All that remains of the 17 of these built is the fuselage of this machine.

RB-1 Conestoga steel transport aircraft interestingly seen with several Fairchild AT-21 Gunners. Photo from: Hagley Museum and Library

The Budd Company from Philadelphia was a leader in welded steel and its application in trains and cars. As a precaution against aluminum shortages, the US military awarded them contracts for a steel transport aircraft during World War II. The Conestoga was of modern configuration but unsurprisingly it was heavy and sluggish. Seventeen RB-1s were still completed for the US Navy and some of these saw use with civil operators. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Ex US Navy 39303, one of 14 acquired by National Skyway Freight Corp. in June 1945. In February 1947 the company became The Flying Tiger LIne, but their fleet of Conestogas was soon phased out. At the time of the photo this example had been sold to the Tucker Motor Co. Fate unknown.

the aircraft entered service with the US Navy in October 1944 as 39307. the type was designated as C-93. To National Skyway Freight/Flying Tiger Line in July 1945 as NC33308. Not taken up by Aerovias Q as CU-C-495. To an unknown owner around 1948 as XB-DUZ. Seized in the mid-1960's for smuggling at Douglas-Bisbee (KDUG). It was placed in open storage at Douglas for a long time before being sold at an auction. The buyer donated the frame to the museum. In March 2020 it was photographed in pieces in the restoration area.

The sole surviving RB-1 Conestoga twin-engined cargo transport. Built in 1944 for US Navy. Three prototypes and 17 production aircraft - this one as serial Bu39307. With increased US production of aluminium, the use of heavier stainless steel in aircraft became unnecessary and further large orders for the type by the USN and USAAF were cancelled. Flew as XB-DUZ postwar.

Being of stainless steel construction, this aircraft will never show corrosion.

BuNo 39307. Strange looking airplane at the Pima Air & Space Museum.

XB-DUZ at the Pima Air and Space Museum. All stainless steel aircraft produced in the mid-1940's