XB-44 Superfortress

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The Boeing XB-44 was a B-29 Superfortress upgraded with Pratt & Whitney R-4360-33 Wasp Major supercharged radial engines.

First flying in May 1945, the XB-44 proved 50 mph faster than the B-29. Production was planned as the B-29D, but became the B-50 in December 1945. Officially, the aircraft's new designation was justified by the changes separating the B-29D from its predecessors. However, according to Peter M. Bowers, a well-known authority on Boeing aircraft, "the redesignation was an outright military ruse to win appropriations for the procurement of an aeroplane that by its designation appeared to be merely a later version of an existing model that was being canceled wholesale, with many existing examples being put into dead storage."

Source

Knaack, Marcelle Size, "Post-World War II Bombers", Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1988, ISBN 0-912799-59-5, page 163

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