july 2016 AH 13OPPOSITE: (TOP) NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM, (BOTTOM) TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, URBAN ARCHIVES, PHILADELPHIA, PA; RIGHT: SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
easy access The RB-1’s
retractable loading ramp
was an enduring innovation.out any loss of their tensile
strength or rust-resisting
properties. The welded sheets
also demonstrated twice the
strength of riveted structures.
In 1934 Budd won acclaim
when it used its shot-welding
technique to build the stain-
less steel cars for the nation’s
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train, the revo lutionary
Burlington Zephyr.
Budd had also been
branching out into aircraft
manufacturing. In 1931 the
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Italian Savoia-Marchetti
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ricated using shot-welded
stainless steel. Known as
the BB-1 Pioneer, the air-
craft failed to garner any
sales or production orders,
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1,000 hours in the U.S. and
Europe before being donated
to the Franklin Institute
in Philadelphia, where it
remains on display today.
The Pioneer was the only
airplane Budd produced until
1942, when it contracted with
the Navy to develop a cargo
plane manufactured entirely
out of shot-welded stainless
steel. Dubbed the Conestoga
by the builder, Budd’s design
resulted in a 200-plane order
from the Navy under the des-
ignation RB-1. The Army Air
Forces also became interested,
ordering 600 aircraft under its
own designation, C-93.
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Halloween 1943, the RB-
was a twin-engine, high-
wing monoplane. The only
exceptions to its stainless
steel construction were the
fabric-covered trailing edges
of the outer wing panels. The
Conestoga had a wingspan
of 100 feet, and was 68 feet
long and 38 feet 9 inches
high. The aircraft featuredsemi-retractable tricycle land-
ing gear, with the retracted
nosewheel protruding slightly
beneath the forward fu-
selage. Power was provided
by a pair of 1,200-hp Pratt
& Whitney R-1830 Twin
Wasp air-cooled radials. The
Conestoga weighed 20,
pounds empty and could take
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loaded. In place of cargo,
it could accommodate 24
fully equipped paratroops or
evacu ate 24 stretcher cases.
Although the Conestoga
was considered odd-looking
in its day, it included a num-
ber of advanced design fea-
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three-man cockpit was raised
above the fuselage, leaving
an unobstructed 25-foot-long
cargo area. The upswept
tail with a retractable ramp,
another revo lutionary feature
at the time, facilitated cargo
loading and allowed vehicles
to be driven directly on or
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basic layout of the Con-
estoga’s fuselage was not
unlike some cargo aircraft
developed years later,
including Fairchild’s C-
Provider and Lockheed’s
C-130 Hercules.
The Conestoga’s struc-
tural strength earned it high
marks, but pilots claimed itshandling was reminiscent of
the railroad cars its makers
were more accustomed to
producing. Though powered
by the same engines used
in Douglas’ C-47, the RB-
weighed 3,000 pounds more
empty, making it relatively
underpowered and less fuel
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turned out to be more expen-
sive to produce than the C-47.
Another complaint was
the deafening noise level
inside the RB-1’s voluminous
stainless steel fuselage, which
acted like an echo chamber.
One former crewmember
described it as like being
inside a bass drum.
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aircraft aluminum turned
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assembly lines by the thou-
sands. As a result, the Army
canceled its C-93 order and
the Navy reduced its RB-
order to 25 airplanes, of
which only 17 were delivered.
Although the Conestoga
was the Budd Company’s
last foray into aircraft manu-
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railway coaches until 1978,when it was taken over by
the German Thyssen
Allgemeine Gesellschaft.
During the 1980s the com-
pany was reorganized, clos-
ing down its Philadelphia
facility and phasing out rail-
road car production, but
it remained in business in
Troy, Mich., manufacturing
auto body components.
Most of the 17 Conestogas
built went straight from the
manufacturer to storage.
Soon after the war ended, the
War Assets Administration
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surplus. Fourteen were
purchased by the National
Skyway Freight Corporation,
later known as the Flying
Tiger Line, for use as com-
mercial air freighters until the
early 1950s. A few found their
way to South America, con-
tinuing to serve as freighters.
A single surviving example
of the Budd Conestoga can
be seen today at the Pima Air
Museum in Tucson, Ariz.,
where it is currently await-
ing restoration. the RB-
conestoga
turned out
to be more
expensive
to produce
than the
douglas c-47.