The
BoeingThe Boeing Company is a major aerospace and defense corporation, founded by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Its international headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois, since 2001...
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 UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. A major innovation in post-
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
combat jet design, it helped lead to the development of modern
jet airlinerA jet airliner is an airliner that is powered by jet engines. This term is sometimes contracted to jetliner.In contrast to today's relatively fuel-efficient, turbofan-powered air travel, first generation jet airliner travel was noisy and fuel inefficient...
s. While the B-47 never saw major combat use, it remained a mainstay of the
U.S. Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
's
Strategic Air CommandThe Strategic Air Command was both a major command in the United States Air Force and a "specified command" in the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
(SAC) during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Development
The B-47 arose from a 1943
U.S. Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. It was a component of the United States Army, divided functionally by executive order in 1942 into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the...
requirement for a jet bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that could reach Nazi Germany in the event that
Great BritainGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
fell. The next year, the requirement evolved into a formal request for a bomber with a specified speed of 500 mph (800 km/h) or more, a range of 3,500 mi (5,600 km), and a service ceiling of 40,000 ft (12,200 m). It envisioned using the
General ElectricGE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, is headquartered in Evendale, Ohio . GE Aviation is the top supplier of aircraft engines in the world and offers engines for the majority of commercial aircraft. GE Aviation is part of GE Infrastructure, itself a major part of the conglomerate General...
TG-180
turbojetTurbojets are the oldest kind of general purpose jet engines. Two engineers, Frank Whittle in the United Kingdom and Hans von Ohain in Germany, developed the concept independently into practical engines during the late 1930s, although credit for the first turbojet is given to Whittle who submitted...
engine, then in development. The subsequent
von Kármán missionThe USAF Scientific Advisory Board is a military unit that provides forecasts of long-range science and technology.-Chronology:* 1944 August 6or7: Arnold met with Theodore von Kármán on the LaGuardia airport tarmac to request he head the Army Air Force Long Range Development Program...
inspected
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
laboratories from May 1 - July 1945. One of the members was Boeing's chief aerodynamicist, George Schairer, who became so convinced of the merits of such a design that in May, 1945 he wrote a letter to Boeing management suggesting the matter be investigated.
Preliminary designs
North AmericanNorth American Aviation was a major US aircraft manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, and the X-15 rocket plane, as well as Apollo Command and Service Module, the...
,
ConvairThe Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, commonly known as Convair, was a United States aerospace development and manufacturing complex of the 1940s and later. It was formed in 1943 from a merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. The merger produced one of the world's larger...
, and
BoeingThe Boeing Company is a major aerospace and defense corporation, founded by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Its international headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois, since 2001...
submitted proposals. The first Boeing proposal, the
Model 424, was a modification of a conventional propeller-driven bomber design, basically a scaled-down version of the Boeing
B-29 SuperfortressThe Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber that was flown by the United States Military in World War II and the Korean War, and by other nations afterwards...
fitted with four jet engines.
Meanwhile, the USAAF had awarded study contracts to all three aircraft manufacturers working on the jet bomber project, as well as to
MartinThe Glenn L. Martin Company was an early U.S. aircraft company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn Luther Martin. The company went through a number of mergers over time and now exists as Lockheed Martin.-History:...
, which had also decided to join the fray. All of the competing bombers, including the North American B-45,
Convair XB-46The Convair XB-46 was a single example of an experimental medium jet bomber developed in the mid-1940s but which never saw production or active duty. In 1944 the U.S. War Department was aware of aviation advances in Nazi Germany and issued a requirement for a range of designs for medium bombers...
and
Martin XB-48The Martin XB-48 was a medium jet bomber developed in the mid-1940s. It never saw production or active duty, and only two prototypes, serial numbers 45-59585 and 45-59586, were built.In 1944 the U.S...
would have conventional straight wings with four to six engines, and would lack the performance of the swept wing B-47.
NACA design tests
The
National Advisory Committee for AeronauticsThe National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
(NACA, the ancestor of
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
) performed
wind tunnelA wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research. It is used to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
tests on a composite model of the designs submitted by the manufacturers. (The three submissions were generally similar.)
The NACA wind tunnel tests showed that the Boeing model suffered from excessive drag. Boeing engineers then tried a revised design, the
Model 432, with the four engines buried in the forward fuselage, but although it had some structural advantages there was little effect on drag. At this point Boeing engineers turned to the German swept-wing data. A little design work by Boeing aerodynamicist Vic Ganzer led to an optimum sweepback of 35 degrees.
Boeing modified the Model 432 design with swept wings and tail, resulting in the
Model 448, which was presented to the USAAF in September 1946. The Model 448 retained the four TG-180 engines in the forward fuselage and, at the instigation of project manager George Martin, added two more TG-180s buried in the rear fuselage to provide greater range and performance.
Boeing submitted the Model 448 to the USAAF, only to have it rejected immediately. The Air Force strongly disliked fitting the engines in the fuselage, since that made engine fire or disintegration catastrophic. The engines would have to be moved back out on the wings.
That led straight back to the drag problem, but the engineering team came up with a clean, elegant solution, with the engines in streamlined pods attached to the wings. This innovation led to the next iteration, the
Model 450, which featured two TG-180s in a single pod mounted on a pylon about a third of the way outboard on each wing, plus another engine slung from the wingtip.
The Air Force liked the new configuration, and so the Boeing team continued to refine it. One problem was landing gear. There was no space for landing gear in the thin wings, and trying to put conventional tricycle landing gear in the fuselage would have ruined the aircraft's streamlining and degraded its performance. Furthermore, the USAAF was now also insisting that the bomber be able to carry an atomic bomb. As nuclear weapons were very large at the time, that meant a long bomb bay, further limiting space for landing gear.
The solution was a "bicycle" landing gear configuration, with the two main gear assemblies arranged in a tandem, not a side by side, configuration. Outrigger landing gear was to be fitted to the inboard engine pods. The concept had already been tested on a modified Martin
B-26 MarauderThe Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company.The first US medium bomber used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe...
aircraft.
However, bicycle landing gear made it difficult for a pilot to "rotate" an aircraft into a nose-up position for takeoff. Again, the solution was simple: the landing gear was designed so that the nose-up position was the default. This little change would have a very pleasing effect on an aircraft that was already shaping up to be very elegant, giving the machine the appearance of being ready to leap into the air even when it was sitting still.
There were some other tweaks to the design, such as a wingtip extension to improve range. This had the effect of moving the outboard engines from a wingtip position to an underwing position towards the end of the wings.
USAAF selects Boeing
The USAAF was very pleased with the refined Model 450 design, and in April 1947, the service ordered two prototypes, to be designated "XB-47". Assembly began in June 1947. People involved with the project were very excited, since they believed (correctly as it turned out) they were working on a breakthrough in aircraft design.
On 18 September 1947, the USAAF became a separate service as the newly-established U.S. Air Force. A few months later, the XB-47 prototype flew its first flight on 17 December 1947, with test pilots Robert Robbins and Scott Osler at the controls. The aircraft flew from
Boeing FieldBoeing Field, officially King County International Airport , is a two-runway airport owned and run by King County, Washington, USA. In promotional literature, the airport is frequently referred to as KCIA, but this is not the airport identifier. The airport has some passenger service, but is mostly...
in Seattle to the
Moses Lake AirfieldGrant County International Airport is a public use airport located five nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Moses Lake, in Grant County, Washington, United States. It is owned by the Port of Moses Lake....
in central
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
state, in a flight that lasted 52 minutes. There were no major problems, except that Robbins had to pull up the flaps with the emergency hydraulic system and the engine fire warning lights kept popping on, the sensor technology being very unreliable at the time. Robbins reported that the flight characteristics of the aircraft were good.
Description
The XB-47 looked unlike any contemporary bomber, described by some observers as a "sleek, beautiful outcome that was highly advanced". The 35° swept wings were shoulder-mounted, with the twin inboard turbojet engines mounted in very neat pods, and the outboard engines tacked under the wings short of the wingtips. 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 under-wing pylons.
The airfoil was 11 times as wide as it was thick. This unusual thinness (dry, no fuel tanks) was believed to be necessary to attain high speed (0.86 Mach), but the wing's flexibility was a concern. 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. As it turned out, most of the worries proved unfounded. (Wing "twist" limited tree-top speed to to avoid
control reversalControl reversal is an adverse effect on the controllability of aircraft. To the pilot it appears that the flight controls have reversed themselves; in order to roll to the left, for instance, they have to push the control stick to the right, opposite of the normal direction.There are several...
.) The wings were fitted with a set of Fowler flaps that extended well behind the wing, to enhance lift at slow speeds.
The bicycle landing gear dictated by the thin wing consisted of a pair of large wheels fore and aft of the bomb bay, with small outrigger wheels carried on the inboard twin-jet pods.
Performance and engines
The performance of the Model 450 design was projected to be so good that the bomber would be as fast as fighters then on the drawing board, and so the only defensive armament was to be a tail turret with two .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns, which would in principle be directed by an automatic fire-control system. The two XB-47s were not fitted with the tail turret as they were engineering and flight test aircraft, and in fact the prototypes were not fitted with any combat equipment at all.
Fuel capacity was an enormous 17,000 gal (64,400 l), compared to 5,000 gal (19,000 l) on the B-29 Superfortress. That meant that maintaining fuel trim to ensure a stable center of gravity in flight would be a very critical co-pilot duty.
The first prototypes were fitted with General Electric J35 turbojets, the production version of the TG-180, with 3,970
lbfThe pound-force or simply pound is a unit of force.- Definitions :The pound-force is approximately equal to the gravitational force exerted on a mass of one avoirdupois pound on the surface of Earth...
(17.7 kN) of thrust. Early jet engines did not develop good thrust at low speeds, so to assist in takeoffs in heavily loaded condition, the XB-47 prototype had provisions for fitting 18 solid-fuel
rocket-assisted takeoffJATO is an acronym for Jet-fuel Assisted Take Off. The term is used interchangeably with the term RATO, for Rocket-Assisted Take Off. It is a system for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets...
(RATO) rockets with 1,000 lbf (4.4 kN) thrust each. Fittings for nine such units were built into each side of the rear fuselage, arranged in three rows of three bottles.
Drag chutes
A related problem was that the aircraft's engines would have to be throttled down on landing approach. 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. A small "approach" chute was provided for "drag" so that the aircraft could be flown at approach speeds with the engines throttled at ready-to-spool-up medium power. Typical was an hour of dragging this chute around the landing pattern for multiple practice landings.
The aircraft was so aerodynamically slick that rapid descent ("penetration") from high cruise altitude to the landing pattern required dragging the deployed rear landing gear.
Unusually heavy wing loading (weight/wing area) required a high (180 knot) landing speed. To shorten the landing roll Air Force test pilot
MajorIn many European languages, the term Major is a military rank, implying seniority at one of usually various levels of rank. For example:*"General-Major" or "Major-General", denoting a senior ranking general officer....
Guy TownsendGuy M. Townsend is a retired United States Air Force Brigadier General, test pilot, and combat veteran. As an Air Force officer, he served as chief of bomber test at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, flew as co-pilot on the first flight of the B-52 Stratofortress, was test force director for the...
promoted the addition of a 32 ft (9.75 m) German-designed "ribbon" drag chute. (Jet engine thrust reversers were still a far-future concept.). As a consequence, the B-47 was the first mass-produced aircraft to be equipped with an anti-skid braking system.
Crew and loads
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. The copilot doubled as tail gunner, and the navigator as bombardier. The bubble canopy could pitch up and slide backward, but as the cockpit was high off the ground, crew entrance was through a door and ladder on the underside of the nose.
Total bombload capacity was to be 10,000 lb (4.5 tonnes). Production aircraft were to be equipped with state-of-the-art electronics for navigation, bombing, countermeasures, and turret
fire controlA fire-control system is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a weapon system in hitting its target. It performs the same task as a human gunner firing a weapon, but attempts to do so faster and more...
.
Second X-model
The second XB-47 prototype first took the air on 21 July 1948, and was equipped with much more powerful General Electric
J47-GE-3The General Electric J47 turbojet was developed by General Electric from the earlier J35 engine, and first flew in May 1948. The J47 was the first axial-flow turbojet approved for commercial use in the United States. It was used in many types of aircraft and more than 30,000 were manufactured...
turbojets with 5,200 lbf (23 kN) thrust each. The J47 or "TG-190" was a redesigned version of the TG-180/J35. The first XB-47 prototype was later retrofitted with these engines.
Flight testing of the prototypes was particularly careful and methodical, since the design was so new in many ways. The prototypes initially suffered from "
Dutch rollDutch roll is a type of aircraft motion, consisting of an out-of-phase combination of "tail-wagging" and rocking from side to side. This yaw-roll coupling is one of the basic flight dynamic modes...
", an instability that caused the aircraft to weave in widening "S" turns. This problem was remedied by the addition of a "
yaw damperFor railcar yaw damper, see Yaw Damper A yaw damper is a device used on many aircraft to damp the rolling and yawing oscillations due to Dutch roll mode. It involves yaw rate sensors and a processor that provides a signal to an actuator connected to the rudder...
" control system that applied rudder automatically to damp out the weaving motion. The prototypes also had a tendency to pitch up. This problem was solved by adding small vanes called "
vortex generatorA vortex generator is an aerodynamic surface, consisting of a small vane that creates a vortex. Vortex generators can be found on many devices, but the term is most often used in aircraft design.-Method of operation:...
s" onto the wings that caused turbulence to prevent airflow separation.
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. The aircraft was so unusual that he simply didn't know if it would fly. Robbins soon realized that he had an extraordinary aircraft.
In early 1948, the
United States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
(having become a separate service in 1947) sent up a
chase planeA chase plane is an aircraft that "chases" another aircraft during test flights. For many years the best way to ensure the safety of an experimental aircraft was to fly alongside it and observe the flight....
from Muroc (now
EdwardsEdwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond. It is named in...
) Air Force Base in California to help calibrate the bomber's airspeed system. Robbins reported later:
[The chase plane] was a P-80The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces, and saw extensive combat in Korea with the United States Air Force as the F-80. As one of the world's first successful turbojet-powered combat aircraft, it helped usher in the "jet...
[Lockheed Shooting Star] and Chuck YeagerCharles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired General in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He is widely considered to be the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
was flying it. Chuck's a hell of a good pilot, but he had a little bit of contempt for bombers and a little disdain for civilian test pilots. Well, we took off, climbed out, and got up somewhere within four or five points of full throttle speed.
At that point, Chuck called me on the radio and said: "Bob, would you do a 180?" I thought: Hey, Chuck's smart, he just wants to stay reasonably close to Moses Lake, he doesn't have as much fuel as I do. Well, I turned around, got stabilized, and looked for Chuck. He wasn't there. Finally, I got on the radio and said: "Chuck, where are you?"
He called back and rather sheepishly said: "I can't keep up with you, Bob." So Chuck YeagerCharles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired General in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He is widely considered to be the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
had to admit to a civilian test pilot flying a bomber that he couldn't keep up! That was something!
Yeager would test-fly the XB-47 later in its development cycle and would years later note that the aircraft was so aerodynamically clean that he had difficulty putting it down on the runway.
X-model competitions
By mid-1948, the Air Force's bomber competition had already been through one iteration, pitting the North American
XB-45The North American B-45 Tornado was the United States Air Force's first operational jet bomber, and the first jet aircraft to be refuelled in the air. The B-45 was an important part of the United States's nuclear deterrent for several years in the early 1950s, but was rapidly succeeded by the...
against the Convair
XB-46The Convair XB-46 was a single example of an experimental medium jet bomber developed in the mid-1940s but which never saw production or active duty. In 1944 the U.S. War Department was aware of aviation advances in Nazi Germany and issued a requirement for a range of designs for medium bombers...
. The North American design won that round of the competition, and as an interim measure the USAF had decided to put the North American bomber into production on a limited basis as the
B-45 TornadoThe North American B-45 Tornado was the United States Air Force's first operational jet bomber, and the first jet aircraft to be refuelled in the air. The B-45 was an important part of the United States's nuclear deterrent for several years in the early 1950s, but was rapidly succeeded by the...
. 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-48The Martin XB-48 was a medium jet bomber developed in the mid-1940s. It never saw production or active duty, and only two prototypes, serial numbers 45-59585 and 45-59586, were built.In 1944 the U.S...
, proved superior. In the end, Boeing president
Bill AllenWilliam McPherson "Bill" Allen was a U.S. aircraft businessman. Born in Montana, he attended the University of Montana, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He graduated from Harvard Law School, and joined the Board of Boeing Air Transport in 1930 while remaining an employee of...
is said to have resolved the draw by taking USAF General K.B. Wolfe, in charge of bomber production, for a ride on the XB-47. A formal contract over ten aircraft was signed on 3 September 1948.
Early years
The USAF
Strategic Air CommandThe Strategic Air Command was both a major command in the United States Air Force and a "specified command" in the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
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. The B-47 was so fast that in the early days the aircraft set records with ease. The aircraft handled well in flight, with a fighter-like light touch to the controls. The large
bubble canopyA bubble canopy is a canopy made like a soap bubble, which attempts to provide 360° vision to the pilot.-History:Bubble canopies have been in use since World War II. The British had already developed the "Malcolm hood", which was a bulged canopy, but the British Miles M.20 was one of the first...
for the pilot and co-pilot enhanced the fighter-like feel of the aircraft with improved vision, but the design would also cause variations in internal temperatures for the 3-man crew.
It took the Air Force until 1953 to turn the B-47 into an operational aircraft. The aircraft was sluggish on takeoff and too fast on landings, a very unpleasant combination. If the pilot landed at the wrong angle, the aircraft would "porpoise", bouncing fore-and-aft. If the pilot didn't lift off for another go-round, instability would quickly cause the bomber to skid onto one wing and cartwheel. Because the wings and surfaces were flexible and bent in flight, low altitude speed restrictions were necessary to ensure effective flight control.
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. Crew workload was high, with only three officer crew members to keep the B-47 flying right. The
B-52 StratofortressThe Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered, strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since 1955....
, in contrast, generally had six crewmen, 5 officers and 1 enlisted, with far more internal cabin space.
Training and problems
The B-47's reliability and serviceability were regarded as good. The only major problem was poor avionics reliability, normal in this environment given the
vacuum tubeIn electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or valve is a device used to amplify, switch, otherwise modify, or create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space...
technology at the time, and the need to place some equipment outside the pressurized crew compartment. Much work was done to improve avionics reliability, but they remained problematic throughout the B-47's operational life.
Several models of the B-47 starting in 1950 included a fuel tank
inerting systemAn inerting system is a device that attempts to increase the safety of a fuel tank, ball mill, or other sealed or closed-in tank that contains highly flammable material, by pumping nitrogen, steam, carbon dioxide, or some other inert gas or vapor into its air space in order to displace oxygen...
, in which
dry iceDry ice, sometimes referred to as "Cardice" or as "card ice" is the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is commonly used as a versatile cooling agent.- Properties :...
was sublimated into
carbon dioxideCarbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state...
vapor while the fuel pumps operated or while the in-flight refueling system was in use. 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, and thereby reducing the probability of an explosion. Ten carbon dioxide tanks and heaters were involved. The system was implemented largely to reduce risks from
static electricityStatic electricity refers to the buildup of electric charge on the surface of objects. The static charges remain on an object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge...
discharges occurring during in-flight refueling.
Initial mission profiles included the
loft bombingToss bombing is a method of bombing where the attacking aircraft pulls upwards when releasing its bomb load, giving the bomb additional time of flight by starting its ballistic path with an upward vector.-Pop-up:In pop-up bombing, the pilot approaches from low altitude in level...
(Low Altitude Bombing System) of nuclear weapons. As the training for this imposes repeated high stress, the airframe lifetime would have been severely limited by
metal fatigue'In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading...
, and this maneuver was eliminated.
Prime years
By 1956, the U.S. Air Force had 28 wings of B-47 bombers and five wings of RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft. The bombers were the first line of America's strategic nuclear deterrent, often operating from forward bases in the
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, Greenland, and
GuamGuam is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. The island's capital is Hagåtña...
. 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
USSRThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
at short notice.
Crews were also trained to perform "minimum interval takeoffs (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. MITO could be hazardous, as the bombers left turbulence and, with first generation turbojet engines with
water injectionIn internal combustion engines, water injection, also known as anti-detonant injection, is a method for cooling the combustion chambers of engines by adding water to the cylinder or incoming fuel-air mixture, allowing for greater compression ratios and largely eliminating the problem of engine...
systems, dense black smoke that blinded pilots in the following aircraft.
B-47 bombers apparently performed training missions in which they penetrated Soviet airspace in numbers. The facts behind these missions remain controversial, with some claiming that
Curtis LeMayCurtis Emerson LeMay was a General in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party candidate George Wallace in 1968....
ordered them without presidential knowledge or approval.
The B-47 would be the backbone of SAC into 1959, when the
B-52The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered, strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since 1955....
began to assume nuclear alert duties and the number of B-47 bomber wings started to be reduced. B-47 production ceased in 1957, though modifications and rebuilds continued after that.
Operational practice for B-47 bomber operations during this time went from high altitude bombing to low altitude strike, which was judged more likely to penetrate Soviet defenses. Bomber crews were trained in "pop-up" attacks, coming in at low level at and then climbing abruptly near the target before releasing a nuclear weapon, and the similar "
toss bombingToss bombing is a method of bombing where the attacking aircraft pulls upwards when releasing its bomb load, giving the bomb additional time of flight by starting its ballistic path with an upward vector.-Pop-up:In pop-up bombing, the pilot approaches from low altitude in level...
" procedure, in which the aircraft released the weapon while climbing, and then rolled away to depart the area before bomb detonation.
Later years
Stress and fatigue incurred in low altitude operations led to a number of wing failures and crashes and an extensive refit program was initiated in 1958 to strengthen the wing mountings. The program was known as "Milk Bottle", named after the big connecting pins that were replaced in the wing roots.
One of the more notable mishaps involving a B-47 occurred on 5 February 1958 near Savannah, Georgia. A B-47 based out of Homestead AFB, Florida was engaged in a simulated combat exercise with an
F-86 SabreThe North American Aviation F-86 Sabre was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. The Sabre is best known for its Korean War role where it was pitted against the Soviet MiG-15 and obtained UN air superiority...
, the bomber simulating an attacking aircraft and the fighter a defender. As was the practice at the time, the B-47 was carrying a single Mark 15 thermonuclear weapon without its core. During this exercise, the F-86 collided with the B-47. The F-86 pilot ejected and the fighter crashed, while the B-47 suffered substantial damage, including loss of power on one of its outboard jet engines. The bomber pilot had to "safe" soft drop the Mark 15 weapon off the coast of
Savannah, GeorgiaSavannah is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Chatham County, Georgia, USA. Savannah was established in 1733 and was the first colonial and state capital of Georgia...
near Tybee Island after three unsuccessful landing attempts at Hunter Air Force Base. The bomb was successfully jettisoned and the aircraft landed safely. An extensive nine-month search was mounted for the unarmed bomb, but proved futile.
The only B-47s to see anything that resembled combat were the reconnaissance variants. They operated from almost every airfield that gave them access to the USSR, and they often probed Soviet airspace, and on occasion, B-47 pilots were caught in situations from which mostly speed and evasion in retreat saved them. At least five of these aircraft were fired on, and three of these were shot down. The B-47s fired back with their tail turrets, though it is uncertain if they scored any kills, but in any case these were the only shots fired in anger by any B-47. These missions became impractical upon the introduction by the Russians of the trans-sonic MiG-19.
Final phaseout of B-47 bomber wings began in 1963, and the last bombers were out of service by 1965. The very last USAF operational aircraft was grounded in 1969. The
U.S. NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
kept specialized B-47 test aircraft in occasional use up to 1976. 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 LakeNaval Air Weapons Station China Lake or NAWS China Lake is an airborne weapons testing and training range operated by the United States Navy and its contractors...
, California, to
Castle Air Force BaseCastle Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base located northeast of Atwater, northwest of Merced and about 123 Miles east southeast of San Francisco, California....
, California, for static display at the Castle Air Museum. There are at least 15 B-47s on static display, none flying.
Strategic operations
Strategic operations of the 2,000 B-47s required 800
KC-97 StratotankerThe Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker was a United States strategic tanker aircraft based on the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. For many years, it was the backbone of the United States Air Force's tanker fleet until replaced by the Boeing KC-135....
s. On a typical RB-47H reconnaissance mission covering 5,984 mi (9,360 km), the aircraft would fly from Thule, Greenland to the
Kara SeaThe Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya....
to
MurmanskMurmansk is a city and seaport in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, 12 km from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland....
and then return only to find Thule weathered-in, forcing the flight from the air-refueling/decision point near the northeast shore of Greenland to one of three equidistant alternates: Goose Bay, Labrador,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, or
Fairbanks, AlaskaFairbanks is a Home Rule City in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage...
. Five KC-97s at Thule were required to support this scenario. Two ground spares and one air spare insured two 20,000 lb (9,090 kg) fuel transfers at a distance of over 600 mi (965 km) from Thule. Tankers returned to Thule to refuel and again repeat the flight to intercept the returning RB-47H six hours later for another air refueling.
The first overflight of Soviet territory with an RB-47 took place on 15 October 1952, when an RB-47B flying out of Alaska overflew Soviet airfields in Eastern Siberia. The Soviets scrambled MiG-15s to intercept, but the fast RB-47B got away unharmed.
On 8 May 1954, after a top secret
reconnaissanceReconnaissance is a military and medical term denoting exploration conducted to gain information. Militarily, its shorthand Canadian and British form is recce , its American usage form is recon...
mission in the
Kola PeninsulaThe Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far north of Russia, part of the Murmansk Oblast. It borders upon the Barents Sea on the North and the White Sea on the East and South...
, a 4th Air Division 91 Strategic Reconnaissance Wing RB-47E reconnaissance aircraft, with Hal Austin at the controls, flew west from the Soviet Union. The RB-47E was flying at high altitude, out of reach of MiG-15s, but unknown to USAF intelligence some MiG-17s had been stationed in the area and they were able to intercept the intruder, so the plane was being chased by three Soviet MiG-17 jet fighters. The Soviet fighters tried to destroy the RB-47E with their guns in Soviet and Finnish airspace, but the damaged RB-47E managed to escape over Sweden back to
RAF FairfordRAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force station in Gloucestershire, England. It is a standby airfield, not in everyday use. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as a base for United States Air Force B-52s during the 2003 Iraq War, Operation Allied Force in 1999, and the first Gulf War in...
station in Gloucestershire, England, where it had taken off, thanks to its remarkable top speed and
combat radiusCombat radius refers to the distance from an airbase that a warplane can reach, patrol there for a set amount of time and return to base with minimal fuel left...
superior to the Soviet fighter jets. It was the first mission in which a jet airplane equipped with modern photography equipment was used by American military reconnaissance. The incident was kept secret by all parties.
One RB-47 flying out of Alaska was scouting out the Kamchatka Peninsula on 17 April 1955, when it was bounced by Soviet MiG-15s in international airspace. The RB-47 and its crew disappeared. Between 21 March and 10 May 1956, 16 RB-47Es and 5 RB-47Hs operating from Thule, Greenland, performed overflights the length of Siberia 156 times under Project HOME RUN. The Soviets filed an angry complaint with the US government, which attributed the overflights to "navigational difficulties". MiGs did bounce RB-47s on three separate occasions in the fall of 1958, with one incident over the Black Sea on 31 October, the second over the Baltic on 7 November, and the third over the Sea of Japan on 17 November. In all three cases, the RB-47s got away without serious injury.
On 1 July 1960, a PVO Strany MiG-19 shot down an RB-47H (AF Serial No. 53-4281) reconnaissance aircraft in the international airspace over the
Barents SeaThe Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea , bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the northeast and...
with four of the crew killed and two captured by the Soviets but released in 1961. The co-pilot reported that the MiG-19 jammed (whited-out) his MD-4 FCS scope rendering the RB-47H defenseless. It seems the Soviets were annoyed over recent overflights and wanted to send the Americans a message that such provocations would have consequences.
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. The MiGs gave the ERB-47H a working over, but it managed to make it back to Yokota Air Base in Japan with two engines out.
While a few of these aircraft performed special duties during the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
, such as relaying ELINT data from drones, they were eventually replaced by much more comfortable and capable Boeing RC-135 platforms. The last RB-47H was retired on 29 December 1967.
The final 15 RB-47Es built were fitted with additional equipment, including the AN/APD "side looking airborne radar (SLAR)" system, and gear to sample the air for
falloutFallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion, aptly named because it "falls out" of the atmosphere into which it is spread during the explosion. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust created when a nuclear weapon explodes. This radioactive dust, consisting of hot...
from
nuclear testsNuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
. The Air Force judged them different enough on delivery, beginning in December 1955, to give them a new designation of RB-47K.
The RB-47Ks were generally used for weather reconnaissance missions, carrying a load of eight "
dropsondeA dropsonde is a weather reconnaissance device created by the National Center for Atmospheric Research , designed to be dropped from an aircraft at altitude to more accurately measure tropical storm conditions as the device falls to the ground...
" weather sensors that were released at various checkpoints along the aircraft's flight path. Data radioed back from the dropsondes was logged using equipment operated by the navigator. The RB-47Ks stayed in service until 1963.
Incidentally, there were B-47F, B-47G, and B-47J variants, but these were all one-shot conversions of B-47Bs or B-47Es, to be discussed later. There never was a B-47I variant. The Air Force never designated a B-47I, because the "I" suffix was too easily confused with the numeral "1."
Production numbers
The total number of B-47s built was 2,032.
| Variant | Built |
|---|
| XB-47 |
2 |
| B-47A |
10 |
| B-47B |
399 |
| B-47E |
1,341 |
| RB-47E |
240 |
| RB-47H |
32 |
| ERB-47H |
3 |
| RB-47K |
15 |
|
| Total |
2,042 |
B-47A
The first 10 aircraft were designated "B-47A", and were strictly evaluation aircraft. The first was delivered in December 1950. The configuration of the B-47As was close to that of the initial XB-47 prototypes. They were fitted with J47-GE-11 turbojets, offering the same 5,200 lbf (23 kN) thrust as the earlier J47-GE-3, and they also featured the built-in RATO bottles.
Four of the B-47As were fitted with the K-2 bombing and navigation system (BNS), with an HD-21D autopilot, an
analog computerAn analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved...
, APS-23 radar, and a Y-4 or Y-4A bombsight. Two were fitted with the tail turret, one of them using an Emerson A-2
fire control systemA fire-control system is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a weapon system in hitting its target. It performs the same task as a human gunner firing a weapon, but attempts to do so faster and more...
(FCS), another an early version of the General Electric A-5 FCS. The eight other B-47As had no defensive armament.
The B-47As were fitted with ejection seats. The pilot and copilot ejected upward, while the navigator had a downward ejection seat built by
Stanley AviationStanley Aviation is an aerospace company started by Robert M Stanley, the aviation pioneer, in Buffalo, New York in 1948.The company has since acquired several other companies and has been most recently acquired by Eaton Corporation....
. Minimum safe ejection altitude was about 500 ft (150 m).
While the XB-47s had been built by Boeing at their Seattle, Washington, plant, the B-47As and all following Boeing B-47 production were built at a government-owned factory in
Wichita, KansasWichita is a city in and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2000 census its population was 344,284. The 2006 estimated population of 361,420 made it the 51st largest city in the country and the most populous city in Kansas...
, where the company had built B-29s in the past. The switch was made as the Seattle plant was burdened with
KC-97 StratotankerThe Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker was a United States strategic tanker aircraft based on the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. For many years, it was the backbone of the United States Air Force's tanker fleet until replaced by the Boeing KC-135....
production and other urgent tasks.
Most of the B-47As were phased out of service by early 1952, though one did perform flight tests for NACA for a few more years. While the Air Force put the B-47As through their paces, the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
was rising to full force, with a
hot warThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
intensifying in Korea. The USAF's
Strategic Air CommandThe Strategic Air Command was both a major command in the United States Air Force and a "specified command" in the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
(SAC) needed an effective nuclear deterrent to keep the Soviet Union in line, and the Stratojet was an excellent tool for the task, and Boeing was already working on production bombers.
B-47B
Following a series of preliminary contracts for production B-47s, in November 1949, even before the first flight of the B-47A, the Air Force had ordered 87 B-47Bs, the first operational variant of the type. The first B-47B flew on 26 April 1951. A total of 399 were built, including eight that were assembled by
LockheedThe Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company founded in 1912 which merged with Martin Marietta in 1995 to form Lockheed Martin.-Origins:...
and ten that were assembled by
DouglasThe Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas. It is currently a part of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes...
, using Boeing-built parts.
The USAF was impatient to get their hands on as many B-47s as they could as quickly as possible, and signed up Lockheed and Douglas for the additional production. Lockheed-built aircraft were designated by a "-LM (Lockheed Marietta)" suffix and Douglas-built aircraft given a "-DT (Douglas Tulsa)" suffix. Boeing production was designated by a "-BW (Boeing Wichita)" suffix, except for the Seattle-built XB-47s and B-47As, which had a "-BO" suffix.
The initial batch of 87 B-47Bs featured the same J47-GE-11 engines as the B-47As, but all subsequent production featured substantially uprated J47-GE-23 turbojets with 5,800 lbf (26 kN) thrust. Early production aircraft were retrofitted with the improved engines. They all featured the built-in RATO system used on the XB-47 and B-47A.
Avionics and bombing
All featured full combat systems. Early production retained the K-2 BNS installed on some of the B-47As, but most production featured the K-4A BNS, which featured an AN/APS-54 warning radar and an AN/APT-5 electronic countermeasures (ECM) system.
The K-4A used a periscopic bombsight fitted into the tip of the nose of the aircraft, with the transparent plexiglas nose cone of the XB-47 and B-47A replaced by a metal nose cone. There were four small windows on the left side of the nose and two on the right. Another visible change from the earlier models was that the B-47B had a vertical tailplane with a squared-off top, rather than a rounded top as with its predecessors.
B-model modifications
The bomb bay of the B-47B was shorter than that of the XB-47 and B-47A, since nuclear weapons had shrunk in the interim. However, the B-47B could carry a much larger bombload, of up to 18,000 lb (8,200 kg). All B-47Bs carried the tail turret with twin 20 mm (0.79 in) guns and the B-4 radar-guided FCS. The B-4 FCS proved troublesome, in fact so troublesome that in some B-47Bs it was replaced with an N-6 optical sight. The copilot could swivel his seat around to face backward and sight the guns directly.
In practice, even the enormous fuel capacity of the B-47 was still not enough to give it the range the Air Force wanted, and in fact there had been substantial prejudice against the type among the senior Air Force leadership because of the limited range of the initial design. Solution of this problem was a high priority, and so an "in-flight refueling (IFR)" receptacle was fitted in the right side of the nose for "boom"-style refueling from KB-50 and KC-97 aircraft. This was the main reason for the deletion of the plexiglas nose cone for the bombardier navigator.
The B-47B was also fitted with a pair of jettisonable external tanks, carried between the inboard and outboard engine assemblies. These external drop tanks were very large, with a capacity of 1,780 gal (6,750 l).
The B-47B suffered a considerable gain in weight compared to the B-47A, and so as a weight-reduction measure the ejection seats were deleted, and a windbreak panel was fitted to the aircraft's main door to make escapes easier. Some sources also claim that a fatal ejection-seat accident in a B-47A contributed to this decision. Whatever the case, this was not a very popular measure with crews, as getting out of the aircraft even at altitude was troublesome.
B-47E
The designations B-47C and B-47D were applied to special variants that never went into production (described later), and so the next production version of the B-47 was the definitive B-47E.
The first B-47E flew on 30 January 1953. Four "blocks" or "phases" of the B-47E were built, each incorporating refinements on the previous block, and also sometimes featuring production changes within a block. Older blocks were generally brought up to the specifications of later blocks as they were introduced.
Early production "B-47E-Is" also known featured
J47-GE-25The General Electric J47 turbojet was developed by General Electric from the earlier J35 engine, and first flew in May 1948. The J47 was the first axial-flow turbojet approved for commercial use in the United States. It was used in many types of aircraft and more than 30,000 were manufactured...
turbojets with 5,970 lbf (27 kN) thrust, but they were quickly changed to J47-GE-25A engines, which featured a significant improvement in the form of water-methanol injection. This was a scheme in which a water-methanol mix was dumped into the engines at takeoff, increasing
mass flowMass flow rate is the mass of substance which passes through a given surface per unit time. Its unit is mass divided by time, so kilogram per second in SI units, and slug per second or pound per second in US customary units...
and so temporarily kicking the thrust up to 7,200 lbf (32 kN). Methanol was apparently added to the water as an anti-freezing agent. The engines left a trail of black smoke behind them when water-methanol injection was on.
JATO
Jet-Assisted Take Off or
JATOJATO is an acronym for Jet-fuel Assisted Take Off. The term is used interchangeably with the term RATO, for Rocket-Assisted Take Off. It is a system for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets...
modifications were performed on early B-47E-Is. They had the 18 built-in JATO bottles, and were quickly exchanged for an external, jettisonable "split V" or "horse collar" rack fitted under the rear fuselage. The rack carried 33 JATO bottles, in three rows of 11 bottles. The built-in JATO system was eliminated because of worries about having the JATO bottles so close to full fuel tanks, and in any case once the rocket bottles were exhausted they were just dead weight. The racks were expendable, and were dropped over specific range areas after takeoff.
B-47s rarely used JATO for takeoffs, as it was expensive and slightly more hazardous than a non-assisted takeoff. Apparently it was reserved for emergency alerts, when bombers had to get off the runway as fast as possible, and was otherwise only done once a year or so as a training measure. Water-methanol injection was a big help on takeoffs when JATO wasn't used.
The internal fuel capacity of initial production B-47Es was cut to 14,627 gal (55,369 l) as a weight-saving measure. This was considered acceptable because of the use of the big external tanks and the fact that the USAF had refined mid-air refueling to the point where it could be relied upon as a standard practice.
One welcome change in the B-47E relative to the B-47B was the return of the ejection seats, the Air Force senior leadership having reconsidered the earlier decision to delete them. In addition, the twin .50 in guns (12.7 mm) in the tail turret were replaced with twin 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon to provide more firepower, backed up by an A-5 FCS in early production and an MD-4 FCS in later production.
E-model modifications
A final change in the B-47E was that most of the windows in the nose were deleted, with only one left on each side. However, many pictures of B-47Es show them with the full set of windows used on the B-47B. Whether the number of windows varied through B-47E production, or whether these were B-47Bs updated to B-47E specification, is unclear.
The B-47E-II featured only minor changes from late production B-47E-Is. The B-47E-III featured an ECM suite, consisting of a radar jammer in a bulge under the fuselage plus a
chaffChaff, originally called Window by the British, and Düppel by the World War II era German Luftwaffe, is a radar countermeasure in which aircraft or other targets spread a cloud of small, thin pieces of aluminium, metallised glass fibre or plastic, which either appears as a cluster of secondary...
dispenser, as well as improved electrical alternators.
The B-47E-IV was a much more substantial update, featuring stronger landing gear, airframe reinforcement, greater fuel capacity, and a bombload uprated to 25,000 lb (11,300 kg), though the bomb bay was once again shortened because of the introduction of more compact nuclear weapons.
Another improvement was the introduction of the MA-7A BNS, a major step up from its predecessors. The MA-7A included the AN/APS-64 radar, with a range as long as 240 mi (390 km). The AN/APS-64 could be used as a long range "
identification friend or foeIn telecommunications, identification, friend or foe is a cryptographic identification system designed for command and control. It is a system that enables military, and national interrogation systems to distinguish friendly aircraft, vehicles, or forces, and to determine their bearing and range...
(IFF) transponder" interrogator to allow a B-47E-IV to find a tanker or other B-47, or it could be used as a high-resolution ground-targeting radar. The B-47E-IV retained the optical bombsight, though this was rarely used.
A total of 1,341 B-47Es were produced. 691 were built by Boeing, 386 were built by Lockheed, and 264 were built by Douglas. Most B-47Bs were rebuilt up to B-47E standards. They were given the designation of B-47B-II, though it appears that in practice they were simply called B-47Es.
RB-47E/RB-47H/ERB-47H/RB-47K
The B-47E was also the basis for a number of important long-range reconnaissance variants. The only B-47s to see anything that resembled combat were these reconnaissance variants. They operated from almost every airfield that gave them access to the USSR, and often probed Soviet airspace.
Boeing-Wichita built 240 RB-47E reconnaissance variants, similar to the B-47E but with a nose stretched by 34 in (0.86 m), giving them an arguably more elegant appearance than the bomber variants of the B-47. The long nose was used to stow up to 11 cameras, which could include:
- An O-15 radar
Radar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
camera for low-altitude work.
- A forward oblique camera for low-altitude work.
- A K-17 trimetrogon (three-angle) camera for panoramic shots
In its most general sense, a panorama is any wide-angle view of a physical space. It has also come to refer to a wide-angle representation of such a view—whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model...
.
- K-36 telescopic cameras
In photography and cinematography, a telephoto lens is a specific construction of a long focal length photographic lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. In these lenses the optical centre lies outside of its physical construction, such that the entire lens...
.
The RB-47E could carry photoflash
flaresA flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signaling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications...
for night
reconnaissanceReconnaissance is a military and medical term denoting exploration conducted to gain information. Militarily, its shorthand Canadian and British form is recce , its American usage form is recon...
. Although the RB-47E could be
refueled in flightAerial refueling, also called air refueling, in-flight refueling , air-to-air refueling or tanking, is the process of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another during flight. Applied to helicopters, it is known as HAR for Helicopter Aerial Refueling...
, its fuel capacity was increased, to a total of 18,400 gal (70,000
literThe litre or liter is a unit of volume. There are two official symbols: the Latin letter L in lower and upper case . The lower case L is also often written as a cursive ℓ, though this symbol has no official approval by any international bureau...
s). The navigator controlled the cameras, becoming a "navigator-photographer" instead of a "navigator-bombardier".
A total of 32 RB-47H models were built for the electronic intelligence (ELINT) mission, as well as three more specialized "ERB-47Hs". These aircraft featured distinctive blunt, rounded nose and sported blisters and pods for intelligence-gathering antennas and gear. They were designed to probe adversary defenses and then collect data on radar and defense communications signals.
Bomb bay modifications
The bomb bay was replaced by a
pressurized compartmentCabin pressurization is the active pumping of compressed air into an aircraft cabin when flying at altitude to maintain a safe and comfortable environment for crew and passengers in the low outside atmospheric pressure....
, which accommodated "
electronic warfare officerElectronic Warfare Officer is a rated Navigator in the United States Air Force who has received training in enemy threat systems, electronic warfare principles, and their associated applications...
s (EWOs)", also known as "Crows" or "Ravens" (both being black birds, it was a reference to "black ops" meaning classified operations). There were three Crows on board the RB-47H, but only two on the ERB-47H. A distinctive bulged
radomeA radome is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a microwave or radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material that minimally attenuates the electromagnetic signal transmitted or received by the antenna. In other words, the radome is transparent to radar or radio waves...
fairing replaced the bomb bay doors. The RB-47H / ERB-47H retained the tail turret, and were also fitted with jammers and chaff dispensers. The only easily recognizable difference in appearance between the RB-47H and ERB-47H was that the ERB-47H had a small but distinctive antenna fairing under the rounded nose.
H-models delivered
The first RB-47H was delivered in August 1955 to Forbes AFB,
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
. The ELINT B-47s proved so valuable that they were put through a "Mod 44" or "Silver King" update program in 1961 to provide them with updated electronics systems. Silver King aircraft could be easily recognized by a large teardrop pod for ELINT antennas attached to a pylon, mounted under the belly and offset to one side of the aircraft, as well as a pylon-style antenna attached under each wing beyond the outboard engine. It is unclear if all RB-47Hs and ERB-47Hs were updated to the Silver King specification.
The RB-47H and ERB-47H were highly capable aircraft, but the EWO compartment was not only cramped with sitting room only, but also had both poor noise insulation and climate control. This made 12 hour missions very uncomfortable and tiring, and some sources say that the Crows even had to deal with fuel leaks on occasion. Successful ejection downward (cutting through the belly radome) was impossible on-or-near the ground. Crows sat bobsled-like on the pilot compartment access floor for takeoff and landing; having to crawl encumbered with Arctic clothing with parachute to-from their compartment along an unpressurized maintenance shelf during temporary leveloff at
Operations of the RB-47H and ERB-47H were often classified Top Secret, with the 10 hour missions generally flown at night. When crews were asked what they were doing, they always answered that such information was classified. On inquiries on what the blunt black nose was for, they would sometimes reply that it was a bumper, used in in-flight refueling in case they nosed into the tanker. This reply was often believed.
QB-47
The QB-47 was a drone variant of the B-47E. Fourteen were converted.
On 20 August 1963, a QB-47 veered off course on its landing approach at
Eglin Air Force BaseEglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. It was named in honor of World War I aviator and test pilot Lt Col Frederick Irving Eglin...
and crash landed on a stretch of road that ran parallel to the runway. Two cars were crushed by the crash landing, killing two occupants, Robert W. Glass and Dr. Robert Bundy, and injuring a third, Dorothy Phillips. Mr. Glass and Dr. Bundy 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
X-20 Dyna-SoarThe X-20 Dyna-Soar was a United States Air Force program to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites...
project at the base. Mrs. Phillips was the wife of
Master SergeantA master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-United States:Master Sergeant insignia
U.S. Army
Master Sergeant insignia
U.S. Marine Corps
Master Sergeant insignia
...
James Phillips, a crew chief at the base. Mrs. Phillips was treated for moderate injuries and released later that day. Both vehicles were destroyed by fire. The QB-47 that crashed was used for
Bomarc Missile ProgramThe CIM-10 Bomarc was the product of the Bomarc Missile Program. The Program was a joint United States of America–Canada effort between 1957 and 1972 to protect against the USSR bomber threat. The Bomarc was a joint development with Boeing and Michigan Aeronautical Research Center...
tests, which normally operated from Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field Number Three (
Duke FieldDuke Field , also known as Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #3, is a military airport located three miles south of the central business district of Crestview, in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States.-Duke Field:...
), approximately north of the main base.
Conversions and special modifications
Aside from production aircraft, there were quite a number of conversions and oddball special modifications in the B-47 line.
B-47B
The B-47B conversions and special modifications included:
- The Air Force had considered building a specialized RB-47B reconnaissance variant to complement the B-47B bomber version, but as it turned out schedule slips and the like ensured that the RB-47E was the first production reconnaissance variant. As an interim measure before the RB-47E went into service, 24 B-47B bombers were fitted with a heated pod with eight cameras that was stowed in the forward bomb bay, and these aircraft were designated RB-47Bs. They were capable of daylight reconnaissance only.
- A total of 66 B-47Bs were also converted into TB-47B trainers, through the simple measures of adding a fourth seat for an instructor and removing the tail turret. These aircraft provided valuable crew training through most of the 1950s.
- With the introduction of the hydrogen bomb, the USAF contemplated the conversion of a few B-47Bs into MB-47B drones, which would essentially be huge cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
s carrying H-bombs. The program was known as "Brass Ring". Closer examination of the scheme showed that it was impractical, and Brass Ring was cancelled on the appropriate date of 1 April 1953.
- There were various flight tests through the 1950s for using the B-47B as a launcher for the big 31 ft (9.5 m) liquid-fueled AGM-63 Rascal missile, and one B-47B was modified to become a YDB-47B Rascal launcher. However, the Rascal program was politically problematic, and never became operational, though a total of 74 B-47Bs were modified into DB-74B Rascal launchers before the program got the axe.
- In 1956, a single B-47B was converted into a WB-47B weather reconnaissance aircraft and operated by the Military Air Transportation Service (MATS), making it one of the few B-47s that wasn't operated by SAC. This aircraft remained in service until the mid-1960s.
- In 1953, two B-47Bs were modified for testing the probe-and-drogue refueling system. The tanker was given the designation KB-47G and was known as "Maw" by flightcrews, and was fitted with a British-built tanker kit. The refueling test aircraft was given the designation YB-47F and was known as "Paw", though other aircraft were also used as refueling targets. The program was cancelled in 1954 as it turned out the KB-47G simply could not carry enough fuel to make it a useful tanker. The idea of fielding B-47 tanker conversions came up again a few years later, but the economics didn't make sense, and the notion was finally put to rest for good in 1957.
- One of the most unusual B-47B conversions was the Canadair CL-52 which was a B-47B loaned in 1956 to the Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces...
to test the new, powerful Orenda IroquoisThe Orenda PS.13 Iroquois was an advanced turbojet engine designed for military use. It was developed by the Canadian aircraft engine manufacturer Orenda Engines, a part of the Avro Canada group...
turbojet (rated at 19,250 lbf (85.6 kN) dry, 25,000 lbf (111 kN) afterburning) for the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow interceptorAn interceptor aircraft is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft, particularly bombers, usually relying on great speed...
. Canadair Aircraft, the sub-contractor, attached the Iroquois engine to the right side of the rear fuselage near the tail; due to the large exterior diameter of the engine, no other location was feasible. Flying the CL-52 was reportedly a nightmare. After the Arrow project was cancelled in early 1959, the B-47B/CL-52, with about 35 hours of engine flight tests to its credit, was returned to the U.S. Some sources claimed it was bent out of shape by the tests, but in any case, it was subsequently scrapped. The CL-52 was the only B-47 to be used by any foreign service.
- The YB-47C (originally the YB-56), was proposed by Boeing in 1950. It was to be a major variant, with four big Allison
The Allison Engine Company was a U.S. aircraft engine manufacturer which was acquired by Rolls-Royce plc in 1995 to become a subsidiary, Rolls-Royce Corporation. With the acquisition of Allison, Rolls-Royce expanded its product line to the point where it can now offer engines in virtually all...
J71-A-5The Allison J71 was a turbojet engine, designed and built in the United States. It began development in 1948 as a modified J35 and was originally designated the J35-A-23.-Operational History:...
turbojet engines, providing 10,090 lbf (45 kN) thrust each, in place of the six GEs J47s. A B-47B was set aside to be converted into the prototype for the series. The J71 engine program suffered setbacks, and so the Air Force decided to use the Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet instead. However, the USAF then had second thoughts about the entire program, since by that time the future was clearly the B-52, and the B-47 was essentially an interim type, and gave up on the idea in December 1952.
- Beginning in 1951, two XB-47Ds were modified from B-47Bs as purely experimental platforms, with a big Wright YT49-W-1 turboprop engine spinning a huge four-paddle prop, replacing each of the inboard two-jet pods. Difficulties with engine development delayed first flight of the XB-47D until 26 August 1955. The aircraft's performance was comparable to that of a conventional B-47, and its reversible propellers shortened the landing roll, but the USAF did not follow up the idea.
B-47Es
B-47E conversions and special modifications included:
- In 1955, a number of B-47E-Is were fitted with external pods, one mounted on either side of the bomb bay, with each pod containing four AN/ALT-6B jammers. The pods were known as "Tee Town pods" (for Topeka, KS, location of Forbes AFB) and so these aircraft were known as "Tee Town B-47s". They retained their normal bombing capability.
- The Tee Town B-47s then led to a specialized ECM conversion of the B-47E, which was given the designation EB-47E. The initial EB-47 conversion featured a set of 16 jammers in a removable cradle stored in the bomb bay, plus radar warning receivers and chaff dispensers. These were known as "Phase IV" or "Blue Cradle" EB-47Es. The more advanced "Phase V" EB-47E featured a pressurized module that was stowed in the bomb bay, with 13 jammers under control of two Crows. While the Phase IV jammer system was "broadband", blanketing a wide range of frequencies in hopes of jamming radars operating somewhere within that range, the Phase V jammer system could be selectively tuned to specific radar frequencies by the crows, permitting much higher jammer power on the frequencies that did the most good. A radar jammer tends to announce its presence and location by the radio signals it emits, and EB-47E crews were perfectly aware that they were unlikely to return from an operational mission into the USSR. If they could cover for B-47 bombers, however, the sacrifice would be worth it. About 40 B-47Es were converted to EB-47Es. Of course they couldn't carry bombs, but they did retain the tail turret.
- B-47E 52-0410 and 52-0412 were converted to EB-47Es in the mid-1960s for service with U.S. Navy's Fleet Electronic Warfare Systems Group (FEWSG). Considered to be on indefinite loan from USAF, these aircraft unlike the USAF EB-47Es, with some of their ECM gear fitted into pods carried on the external fuel tank pylons. They were used for tests of naval ECM systems and as "electronic aggressors" in naval exercises. These two aircraft were the last B-47s in service, and 52-0410 performed the very last operational flight of a B-47 on 20 December 1977 when it was flown to Pease AFB, NH and put on display at the main gate. Following the closure of Pease AFB in 1991, it was disassembled and trucked to Ellsworth AFB, SD where it donated its nose and engines to RB-47H 53-4299 which is in the USAF Museum at Dayton, OH.
- Three B-47Es were converted to the highly specialized EB-47E(TT) "Tell Two" configuration to be used for "telemetry intelligence
Telemetry is a technology that allows remote measurement and reporting of information. The word is derived from Greek roots tele = remote, and metron = measure. Systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry, telecommand.Although the term commonly...
", picking up radio signals from Soviet missile tests and space launches. The Tell Two was the precursor to the RC-135S Rivet Ball and Cobra Ball. The EB-47E(TT)s featured a "Crow capsule" in the bomb bay loaded with the appropriate gear and two ECM operators (known as Crows), and also featured odd and distinctive antennas just below each side of the cockpit. All three of these aircraft were operated out of TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
, and stayed in service until 1967. The antennas on the nose of the aircraft attracted a good deal of attention from base personnel, and crews made up imaginative stories about them, for example claiming they were part of a "return to fighter (RTF)" defensive system that would cause Soviet air-to-air missiles to loop back and shoot down their own launch fighters. In reality, they were specialized receiver antennas used for intercepting telemetry signals from Soviet space and missile launches.
- As with the B-47B, a few B-47Es were converted to trainers, with a fourth seat for an instructor, and given the designation ETB-47E. These aircraft were used to replace TB-47Bs that had "got too long in the tooth," and served into the early 1960s.
- Similarly, two B-47Es were converted to YDB-47Es to support the GAM-63 RASCAL
The GAM-63 RASCAL is a supersonic Air-to-surface missile that was developed by the Bell Aircraft Company. The RASCAL was the United States Air Force's first nuclear armed standoff missile. The RASCAL was initially designated the ASM-A-2, then re-designated the B-63 in 1951 and finally re-designated...
stand-off missile program, and two more B-47Es were converted to DB-47Es in preparation for the operational introduction of the missile before the program was axed. These two DB-47Es were later used as drone controller aircraft.
- Following the single WB-47B weather reconnaissance conversion, in the early 1960s 34 B-47Es were converted by Lockheed into WB-47Es for weather reconnaissance. These aircraft were stripped of combat gear, including the tail turret. They were fitted with cameras in the nose to take pictures of cloud formations, and carried a special meteorological instrument pod in the bomb bay. Initially assigned to the Military Air Transport Service
The Military Air Transport Service was a major command of the United States Air Force from 1948-1965. Established on 1 June 1948 by the Department of Defense, MATS was a consolidation of the the United States Navy Naval Air Transport Service and the United States Air Force Air Transport Command...
(MATS), they became part of the Military Airlift CommandMilitary Airlift Command is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was a Major Command of the United States Air Force from January 1, 1966 to June 1, 1992, being headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois...
(MAC) when that organization was established. The last WB-47E was retired on 31 October 1969, and was the last B-47 in operational USAF service.
- In 1963, the Air Force modified 35 B-47Es to carry a communications relay system. These aircraft were given the new designation of EB-47L, and were used to support U.S. flying command post aircraft in case of a nuclear attack on the US. The EB-47Ls only remained in service for a few years, as improved communications technologies quickly made them redundant.
- A total of 14 B-47Es were converted to QB-47E target drones in 1959 and 1960. These aircraft were radio-controlled, and included such interesting features as self-destruct charges and arresting gear to assist in landings. They also carried pods mounted on the external tank pylons to help in scoring weapons tests. Apparently most of the missiles fired on them were directed for a near-miss, but the QB-47Es were nonetheless eventually whittled down to two survivors that were retired in the early 1970s.
- A single B-47E was modified to test the MA-2 BNS for the B-52
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered, strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since 1955....
, and given the designation YB-47J. Other B-47Es were also apparently used in the MA-2 tests, but not given a special designation.
- Several B-47Es were assigned to other specialized test duties and given the blanket designation of JB-47E. One was used in the late 1960s to test "fly by wire" control system concepts.
- Two B-47Es were also used for secret flight experiments in the early 1960s and given the designation JTB-47E, and a third, even more mysterious modified B-47E was given the designation JRB-47E. They appear to have been test platforms for ECM systems.
- The final RB-47H to be retired from service was later pulled out of the "boneyard" and used for tests of avionics for the General Dynamics FB-111
The General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark" is a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also fills the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s and first entering service in 1967, the United States Air Force ...
. This RB-47H was fitted with an F-111-style nose and flew into the early 1970s. It was not given any special designation. It is now on display at the Air Force Armament MuseumThe Air Force Armament Museum, adjacent to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the only facility in the U.S. dedicated to the display of Air Force armament...
, Eglin AFB, FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
, fitted with a bomber nose.
- In 1963, the USAF demonstrated three B-47Es to Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n crews, as a possible stopgap before Australia acquired the General Dynamics F-111The General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark" is a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also fills the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s and first entering service in 1967, the United States Air Force ...
. Nothing came of this exercise.
- Finally, a B-47E was loaned to the U.S. Navy to help test the GE TF34-2 turbofan for the Lockheed S-3 Viking
The Lockheed S-3 Viking was a jet aircraft used by the United States Navy to identify, track, and destroy enemy submarines. In the late 1990s, the S-3B's mission focus shifted to surface warfare and aerial refueling. The Viking also provided electronic warfare and surface surveillance capabilities...
carrier-based antisubmarine warfare aircraft. This B-47E was given the designation NB-47E and performed test flights from 1969 through 1975.
Operators
- United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
- United States Navy
The United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
Canada
- Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces...
Survivors
About 25 surviving airframes exist in museum collections worldwide.
Specifications (B-47E)
Popular culture
The B-47 is featured prominently in the 1955 film
Strategic Air CommandStrategic Air Command is a 1955 American film starring James Stewart and June Allyson, and directed by Anthony Mann. Released by Paramount Pictures, it was the first of four films that depicted the role of the Strategic Air Command in the Cold War era....
starring
James StewartJames Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, best known for his self-effacing persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
. The film features good aerial footage of both the B-47 and the B-36. The majority of B-47 scenes were filmed at MacDill AFB, Florida utilizing aircraft from the 306th Bombardment Wing.
The 1 July 1960 shoot down of an RB-47H (AF Ser. No. 53-4281) by a MiG-19 over the
Barents SeaThe Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea , bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the northeast and...
was retold by the two surviving crewmembers,
CaptainThe army rank of Captain is an officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically the commander, or second in command, of a company or squadron...
John R. McKone (navigator) and Capt Freeman B. Olmstead (co-pilot), in the biographical book
The Little Toy Dog by William L. White. The title refers to a small plastic toy "
SnoopySnoopy is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly ordinary dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character — and among the most recognizable...
" that Capt McKone carried with him, and kept during their seven months in
LubyankaThe Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. It is a large building with a facade of yellow brick, designed by Alexander V...
prison in the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
.
A one hour episode of TV series
Kraft Suspense TheatreKraft Suspense Theatre is a television anthology series that ran from 1963 to 1965 on NBC, which was sponsored by Kraft Foods, alternating with Perry Como's monthly Kraft Music Hall specials. Como's production company, "Roncom Films", also produced Kraft Suspense Theatre...
, "Streetcar, Do You Read Me?" (1965), starring Martin Milner, features extensive real footage, interior and exterior scenes, of the B-47E. The fictional story depicts a mission of the 307th Bomb Wing of the Strategic Air Command.
See also
External links