July 1939, and production ran from July 1939 to September 1940. None of the 38 Dragons entered combat, as the Pima Air & Space Museum records. Dragons patrolled for a brief time from the west coast, and otherwise worked mainly as trainers in the United States. Pima records that by mid-1942 all of them had passed to training or transport work. The wartime work also included reconnaissance and test duties. Wikipedia records two testbed uses: one aircraft supported General Electric's turbosupercharger development at Schenectady, New York, and another was used to test cabin pressurisation. Eighteen of the bombers were converted into utility transports and redesignated UC-67, the form in which the type finished its military service.
Afterlife
At the war's end the survivors were all declared surplus, and many began second careers carrying cargo or executives. Pima credits the type's relatively high speed for its popularity in those years as an executive transport and small airliner. Among the private users, the best known was Howard Hughes, who flew a converted Dragon as a personal aircraft. Only a handful of the 38 survive. Fewer than ten are on static display worldwide; they include the UC-67 preserved in Quito, Ecuador, and B-23s at the McChord Air Museum in Washington and the Pima Air & Space Museum in Arizona. Others are stored or in pieces, among them the National Warplane Museum's aircraft at Geneseo, New York, which is complete but still unassembled. Two are being returned toward flight: a former Hughes aircraft with a private owner reappeared at Pearland, Texas, in April 2026 after years of restoration, and the Liberty Foundation is preparing 39-0063 at Moses Lake, Washington, an aircraft Vintage Aviation News calls the only airworthy Dragon remaining in the world.