As per my usual wait for 500 or more views with no right answers, here is the rest of the story, as the late radio announcer Paul Harvey used to say. Wow, that sure dates me!
In 1940 with World War II ongoing in Europe, German submarines (U-boats: Unterseeboots in Deutsch) were detected off America's east coast, even though we were not yet at war. The US Navy felt the solution to guarding America's east coast and the Gulf of Mexico shores would be long range giant flying-boat bombers, similar to Boeing's flying Clippers. The Navy ordered 57 flying-boat bombers to be built by Boeing. A new plant was built at Renton, Washington adjacent Lake Washington to build these aircraft. The prototype first flew in July 1942, but the War Department revised their strategy based upon America's Pacific War entry with Japan's 7 December 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor from aircraft carrier-based aircraft. Only one flying-boat XPBB-1 bomber was built by Boeing.
Here are the quiz answers:
1. Builder-Boeing.
2. Nomenclature-Boeing XPBB-1.
3. Model name-SEA RANGER.
4. Month and year of first flight-July 1942.
5. How many produced-One, which inevitably became known as the Lone Ranger.
6. Bonus: The wing was based upon the Boeing B-29 SuperFortress wing and some aerodynamics were from the famous Boeing Model 314 Clippers.
The Renton plant was subsequently used to build over 1,000 B-29s and later C-135 jet tanker/transports and B707 jet airliners.
XPBB-SEA RANGER specs and performance
Powerplant: Two Wright R-3350-8 piston engines of 2,300 Hp each, mounted fairly inboard on the wings which had fixed outer sponsons.
Length: 94'9"
Wingspan: 139'9"
Height: 34'2"
Gross weight: 101,130 lbs
Max speed: 215 mph
Crew: 10
Defensive armament: four machine guns, two in a nose ball turret and two in a dorsal turret.
Bomb Bay load-greater than a B-29's.
The XPBB Sea Ranger was NOT amphibious. Seaplane hull only.
The sole XPBB-1 was initially "mothballed", then scrapped, never to fly a war mission. I have photos of the Sea Ranger in flight and in motion in water, but cannot for others' copyright reasons show them here.
