03/31/2008. Remarks by Jack McKillop: "The USAAS's Engineering Division based at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, acquired two British Bristol F.2b fighters in September 1917. The F.2b was a single-engine, two-seat, biplane fighter and Army co-operation aircraft. The Engineering Division equipped the aircraft with a Liberty 12 liquid-cooled engine but this added 3,600 lb (1,633 kg) to the weight of the aircraft and performance suffered.

The Engineering Division designed a new plywood fuselage and equipped the aircraft with a 325 hp Wright-Hispano H liquid-cooled engine and this aircraft was designated XB-1A. The Engineering Division built four of these aircraft, the first delivered in July 1919. The Army then placed a contract with the Dayton-Wright Co., a division of the General Motors Corp., for 44 XB-1As to be equipped with two and two Lewis 0.30-caliber (7,62 mm) machine guns, two fixed guns firing forward and two flexible guns in the rear cockpit. Two of the aircraft went to the USN.

This XB-1A is shown in the markings of the 13th Squadron, 3d Group (Attack) based at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas. This squadron operated XB-1As in 1921 and 1922."