The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was not the biggest bomber.
But it may have been one of the most important.
Six turbojet engines.
Swept wings.
Podded engines under the wings.
Bicycle landing gear.
JATO rocket-assisted takeoff.
And a shape that pointed directly toward the B-52 and the modern jet airliner.
It flew around the 650 mph class, carried Cold War nuclear weapons, and trained for terrifying low-level strike missions.
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Great vid
Pretty. But something of a widowmaker.
I grew up in an Air Force town with an RB-47 wing at our local base. Sky was full of these aircraft nearly every day. There was a KC-97 detachment there, too, and frequently, they flew over the city refueling the '47s at less than 10,000'. Lots of eye candy for this aviation nut…
Airliners when the B-47 flew were Prop Planes.
The B-47 !! One of the most beautiful planes the U.S. Military ever had!!
It had good looks and got the job done!!
From its initial test pilot, Robert Robbins: "The best way to tell about the performance of the Stratojet is to say that any good crew could have flown it. It took no unusual ability or education."
Years ago in high school, I job shadowed the Boeing company historian. They took me through the company archives and he actually let me handle the original contract for the B-47. It had General LeMay's signature on it in blue ink.
‘Boeing built a jet that could fly at near airliner speeds’
Really? Which airliner we talking about here? It’d have to be a jet and the first jet airliner was the de Havilland Comet, which first flew July 27th 1949 and officially entered service with BOAC on May 2nd 1952.
Meanwhile, the B47 first flew December 17th 1947 and entered service in June 1951.
Maximum speed of the fastest Comet, the Comet IV was about 500mph. Fastest speed of the B47? >600mph.
At the time the Comet started flying, advanced prop liners like the DC6 were flying at around 315mph. For a Comet flight from London to Tokyo including 9 stops, the flight time was 36 hours. Pan-Am’s DC6 time London to Tokyo? 47 hours
So which super-duper airliner speed was Boeing thinking of trying to get their B47 to reach in 1946/47?
簡単翻訳で読ませていただきました。
I had the good fortune, as a Canadian friend of a SAC tanker pilot, to tour the SAC base in Grand Forks North Dakota. I got up in to the B-52 cockpit and accessory crew work stations, as well as the KC-135 (?) tanker! What amazing experiences those were!
tecnology of arado😮
Gorgeous airplane
My father flew the B-47 … I flew the B-52.
Great graphics !
This is much better. The blueprint parts were the only letdown of this presentation. The cutaway interior, from above, were very good. The only missing detail in that was the pipe from the refueling receptacle ( with its welded on ashtray ).
It's wings would come off.on.flight alot.
In little old Adelaide, a humble small city in Southern Australia, a long way from the real world, a Formula 1 car race was held in about 1985. I lived a few suburbs away. Part of the aerial show included a B52 circling parts of the city. The speed, sound and eerie menacing look of this amazing aircraft as it flew past my backyard at low altitude was freaky and unforgettable.
You guys are truly amazing!
I LOVE you too, my lovely people!!!
Hello my dear sweet babies!!!
The problem was that several B-47s broke during flight.
This is a German aircraft. A friend saw it on an underground factory. Grey Cooper.
Baby BUFF was so cute 😊
This is worth watching. But Pretty sure the JATO/Jet Assisted Take-Off bottles on the B-47 were not arranged like that- tho the principle is stated correctly. JATO bottles were (mainly) incorporated into the sides of the aircraft, above the back landing gear doors: 9 on each side at first; then 15 on each side (in 3 rows of five) later. And while a ‘swept wing’ obviously became standard later, it actually was TOO thin: the B-47’s wing couldn’t carry any fuel at all (except piping it to the engines from the fuselage). – Dave Huntsman
This was a pioneering effort that has been a prototype through to the end of the 20th century and into the early 21st century. But new technologies inspire new ideas and at least for the United States this concept might become obsolete. The B2 was the first hint. 30 years later B21 might lead to aerodynamically more efficient shapes and new engines into more thrust with less fuel such as by using rotary detonation combustion chambers. Computer optimized design will be matched by 3D parts manufacture and robotic assembly lines. Generally as with the B47 the pioneering efforts are first seen in the US military. Later they filter down into industrial, commercial, and consumer applications. These innovations like the internet and GPS generate wealth far bryond their original cost. Therefore the passenger jets built 30 years from now may have little in common with the newest at the moment.
The movie starring Jimmy Stewart called "Strategic Air Command" surprisingly featured a lot about the B-47.
🎉
I watched these and B52s at high speed low levels in western Kansas as a kid in the 50s.