Mystery Seat

[Kernel Crittenden]

Yes, I think so.

At the March AFB Museum in Riverside, California, there's a B-47 cockpit cutaway on display. It was used as a prop when filming the movie Strategic Air Command. It's pretty detailed. I found this picture of it and it does show the copilot's seat. You can see there is what could be a swivel mechanism at the bottom. Surprisingly, detailed photos of the B-47's copilot's ejection seat are not overly abundant.

You may be aware of the June 1, 1960 incident were a RB-47H was shot down by the Soviets in international waters over the Barents Sea. Six man crew, two survived and were rescued from their tiny life rafts by Russian fishing boats.

It was reported the copilot attempted to return fire on the Russian MiG, but the twin 20mm cannons jammed. Something that design was notorious for. The copilot was NOT one of the surviving crew members. I wonder what position his seat was when he attempted to eject?

A book was written about the shoot down. It was called The Little Toy Dog. So named in honor of a good luck charm one of the surviving crewmen had received from his daughter. (IINM). Very good book, but it's been awhile since I've read it. Long out of print, you can still find it with some regularity on eBay. I'm sure many of us are "in the know" about this Cold War incident. Likewise, I'm sure there may be some learning about this for the first time........

The Meaning of a "Little Dog Toy"

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Speaking of B-47 Copilots - Jim Obenauf comes to mind.
He mentioned in a number of places online, here's the newspaper article.
Notice that both pilot seats malfunctioned.
The B47 Navigator seat, which had experienced a lot of problems, in this case performed perfectly.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=VFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1901,3513352&hl=en

 

[Cyrano]

Six men in a B-47?? Isn't that a little crowded?

 

[rwsmith]

I prefer the ones.....

You guys are getting warm!
But neither of those.
The B-52 has regular seats. The B-58 started off with regular seats and then went with escape capsules.
Escape capsules- Widow makers, but they were rich widows.
The sued the manufacturer, Stanley.
Ballistic lines were found to be blocked by grease.

I prefer the ones that shoot the pilot straight down. Great for low altitude or mountainous terrain. I think somebody just wanted to do something different.

Sorry for the drift, but speaking of widow makers I think it was the Gemini capsule that was used to test ejection seats. Survival chances were really low, but it seemed to beat being bolted into a capsule. Gemini 6 was equipped and when it flamed out on the pad, Wally Schirra could have pulled a ring that would have ejected them from the capsule. Schirra, having 'the right stuff', didn't pull the ring and cooly waited for decisions from control. If he had ejected them they probably would have died and the program cancelled.

 

[steveno]

in RB-47's instead of a bomb bay there were compartments for the guys running the listening and radar equipment. I'm sure it was quite crowded.

a couple of more books to read about the cold war stuff:

"By Any Means Necessary" by William E. Burrows

"The Price of Vigilance" by Larry Tart & Robert Keefe

 

[Mickey D]

I recall stories that the RB-47 had snoop positions in the bomb bay.

That would have been a really cold and noisy position for whoever did those jobs.

My father was a crew chief on the B-47 stationed at March AFB, CA. Yes, he rode in the lower seat several times.

Dad is on the left, in Bangor Maine.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

Six men in a B-47?? Isn't that a little crowded?

The 3-man capsule was called the Blue Cradle and fit into the bomb bay (there were also 2-man capsules). A B-47 so configured was a RB-47H and sometimes referred to as a Silverking. I theory a RB-47 could be converted back to a bomber, in practice it never happened. The conversions became permanent.

This was all possible because, though the B-47 it was classified a medium bomber, it had a HUGE bomb bay necessitated by the fact that the early atomic bombs themselves were so large. You could fit a Volkswagen Beetle in the bomb bay of a B-47.... literally. Blue Cradle fit up in there with room to spare.

Boeing RB-47H Stratojet

click to enlarge​

These planes were packed with every bit of technology our 1950's military-industrial complex could muster. The transistor was the new hot thing in electronics, having just been invented at Bell Labs in 1947, and the RB-47 had them in spades, allowing for the miniaturization of a lot of systems.

See that streamline appendage protruding from the right side? Looks like a fuel tank maybe, painted with a black tip and tail. It's a powerful side looking radar. The large blister along the lower center line, near the tail, was a low & high frequency jammer. It's ELINT mission was taken over by the RC-135's in the mid 1960's, and it's jammer mission by the RB-66.

Oh, and "yes". It was VERY crowded.

 

[steveno]

more on the RB-47

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glvbhGUjjk0[/ame]

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

My father was a crew chief on the B-47 stationed at March AFB, CA. Yes, he rode in the lower seat several times.

Mickey, I wanted to share this picture with you. It shows a B-47 Crew Chief sitting in the jump-seat that was in the little aisle along the left side of the pilot's and copilot's position. You can see the edge of the Navigator's ejection seat along the photo's left side. A B-47 could carry up to four people in this area IINM. They had oxygen and comm. hook ups and everything, but it was a real "sardine can". Hence the look on the CC's face. This area was meant for Instructor Pilots/Navigators, Crew Chiefs, and such. In a RB-47 the Ravens sat there during take-offs and landings. Anyone familiar with larger USAF planes knows there's always someone hitching a ride for some reason or another.

 

[Mickey D]

Dad talked about riding there. Said it was very cramped.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Cyrano]

Yearrs ago I remember reading about a B 47 incident. They had some sort of trouble and the pilot blew the canopy and ejected. The co-pilot's seat malfunctioned so he stayed with the aircraft. I don't know wha happened to the bombardier. There was an observer sitting in the stairway; he was evaluating the bombardier's performance. He passed out (lack of oxygen?) and when he came to, he was pretty woozy. The co-pilot flew the aircraft back to their home base, and had some frostbite on his face from the very cold, very strong, slipstream. Can anyone fill in the gaps in this story?

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Yearrs ago I remember reading about a B 47 incident. They had some sort of trouble and the pilot blew the canopy and ejected. The co-pilot's seat malfunctioned so he stayed with the aircraft. I don't know wha happened to the bombardier. There was an observer sitting in the stairway; he was evaluating the bombardier's performance. He passed out (lack of oxygen?) and when he came to, he was pretty woozy. The co-pilot flew the aircraft back to their home base, and had some frostbite on his face from the very cold, very strong, slipstream. Can anyone fill in the gaps in this story?

I already posted it. Post 22. The copilot was Jim Obenauf, flying out of Abilene, TX.

 

[Salty RI]

I sit in a seat like that, when my wife is driving.