Heavy bombers were a thing during the Great War & a few years after. The German Gotha is still remembered, tho British, French, Italia, and Russian examples are less so. Research into superheavy & VLR aircraft continued haphazardly into the 1920s & even into the 30s, but with little result. The Boeing fiasco of the 1930s is one example.
While the proponents of 'Super Bombers' never gave up politics and doctrine prevented any really ground breaking research/development. The doctrine of the aircraft as a heavy artillery for supporting ground forces remained supreme through the 1940s. The usual narrative is heavy VLR aircraft were impractical before the advent of high thrust jet engines that appeared by the 1950s.
The historical focus is on the super planes of WWII that emphasized speed and tactics over range and payload. Can anyone see a set of practical PoD at any point interwar that would lead to VLR heavy bombers?
If so how would they be used? What effects could they have? Or was the concept a dead end with the technology of the era & lead to a huge waste of resources?
To clarify were are talking about ranges as long as maritime patrol planes like the Catalinia, Martin Mariner, & equivalent long range reconissance aircraft such as the DeHaviland Mosquito, but with payloads exceeding the US B25 Mitchel or German Ju88, two of the heaviest bombers of WWII.