Curtiss B-2 Condor

A similar arrangement (using nacelle-mounted gun platforms) was adopted in the competing Keystone XB-1 aircraft.

The XB-2 competed for a United States Army Air Corps production contract with the similar Keystone XB-1, Sikorsky S-37, and Fokker XLB-2.

The other three were immediately ruled out, but the Army board appointed to make the contracts was strongly supportive of the smaller Keystone XLB-6, which cost a third as much as the B-2.

However, the superior performance of the XB-2 soon wrought a policy change, and in 1928 a production run of 12 was ordered.

The B-2 was quickly made obsolete by technological advances of the 1930s, and served only briefly with the Army Air Corps, being removed from service by 1934.

Curtiss B-2 Condor formation flight over Atlantic City , N.J. S/N 28-399 is in the foreground (tail section only). Aircraft were assigned to 11th Bombardment Squadron , 7th Bombardment Group at Rockwell Field , California. This flight of 4 aircraft completed cross-country flight to Atlantic City, NJ