Maybe it is the camera angle but the four engines appear to be tucked in really close to the fuselage, as compared to later heavy bombers. There is a lot of wing outboard of the engines.
“Maybe it is the camera angle but the four engines appear to be tucked in really close to the fuselage, as compared to later heavy bombers. There is a lot of wing outboard of the engines.”
I’m by no means an aeronautical engineer, but my guess is that it was considered necessary to save weight. Having the engines closer to the fuselage meant shorter weight bearing lateral struts in the wing assembly.
The B19 is a different configuration than the B29, where the engines were out farther on the wing. But that configuration, and the plane itself, would not have been possible without the supercharged engines which were not available in 1940. With the lack of engine power, I’m going to bet that saving weight in the airframe was considered very important to get this big bird + payload off the ground.