steveno
Member
I just finished reading the book “Boeing B-47 Stratojet” by C Mike Habermehl & Robert s Hopkins III. All I can says that it had a really checkered history. General LeMay was never crazy about it because it was just a medium range bomber and he didn’t want it to interfere with the development of the B-52. He finally accepted it but it was a hard sell.
It was said it would be the perfect bomber if we were at war with Mexico and Canada. It didn’t have the range to attack the USSR without air refueling. Air to air refueling was haphazard affair it those days. All of the air refueling airplane at the time were prop driven and and the speed difference was a big problem.
There was one version that had turboprops on the inboard engines with 15 foot diameter props. This version had almost 30 hours of flight time but the biggest problem was engine reliability and altitude.
There was one version that was supposed to be atomic powered but it is very vague on how that is supposed to work.
A purpose driven drone B-47 with a big hydrogen bomb in it.
At least on paper there are drawings of a B-36 with B-47’s on each wingtip. The B-47’s would hook up in flight and then the engines would be shutdown until they got within range of the USSR. Then the B-47 engines would get restarted. Another version would be the B-47 with F-86 fighters on each wingtip. None of these were ever flown and on paper only thankfully.
A B-47 was also given to Canada as a test bed. They mounted a jet engine on the rear of the fuselage. It was flown but nothing ever came from it.
The B-47 was also offered to Britain and Australia but never really happened beyond being offered.
The only thing that can be said was that the B-47 served as a test bed for other more successful airplanes.
The other thing that really killed off the B-47 was that McNamara believed that missiles were the future in the defense plan. LeMay obviously didn't agree with this.
It is a pretty interesting book with a lot of pictures. It would be considered a coffee table book.
Boeing B-47 Stratojet - Wikipedia
It was said it would be the perfect bomber if we were at war with Mexico and Canada. It didn’t have the range to attack the USSR without air refueling. Air to air refueling was haphazard affair it those days. All of the air refueling airplane at the time were prop driven and and the speed difference was a big problem.
There was one version that had turboprops on the inboard engines with 15 foot diameter props. This version had almost 30 hours of flight time but the biggest problem was engine reliability and altitude.
There was one version that was supposed to be atomic powered but it is very vague on how that is supposed to work.
A purpose driven drone B-47 with a big hydrogen bomb in it.
At least on paper there are drawings of a B-36 with B-47’s on each wingtip. The B-47’s would hook up in flight and then the engines would be shutdown until they got within range of the USSR. Then the B-47 engines would get restarted. Another version would be the B-47 with F-86 fighters on each wingtip. None of these were ever flown and on paper only thankfully.
A B-47 was also given to Canada as a test bed. They mounted a jet engine on the rear of the fuselage. It was flown but nothing ever came from it.
The B-47 was also offered to Britain and Australia but never really happened beyond being offered.
The only thing that can be said was that the B-47 served as a test bed for other more successful airplanes.
The other thing that really killed off the B-47 was that McNamara believed that missiles were the future in the defense plan. LeMay obviously didn't agree with this.
It is a pretty interesting book with a lot of pictures. It would be considered a coffee table book.
Boeing B-47 Stratojet - Wikipedia
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