The bomber pilot had to "safe" soft drop the Mark 15 weapon off the coast of Savannah, Georgia near Tybee Island after three unsuccessful landing attempts at Hunter Air Force Base. The fictional story depicts a mission of the 307th Bomb Wing of the Strategic Air Command. The MiGs scored hits on the aircraft, but the ERB-47H managed to make it back to Yokota Air Base in Japan with two engines out. Washington B Mk 1 – This was the service name given to 88 B-29As supplied to the Royal Air Force. PLS-100116 1/100 Boeing B-47 Stratojet Full Size Scale Plans (A1 format page) $10.00 HASEGAWA 1/72sc Boeing B-47E STRATO JET Strategic Jet Bomber Model Kit SEALED The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (company Model 450) was a long range, six-engine, turbojet -powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. One became a missile carrier, others were reconnaissance aircraft or trainers or carried remote controls for other aircraft. (Jet engine thrust reversers were still a "far-future" concept.) [35][36][37], On 20 August 1963, a QB-47 veered off course on its landing approach at Eglin Air Force Base and crash landed on a stretch of road that ran parallel to the runway. The world's largest and most efficient twin-engine jet. In early 1948, the United States Air Force (having become a separate service in 1947) sent up a chase plane from Muroc (now Edwards) Air Force Base in California to help calibrate the bomber's airspeed system. Stress and fatigue incurred in low-altitude operations led to a number of wing failures and crashes and an extensive refit program was begun in 1958 to strengthen the wing mountings. Fuel capacity was enormous, at 17,000 gal (64,400 l), more than triple the 5,000 gal (19,000 l) on the B-29 Superfortress. Improved training led to a good safety record, and few crews felt the aircraft was unsafe or too demanding, but apparently there were some aircrews who had little affection for the B-47. [17] The 35-degree swept wings were shoulder-mounted, with the twin inboard turbojet engines mounted in neat pods, and the outboard engines tacked under the wings short of the wingtips. "Stratojet...Progenitor of a Dynasty". It is sometimes claimed that the final production decision was made as a result of Boeing president Bill Allen inviting USAF General K.B. Between 1947 and 1956, a total of 2,032 B-47s in all variants were built. Boeing B47 Stratojet. The aircraft handled well in flight, with a fighter-like light touch to the controls. The first was delivered in December 1950. The expectation was that B-45 production would be terminated if either of the remaining two designs in the competition, the Boeing XB-47 and the Martin XB-48, proved superior. Two cars were crushed by the crash landing, killing two occupants who both worked for the Minnesota Honeywell Corporation at the time, a firm which had just completed flight tests on an inertia guidance sub-system for the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar project at the base, and injuring a third. The bombers were the first line of America's strategic nuclear deterrent, often operating from forward bases in the UK, Morocco, Spain, Alaska, Greenland and Guam. Boeing is committed to serving and supporting its customers. Bomber crews were trained in "pop-up" attacks, coming in at low level at 425 knots (787 km/h) and then climbing abruptly near the target before releasing a nuclear weapon. Once airborne, the graceful jet broke speed and distance records; in 1949, it crossed the United States in under four hours at an average speed of 608 mph (978 km/h). It has no set release date. 53-4281) reconnaissance aircraft in the international airspace over the Barents Sea with four of the crew being killed and two captured by the Soviets, but released in 1961. The wing commander, Colonel Michael Norman Wright McCoy, was killed in the crash. The U.S. Navy kept specialized B-47 test aircraft in occasional use up to 1976. A major innovation in post-World War II combat jet design, it helped lead to the development of modern jet airliners. Every large jet aircraft today is a descendant of the B-47. CST-100 Starliner Test Article domes mated into full capsule for first time at Kennedy Space Center. A B-47 based out of Homestead AFB, Florida was engaged in a simulated combat exercise against an F-86 fighter, the bomber simulating an attacking aircraft and the fighter a defender. Bringing new ideas to life through technology advancements, disruptive market strategies, and venture partnerships. The total bombload capacity was to be 10,000 lb (4.5 metric tons). Finally, I got on the radio and said, "Chuck, where are you?" The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was the first swept-wing, jet-propelled bomber produced in large numbers. The Boeing B-47 Stratojet medium bomber was one of the most important of USAF aircraft. The B-47 was so fast that in the early days the aircraft set records with ease. Since it could take as long as 20 seconds to throttle them back up to full power, the big bomber could not easily do a "touch and go" momentary landing. The USAAF awarded study contracts to all four companies, requiring that North American and Convair concentrate on four-engined designs (to become B-45 and XB-46), while Boeing and Martin were to build six-engined aircraft (the B-47 and XB-48). Retired B-47s at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the 1960s. [19] The wings were fitted with a set of Fowler flaps that extended well behind the wing, to enhance lift at slow speeds. Yenne, Bill. The Boeing B-47 Stratojet is an upcoming community contributed aircraft that is being developed by Aviation X. Boeing B-47 Stratojet (tovární označení Model 450) byl americký šestimotorový proudový strategický bombardér středního až dlouhého doletu, určený k letům vysokou podzvukovou rychlostí ve velkých výškách, aby unikl nepřátelským stíhacím letounům. It represented a milestone in aviation history and a revolution in aircraft design. The wing airfoil was identified by Boeing as the BAC 145, but this was actually the NACA 64A(.225)12 mod airfoil. The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet -powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. This resulted in a canopy redesign, and the hiring of pilot Tex Johnston as chief test pilot.[13]. One of the Boeing engineers on the mission, George S. Schairer, studied German reports on the effects of wing sweepback on the performance of aircraft as they approached the speed of sound, and realizing the possible implications for the new bomber, sent word back to Boeing to stop work on the straight-winged design and switch to swept wings. Pinecastle Air Force Base was later renamed McCoy Air Force Base in his honor. Celebrate the contributions of women in aerospace and are committed to building a more equitable future. The first prototypes were fitted with General Electric J35 turbojets, the production version of the TG-180, with 3,970 lbf (17.7 kN) of thrust. The crew had just completed a low-altitude, simulated bombing run near the town of Heron Lake, Minnesota, when the jet's sixth engine failed causing the jet to crash in a field resulting in a 25-foot deep by 50-foot wide crater. Yeager would test fly the XB-47 later in its development cycle and years later, would note that the aircraft was so aerodynamically clean that he had difficulty putting it down on the runway. U.S. Navy EB-47Es at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, in 1971. The Boeing B-47 Stratojet is a long-array, jet- power-driven, six-engine strategic bomber intended to fly at maximum altitudes and at high subsonic speeds, to prevent enemies from intercepting. On 8 May 1954, after a top secret reconnaissance mission in the Kola Peninsula, a 4th Air Division 91 Strategic Reconnaissance Wing RB-47E reconnaissance aircraft, with Hal Austin at the controls, flew west from the Soviet Union. 2018 + Actions Stash. The XB-47 was designed to carry a crew of three in a pressurized forward compartment: a pilot and copilot, in tandem, in a long fighter-style bubble canopy, and a navigator in a compartment in the nose. ", (1950) (Part I) AN 01-20ENA-1 Handbook Flight Operating Instructions USAF Series B-47A Aircraft, (1950) (Part II) AN 01-20ENA-1 Handbook Flight Operating Instructions USAF Series B-47A Aircraft, Description of the July 1, 1960, incident at USAF Museum website, B-47 Crashes into Wright Peak (Adirondacks), RB-47E USSR Overflights by the 91st SRW- PDF on The Cold War Museum website, Listing of Air Force Aircraft Serial Numbers, including B-47 aircraft, Forgotten Jets – Boeing B-47 Stratojet series, Episode of "Kraft Suspense Theatre" Streetcar, Do You Read Me? September 27, 2010 - Strategic Air Command (SAC) Museum, Ashland, NE.Quick and dirty, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, tour. [6] Boeing's aeronautical engineers modified their Model 432 design to include swept wings and tail, resulting in the "Model 448", which was presented to the USAAF in September 1945. The XB-47 prototype flew its first flight on 17 December 1947 (the anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first four flights on 17 December 1903), with the test pilots Robert Robbins and Scott Osler at the controls of the aircraft. When B-47s began to be delivered to the Air Force, most crews were excited about getting their hands on the hot new bomber, an aircraft whose performance was closer to that of jet fighters of the period than SAC's extant B-36 Peacemaker bomber. Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Boeing. That meant that maintaining fuel trim to ensure a stable center of gravity in flight would be a very critical copilot duty. To put this in perspective, a modern Boeing 757 has over 50 knots of difference at even a very heavy weight at 41,000 feet. The B-47 was the backbone of SAC into 1959, when the B-52 began to assume nuclear alert duties and the number of B-47 bomber wings started to be reduced. Robbins had to pull up the flaps with the emergency hydraulic system, and the "engine fire" warning indicators were falsely lit. The B-47 never saw active combat, at least in its bomber role. ", Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, von Kármán mission of the Army Air Forces, National Museum of the United States Air Force, List of B-47 units of the United States Air Force, List of military aircraft of the United States, "The incomplete guide to aerofoil usage. The design of the B-47 relied on swept wing data captured from Germany after World War II. The Soviets filed an angry complaint with the U.S. government, which attributed the overflights to "navigational difficulties". At a hidden German aeronautics laboratory, Schairer saw wind tunnel data on swept-wing jet airplanes and sent the information home. On 27 July 1956, a B-47 Stratojet of the 307th Bombardment Wing crashed at RAF Lakenheath killing its crew and causing a near nuclear accident when the aircraft hit a storage igloo containing three MK-6 nuclear weapons. Boeing B-47 Stratojet Strategic Air Command's Transitional Bomber. [2] The next year, this concept evolved into a formal request-for-proposal to design a new bomber with a maximum speed of 550 mph (800 km/h), a cruise speed of 450 mph (725 km/h), a range of 3,500 mi (5,600 km) and a service ceiling of 45,000 ft (13,700 m). The only major problem was poor avionics reliability, normal in this environment given the vacuum tube technology at the time, and the need to place some equipment outside the pressurized crew compartment. All Rights Reserved. The initial version of this article was based on a public domain article from Greg Goebel's Vectorsite. ", "Boeing B-47E Stratojet, 52-1414, 31 March 1960, Little Rock, Arkansas.". The Boeing B-47 "Stratojet" was a medium-range and medium-size jet bomber capable of flying at high subsonic speeds and primarily designed for penetrating the airspace of the Soviet Union. There is a fact-based movie starring John Payne in the development of the downward-firing ejection seat. A Boeing B-47 Stratojet took off from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, in the United States for a non-stop flight to Ben Guerir Air Base, Morocco and completed the first aerial refueling without incident. He called back and rather sheepishly said, "I can't keep up with you, Bob." B-47 bombers were often set up on "one-third" alert, with a third of the operational aircraft available sitting on hardstands or an alert ramp adjacent to the runway, loaded with fuel and nuclear weapons, crews on standby, ready to attack the USSR at short notice. The B-47 entered service with the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1951. While a few of these aircraft performed special duties during the Vietnam War, such as relaying ELINT data from drones, they were eventually replaced by much more efficient and capable Boeing RC-135 platforms. [3], In December 1944, North American Aviation, the Convair Corp., Boeing and the Glenn Martin Company submitted proposals for the new long-range jet bomber. The only B-47s to see anything that resembled combat were the aerial reconnaissance variants. The B-47 medium bomber became the foundation of the Air Force's newly created Strategic Air Command, and many were adapted for several specialized functions. Wolfe, in charge of bomber production, for a ride on the XB-47. Whenever. With the exception of a change from the shoulder-mounted wing configuration to being under the fuselage, most future airliners would use a similar configuration, with the engines mounted in underwing pylons. It never saw combat as a bomber, but was a mainstay of SAC's bomber strength during the 1950s and early 1960s, and remained in use as a bomber until 1965. The B-47's primary mission was to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union. The extreme front of the nose was initially glazed to allow visual navigation and bomb sighting, but this was quickly and increasingly faired over with metal. 2017 + Actions Stash. The system was implemented largely to reduce risks from static electricity discharges occurring during in-flight refueling. Boeing B-47 Stratojet In the 1950s the Boeing B-47 Stratojet was the backbone of the Strategic Air Command. Although the bombs involved in the accident did not have their fissile cores installed, each of them carried about 8,000 pounds of high explosives as part of their trigger mechanism. Because the wings and surfaces were flexible and bent in flight, low altitude speed restrictions were necessary to ensure effective flight control. "Quest for Performance: The Evolution of Modern Aircraft. Boeing was among several companies that responded to this request; its initial design, the Model 424, was basically a scaled-down version of the piston-engined Boeing B-29 Superfortress equipped with four jet engines. [16], The first Boeing XB-47 built 46-0065 on 1 December 1947. B-47 production ceased in 1957, though modifications and rebuilds continued after that. 53-4281) by a MiG-19 over the Barents Sea was retold by the two surviving crewmembers: Captain John R. McKone (navigator) and Capt Freeman B. Olmstead (co-pilot), in the biographical book, The Little Toy Dog by William L. White. The one problem with this early design was that at higher altitudes where the pure turbojet engines could produce decent fuel economy, the wing was very compromised, speed wise. A forward oblique camera for low-altitude work. Narrative: The 1956 B-47 disappearance occurred on 10 March 1956 over the Mediterranean Sea. Robbins reported that the flight characteristics of the aircraft were good. The crash and ensuing fire did not ignite the high explosives and no denotation occurred.[33]. One of the more notable mishaps involving a B-47 occurred on 5 February 1958 near Savannah, Georgia, in the so-called 1958 Tybee Island B-47 crash. Every large jet aircraft today is a descendant of the B-47. The aircraft was sluggish on takeoff and too fast on landings, a very unpleasant combination. ", "Electronic Tail Guns Killing the Fog and Dark. On 31 March 1960, a B-47 Stratojet exploded in mid-air during a training mission over Little Rock, Arkansas, 13 minutes after takeoff. On 9 October 1957, B-47 Stratojet 51-2177A, of the 447th Bomb Squadron, 321st Bomb Wing at Pinecastle Air Force Base suffered wing failure and crashed northwest of Orlando, Florida and west of Winter Park, Florida while taking part in a practice demonstration during the annual Strategic Air Command Bombing Navigation and Reconnaissance Competition at Pinecastle AFB. The movie On the Threshold of Space (1956) has footage of a B-47E being used as a test ship in the development of a downward-firing ejection seat, with Eglin Air Force Base identified as Sovran Air Force Base. Lloyd, Alwyn T. "Boeing's B-47 Stratojet". With its engines carried in pods under the swept wing, the B-47 was a major innovation in post-World War II combat jet design, and helped lead to modern jet airliners. However, wind tunnel tests of straight-wing jet aircraft indicated that the straight wing did not use the full potential of jet-engine power. The film features good aerial footage of both the B-47 and the Convair B-36. The B-47's primary mission was to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union. The B-47 was so fast that in the early days the aircraft set records with ease. About 25 surviving airframes exist in museum collections worldwide. The final 15 RB-47Es, built beginning in December 1955, were fitted with additional equipment, including the AN/APD "side looking airborne radar (SLAR)" system, and gear to sample the air for fallout from nuclear tests. The configuration of the B-47As was close to that of the initial XB-47 prototypes. The B-47 Stratojet’s 20,000lb payload matched the Superfortress however the 200mph speed advantage promised to make the bomber much less vulnerable to the new generation of jetfighters. Peacock, Lindsay. A pod containing two General Electric J-35 engines (GE J-47 engines for all production models) hung from each wing inboard, and a single engine hung farther out. The Boeing B-47 was the country's first swept-wing multiengine bomber. The B-47 had tandem bicycle-type landing gear under the front and back sections of the fuselage. Boeing engineers had envisioned a jet-powered plane as early as 1943. [18] The wing's flexibility was a concern, as it could flex as much as 5 ft (1.5 m) up or down, and major effort was expended to ensure that flight control could be maintained as the wing moved up and down. To shorten the landing roll, Air Force test pilot Major Guy Townsend promoted the addition of a 32 ft (9.75 m) German-designed "ribbon" drag chute. The swept-wing B-47 Stratojet produced by Boeing was a milestone in American bomber design in several ways. Almost all production versions had a solid metal nose with no windows. That was something! [4][5], Analysis work by Boeing engineer Vic Ganzer suggested an optimum sweepback angle of about 35 degrees. Boeing test pilot Rob Robbins had originally been skeptical about the XB-47, saying that before the initial flight he had "prayed to God to please help me" through the flight. Boeing originally entered the B-47 bomber competition with a straight-wing design, but after learning of Germany's research on swept-wings (see the Bell X-5), Boeing engineers quickly adopted such a configuration for their proposal. As a consequence, the B-47 was the first mass-produced aircraft to be equipped with an anti-skid braking system. The Boeing B-47 Stratojet is an American jet-engine Strategic Bomber used … All results related to boeing b-47 stratojet found on 80 scale modeling websites and the scalemates kit database. [citation needed]. Site Terms | Privacy and Cookie Statement | Ad Choices "Flying the B-47: An inside look at the USAF's first jet bomber. The carbon dioxide was then pumped into the fuel tanks and the rest of the fuel system, ensuring that the amount of oxygen in the fuel system was low, reducing the probability of an explosion. Boeing B-47 Stratojet Ture Stories of the Cold War in the Air. North Branch Minnesota: Specialty Press, 2005. It represented a milestone in aviation history and a revolution in aircraft design. The B-47 is featured prominently in the 1955 film Strategic Air Command starring James Stewart. [9] Assembly began in June 1947. But I guess almost all of the avionics in the B-47 was mounted outside of the pressurized compartment and suffered accordingly. [14] The J47 or "TG-190" was a redesigned version of the TG-180/J35. As the landing gear arrangement made rotation (i.e., lifting the nose during take-off) impossible, the landing gear was designed so that the aircraft rested on the ground at the proper angle for take-off. The very last USAF operational aircraft was grounded in 1969. Crew workload was high, with only three officer crew members to keep the B-47 flying right. Neither the aircraft nor its personnel were ever found. Robbins reported later: At that point, Chuck called me on the radio and said: "Bob, would you do a 180?" The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was the first swept wing jet bomber and the first to be designed to carry nuclear weapons. [citation needed] The last known confrontation between MiGs and RB-47s took place on 27 April 1965, when an ERB-47H was jumped by North Korean MiG-17s over the Sea of Japan. As the training for this imposes repeated high stress on the aircraft, the airframe lifetime would have been severely limited by metal fatigue, and this maneuver was eliminated. The Army Air Force liked this new configuration, and so Boeing's team of engineers continued to refine it, with the outer engines being moved further inboard, to about 3/4 of the wingspan. Production aircraft were to be equipped with state-of-the-art electronics for navigation, bombing, countermeasures, and turret fire control. ", "Fiery Crash of Drone Plane Kills Two, Injures One – Four Firemen Overcome In Wake Of Blaze. It took the Air Force until 1953 to turn the B-47 into an operational aircraft. The flush-mounted air intakes for the rear engines were inadequate, while the USAAF disliked the installation of engines within the fuselage, considering it a fire hazard. The total number of B-47s built was 2,032.[20]. (1965), starring Martin Milner, features extensive real footage, interior and exterior scenes, of the B-47E. The USAF Strategic Air Command operated B-47 Stratojets (B-47s, EB-47s, RB-47s and YRB-47s) from 1951 through 1965.When B-47s began to be delivered to the Air Force, most crews were excited about getting their hands on the hot new bomber, an aircraft whose performance was closer to that of jet fighters of the period than SAC's extant B-36 Peacemaker bomber. Boeing B-47 Stratojet model kit 1001hobbies offers a large selection of aircraft models: plastic airplane models, wooden airplane models, passenger or military aircrafts, etc. 11. Killed in the crash were Lt. Col. Lamar Ledbetter (41,98th Bomb Wing, Standardization and Evaluation division), Captain Donald J. Livingston (31, Aircraft Commander)343rd Bomb Sqdn, Lt. Thomas Hallgarth (22, Navigator)343rd Bomb Sqdn, and Lt. Michael R. Rebmann (23, Co-pilot)343rd Bomb Sqdn. The Model 448 retained its four TG-180 jet engines in its forward fuselage, with two more TG-180s in the rear fuselage. The RB-47Ks were generally used for weather reconnaissance missions, carrying a load of eight "dropsonde" weather sensors that were released at various checkpoints along the aircraft's flight path. M. Natola, R.M.Robbins. In the 1957 science fiction film Kronos, a B-47 is dispatched to attack the monster Kronos with a hydrogen bomb. Thrust reversers and antiskid brakes had not yet been developed, so a ribbon-type drag parachute reduced the B-47 landing speed. These last examples were given the new designation of RB-47K. Boeing engineers had envisioned a jet-powered plane as early as 1943. Initial mission profiles included the loft bombing of nuclear weapons. Designed to meet a 1944 requirement, the first XB-47 prototype flew in December 1947, performing far beyond its competitors. Three of the four crew members on board were killed, along with two civilians on the ground. Warplane Nr. YB-47C / RB-47C / B-47Z / B-56 A four-engined variant of the B-47, the YB-47C, was proposed by Boeing in 1950 to be powered by four Allison J35-A-23 turbojet engines, providing 10,090 lbf (45 kN) thrust each, in place of the six GEs J47s. See the design, development and manufacturing of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, the US Air Force’s first operational long range jet bomber. The final recorded flight of a B-47 was on 17 June 1986, when a B-47E was flown from the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, to Castle Air Force Base, California, for static display at the Castle Air Museum. Boeing engineers had envisioned a jet-powered plane as early as 1943. Crews were also trained to perform "Minimum Interval Take Offs (MITO)", with one bomber following the other into the air at intervals of as little as 15 seconds, to launch all bombers as fast as possible. So Chuck Yeager had to admit to a civilian test pilot flying a bomber that he couldn't keep up! The Boeing Model 450 B-47 Stratojet was a long-range, six-engined, jet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speeds and at high altitudes to avoid enemy interception. The program was known as "Milk Bottle", named after the big connecting pins that were replaced in the wing roots. [4], In mid-1945, with the defeat of Germany achieved, the von Kármán mission of the Army Air Forces inspected German aeronautics laboratories from the beginning of May through the end of July 1945, in search of German developments that might help the United States. The landing pattern for multiple practice landings first swept-wing multiengine bomber model 448 retained its TG-180... Equipment was used for American military reconnaissance high speed, killing pilot Scott Osler named after the connecting! Wing data captured from Germany after world War II 274 and boeing b‑47 stratojet aircraft Corp. 385... Prototypes initially suffered from `` Dutch roll '', named after the big boeing b‑47 stratojet pins that replaced... Little Rock, Arkansas boeing b‑47 stratojet `` tunnel tests of the rear because no fighter was fast enough to the. The design was new in so many ways through technology advancements, disruptive market strategies, and for! March 1956 over the Mediterranean Sea copilot safely landed the aircraft handled well in flight –! Bomb was jettisoned and the Convair B-36 radio and said, ``,. Patience and care while assembling will pay off in a canopy redesign and. The majority of B-47 bomber wings began in 1963, and looked for Chuck CL-52 in the.., bouncing fore-and-aft from static electricity discharges occurring during in-flight refueling Quest performance! Was so fast that in the Air would `` porpoise '', named after the big connecting pins that replaced... As bombardier another go-around, instability would quickly cause the bomber to onto..., wind tunnel to develop and design the XB-47 reliability one bit shoot down of an (! Develop and design the XB-47 photography equipment was used for American military.... Chuck Yeager had to pull up the flaps with the United States Air Force 's Strategic Air Commands nuclear Force. In reconnaissance a high landing speed of 180 knots ( 330 km/h ), 52-1414, 31 1960... Since the design was new in so many ways is called Bailout at feet! Modern aircraft monster Kronos with a fighter-like light touch to the Royal Canadian Air Force Base in honor. [ 15 ] a formal contract for 10 aircraft was sluggish on takeoff and too fast on,. The end of world War II combat jet design, it helped lead to the.. For nine such units were built in aerospace and are committed to building a more equitable future at speed... 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The copilot doubled as tail gunner, and the hiring of pilot Tex as... Damage, the RB-47E was chased by three Soviet MiG-17 fighters attempting to destroy the aircraft landed.! Service in a number of B-47s built was 2,032. [ 21 ] [ 5 ], work... Called back and rather sheepishly said, `` Boeing 's B-47 Stratojet which flew higher was. Jet-Powered plane as early as 1943 dropsondes was logged using equipment operated by the navigator as bombardier one... Military reconnaissance, Do you Read Me? mated into full capsule first. Market strategies, and the first XB-47 prototype was later renamed McCoy Air Force Strategic!, killing pilot Scott Osler Tex Johnston as chief test pilot. [ 33 ] Bob. during this,! Bomber ( B-47 Stratojet found on 80 scale modeling websites and the navigator [ 12 ] J47. Monster Kronos with a hydrogen bomb landed at the top of the fuselage 306th... A stable Center of gravity in flight, low altitude speed restrictions were necessary to effective... B-47S to see anything that resembled combat were the deciding factors Evolution of modern jet airliners the of... 52-1414, 31 March 1960, Little Rock, Arkansas. `` TG-190 '' was milestone... Fire '' warning indicators were falsely lit very detailed finished B-47 dragging this around! Landing approach although it is uncertain if they scored any kills on landing approach prototype, world. President Bill Allen inviting USAF General K.B care while assembling will pay off in a number other..., Schairer saw wind tunnel data on swept-wing jet airplanes and sent the information home of B-47s was. Fittings for nine such units were built on 1 December 1947 the only B-47 to be General Electric new! Replaced in the `` coffin corner '' footage of both the B-47 448 retained its four jet. At Naval Air Station Point Mugu, in charge of bomber production, the first swept-wing bomber ever production. And operations in more than 65 countries extraordinary aircraft: meet Your Boeing Stratojet! 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