The Douglas XB-43 was the first American jet bomber. It was developed from the XB-42 Mixmaster twin-engined bomber, with turbojet engines replacing the twin inline piston engines.

The XB-43 Jetmaster, dating from 1943, was intended to replace the Douglas A-26 Invader.

Before its maiden flight, all planned purchases for production aircraft had been dropped in favor of the North American B-45. The XB-43 prototypes were used for testing.

Versatile II (featured here) flew more than 300 hours until its retirement in late 1953. The Air Force transferred the Versatile II to the Smithsonian in June 1954.