Today In History:  07 September  [1942]   --  First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator

The Dominator was an American heavy strategic bomber built for USAAF during WW2, which had the distinction of being the last Allied aircraft to be engaged in combat during the war; that engagement also resulted in the last American to die in air combat in WW2. It was developed by Consolidated Aircraft in parallel with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress as a fallback design should the B-29 prove unsuccessful.
The B-32 reached units in the Pacific only in mid-May 1945, and subsequently saw only limited combat operations against Japanese targets before the formal end of the war on 2 September 1945. Only 118 B-32s were built.

PHOTO: Consolidated B-32-1-CF

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain  via Wikimedia.