B-47 Stratojet - The Mother Jet
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was the United States Air Force's first jet-powered and first swept-wing bomber.
This iconic and innovative aircraft was a hybrid. It mixed the construction techniques of World War 2 with an aerodynamic design fit for the jet engines' era during the latter half of the 20th century.
The B-47 was the cornerstone of the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, where it primarily served as a nuclear bomber capable of striking targets within the Soviet Union.
The crews of the B-47 were ready to attack at any given time, and some were even trained to deploy within 15 seconds of each other, giving the United States an unstoppable nuclear strike force capacity.
Thanks to Boeing's innovation in this jet-powered swept-wing model, every large jet-powered aircraft used today can be traced back to the B-47. The B-47 represents a milestone in American aviation history and the beginning of a revolution in aircraft design.
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All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.
I worked for Boeing as an aeronautical engineer on the design and testing of both the B-47 and B-52 from 1949 through 1968 at Seattle and Wichita. At the end of that period I was Chief of Structures Technology, with responsibility for many activities. I'm now 95, with a lot of memories of those times.
👍....🥊
Very cool. My uncle flew B-47s in during the Viet Nam era. He would be about 86 if he were alive today.
If that's true, double hats off to you, sir. One for having an awesome profession, and one for living so long, and still using the internet properly.
@@zatozatoichi7920 Also see my comments.
Ain’t no was 95 year olds know how to use RUclips
In the 1950's my dad, a WW II B-17 pilot who was shot down and spent 2 years as a POW, had just reported to Sedalia AFB, MO. It had been closed after WW II and was just reopening when we arrived. The base was in bad shape when we arrived. There was no base housing we we rented a farm house off base. The main gate was a wooden shack like an over-sized outhouse with two guards only armed with a night stick. The base only had old WW II B-25 medium bombers.
The only on base entertainment was one of the wooden WW II barracks converted into a theater with metal folding chairs and a 16 mm projector showing WW II gun camera films of planes being shot down on a white sheet used as the screen. Everything was pretty primitive until just before the B-47's arrived when there was a lot of new construction on the base.
The reason Sedalia AFB was reopened was because it was to be converted into a B-47 base. I remember very clearly the day most of the base was standing beside the runway when all of the old B-25's took off followed in a few minutes by the first squadron of B-47's landing. We had never seen anything like the B-47 and it appeared to be an invasion of UFO's. It was a beautiful aircraft.
Sedalia AFB was renamed Whiteman AFB is is now home to the B-2 stealth bomber.
My dad flew B-47's and B-52's during the Cold War. Unfortunately, he died on active duty in 1971 at the age of 51. At the time, I was a Marine 1st Lieutenant who had served as a Marine platoon commander in Vietnam 1968-69. After 21 years of service, I retired in 1989, had a new career supporting the development of new DoD technologies until I permanently retired on Dec 31, 2015. I'm now 74 and enjoying retirement, but I still think about my parents almost everyday. They were the best parents a kid could ever hope to have had. What an adventure those early days growing up in the Air Force was to see the unbelievable advances in new aircraft.
My Dad was a B47 navigator based in Cali. Then became one of the best B52 Radar Navigators in SAC at Robins AFB and Loring AFB, where his team won the Bomb-Comp.
Thank you for your family's service to the United States of America. Alarmingly she has suffered a treasonous infection from within, is now walking, seriously wounded. We all pray she will survive this flesh eating bacteria, now infesting every element of her formerly beautiful, historically unique Freedom. ;}
What a great story!
Thanks for sharing it, and thank you for your service.
@@blogengeezer4507
Sad, but so true...
awesome, thanks for sharing, and your service
Just a point of information, as my father flew both the B-47 and B-52. The Strategic Air Command was not referred to as the "Ess Aye See" but rather as "Sack", rhyming with track. B-47s are good looking, but I know pilot's wives much preferred the more reliable B-52. My mom called the B-47 a widow maker. One more point. Dad once took his 47 out to a spot where National Guard F-86s were to engage in a simulated dogfight with him. The fighter pilots called on the radio and asked him to drop altitude, as the 47 was flying too high for them to get to it.
Yup... most definitely "sack".
Again, the most useless comment cuz it doesn't matter. My father worked for SAC but I'm not throwing my back out over the pronunciation of an acronym.
I was wondering that the h3ll this guy was talking about - S aye see. I was stationed near Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico.
And they always referred to it as the "sac" base.
@@justinisaacs9617 It may not matter to you, but calling the comment the most useless shows it's you that doesn't matter, jackass.
SAC, ie, strategic air command. i was part of SAC in 1960 assigned to a B47 and we were considered the elite of the air force at the time. no one ever referred to SAC as sack, that would be an insult
The phrase “ground breaking aircraft” has some irony to it for pilots afraid it would crash.
Yeah casualty rates were high for test pilots back then (not even joking)
@@kameronjones7139 well it was sort of war.. and the test pilots was... well not quite expendable. But.. when the situation is one test pilots or 10 combat pilots in the field
ideally the test pilot increases the combat pilots lethality in a steady eay without dying until the enemy surrenders.
It was nicknamed the Widow Maker with good reason... It was also believed by many pilots to be a bit over powered, and a bit squirrelly at the Controls.
@@kevinswinyer3176 When you push the edge of (current) technology, sometimes technology pushes back! This can be seen in some of today's cost overruns and quietly cancelled projects!
However, at that point we were at an almost wartime status and just like WW2, some planes got rushed into production a lot earlier than they should have and it took awhile for all of the bugs to be worked out!! (just like the B-36 engine fire problem...)
I've never heard of SAC pronounced S.A.C. It is always "sack."
Yup. Same for TAC and MAC.
But then again that was before most RUclipsrs were born. 😄
I was going to say that too... especially as somebody who was assigned to "the SAC" (Strategic Air Command) back during Gulf War I.
And it's not "the SAC" - just SAC
Not his first mispronunciation.
@@efromhb Maybe just watch "Dr. Strangelove." Kubrick, an Englishman, uses the term correctly, along with slogan "Peace is Our Profession."
I am picturing Jimmy Stewart flying one in the movie Strategic Air Command.
One of the beat scenes in that movie.
General Jimmy Stewart really did fly B-47’s in the air guard.
@@stebnalang2824 p
@@dougbennett8592 p
@@dougbennett8592 o
My great uncle Rex Witzel died in a B-47 crash in 1956 in Amarillo, TX. Thank you for this video.
Salute to him!
I'm so sorry to hear that. God bless your uncle for his service.
Every history teacher in GA mentioned the midair collision near Tybee, they fail to mention it fell into a swamp which if you know anything about Georgia estuaries and swamps... Means it's gone forever.
Really? Like how deep are Georgia swamps to swallow an entire jet
"unarmed bomb"
The gnomes living in the center of the Earth probably captured it for weapons research. They may strike at any time...
@@Future-Preps35 The jet landed safely
@@user-ox4bv3it4i as deep as the ones in Florida that swallowed a passenger jetliner valujet back in the 90s
You can really see the origins of the B52 here.
Keep the design, make the fuselage a bit longer, tail a bit taller, stick on 2 more engines and shift them around on the wings, voila, B47 evolved into a B52.
@@Nelsonwmj Well the engines of the B52 is twice as powerful.. and .. the plane is more than twice as heavy. But the T/W ratio is better.
The odd 100 tons of the B47 wouldn´t be that unusual for bombers in this era. Considering the B36 was quite a bit bigger, and even the comet airliner was around that range.
The 220 tons of the B52 was huge. Considering the B52 was alreddy under development when the B47 was introduced. Would really not be untill the 747 there was a considerably larger aircraft around
@@Nelsonwmj Especially with the XB52 and YB52.
I thought the same, reason why I'm here. Such a lovely creation.
Same thought, especially when there was a close in shot showing the underbelly and saw the gear doors.
My Grandfather used to fly the Reconnaissance version, the RB47.
Did he sit in the bomb bay or cockpit? BTW, I'm in the 55th Wing.
Damn that must’ve been badass to fly the first generation of jets. Imagine how cool it would be to fly cutting edge technology.
@@jonniez62 Was the 55th at Little Rock with the 47?
@@paulgray1699 No, they were at Forbes prior to move to Offutt.
@@jonniez6211years at Forbes .9years as a crew chief in the 55th.
9:52 "F-88 Saber" should be F-86 Sabre. The XF-88 was Voodoo. (Minor issue.)
Very entertaining content as always. Thank you.
Sabre...
@@georgemcmillan9172
(I knew it looked wrong...) ;-)
What's funny, is that he said F-86 Sabre a mere 15 seconds later. ;-) 10:05
This channel isn't known for its accuracy...
@@AnonymousFreakYT I was wondering what production of BT13's (17:02) had to do with the B47?
Just to clarify: (because with no explanation it doesn’t really sound like a compliment)
What Chuck Yeager meant by “I had difficulty landing” is that the aircraft wants to fly, the design creates so much lift that the aircraft “wants” to stay in the air. And when you get close to the ground you get what is called “ground effect” that momentarily increases lift even more.
All the best to everyone
Are you sure it wasn't because he wanted to just keep flying that plane? 🤣🤣🤣
A fellow I used to work with started his AF career flying B-17s and ended it flying the B-47. His squadron was once transferred to Anderson AFB (Guam), and during their time there ended up returning from a training mission on the edges of a typhoon. Two approaches were aborted because of bad winds, and on the third he saw they weren't going to touch down soon enough, and rather than do another go around, deployed the braking 'chute. Which ended the flight right there. When the deployment ended after that, he separated from the service and continued flying civilian aircraft.
why do they tie light aircraft down when air speed reaches 30 mph they start to get agitated to fly.same problem on aircraft carrier doing 30 knots into a head wind equals take off.
My father was a B-47 pilot (aircraft commander and instructor pilot) from 1957 to 1966. He flew the last operational B-47E in the US from Lincoln AFB, Nebraska to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona in February 1966. One thing that wasn't mentioned in the video is that there were dozens of B-47 bases scattered around the US during its tenure. When the B-47 was phased out, the bases were either decommissioned of repurposed for other aircraft (mainly the B-52). Once all of the bombers were gone from Lincoln AFB, they opened up the flight line to dependents, and my friends and I would ride our bicycles out on the tarmac. We were transferred to Travis AFB, California (C-141), and Lincoln AFB was closed shortly thereafter.
I have mixed memories about the B-47 and Lincoln AFB. The plane tried to kill my father with its wonky flying characteristics even though he was one of the best pilots any of those who flew with him ever knew. Regardless, my father thought it was a challenge, and he loved that part of it. I remember sitting inside a bomb shelter my father directed me to build in our basement on Lincoln AFB just before he flew off (bound for "the racetrack") during the Cuban Crisis. I spent my 13th birthday stocking that bomb shelter after it was built. It changed the way I looked at life from then on.
Keep prepping, Brother.
I was just bit younger. Dad had gone from B-47s to B-52s by then and I remember is so clearly. That event shaped my view of the world as well.
I just arrived at Plattsburg AFB during the missal crises. All of the bombers in the alert force were lined up and ready to launch on a moment's notice. They all had nukes on board. It was a scary time. I started to wonder if enlisting in the Air Force was really a good idea or not.
Bill were you forever living in fear of annihilation after that. .?
No offence meant.
@@somewhatsomething4882 No. It just taught me that your life can be snuffed out at any time through no fault of your own. You need to live every day of your life as if it is your last because it may be.
She had her personality problems but B47 was a beautiful looking thing.
I don't know why but I've always loved its look.
Pretty ones are always hard to deal with.
Yy yyyyyy
@@itsapittie Ty y
@@itsapittie Ty
I got to admit that the model with all the engines in a “pod” right behind the cockpit and at the wing roots is pretty cool.
?
It looked awesome. I bet the jet flames would set the plane on fire though. So it had to go back to the wings.
I wonder if that was meant to give SAM’s a hard time
They are rockets that are lit for a faster assisted take off
JATO bottles.
C-130’s used them a lot-
Look up
“Fat Albert Blue Angels Nighttime” or “Credible Sport”
which was even more extreme.
“Zero Length Launch” projects used monstrous versions of these systems to launch jet fighters off of trucks,trailers&trains.
It took me a moment to understand what S-A-C was. It's the Strategic Air Command in my home town. We call it SAC, pronounced, "sack." Those planes flew overhead when I was a kid.
.. I guess a BUF just doesn't sound right as "the B-U-F" LOL I also wasn't sure what "the S-A-C" was at first.
B-45 Tornado was actually the first jet powered bomber to enter US service as well as the first multi engine jet bomber to be refueled in flight.
Looked like a large fighter didn't it?
This. The B-47 may have been the first swept-wing jet bomber in US service, but it entered service 3 years after the B-45.
@@CarlJacobsen no may have been about it. B47 was THE first swept wing jet bomber, all later passenger jets and the B52 borrowed from the breakthrough. Until stealth, it was cutting edge design.
@@citadelgrad87 right, the point was, the B-47 was not the first jet bomber in service in the US, the B-45 did that years earlier.
@@CarlJacobsen sure, but it was just a propeller plane with different engines, practically speaking. It wasnt the breakthrough like the B47 was. My dad flew them, he and anyone who knows history calls it the first swept wing jet bomber.
When I was a kid I saw four of these take off from a base in Kansas with JATO assists as shown in the early shot here,. It was a tremendous sight. I was nine years old in 1958 but I can still see them in my mind and memory. They may have not been the best plane for the job intended but they were and still are the most beautiful bombers ever made.
You probably had the best child hood I wish children like me these days were normal and cool
The routine use of JATO reflects the weak J-47 engines -- good enough for cruise but marginal for take-offs.
@@guyalmes8523 Yeah Guy, mechanically the 47 was a train wreck but they still were the most beautiful aircraft in the US arsenal.
@@billgrandone3552 Exactly. BTW I grew up on a SAC base (Hunter Field) near Savannah GA, so I resonate with that childhood image of the B-47 taking off amidst the noise and visually exciting JATO. I just thought that's the way all jet airplanes took off. :-)
One of the reasons for the high accident rates was our lack of understanding about metal fatigue in jet aircraft, in many cases the wings simply failed and came off the planes because we had not developed the kind of metallurgy needed for jet aircraft that sustained such extreme aerodynamic stresses.
You must have talked with de Havilland Comet makers. They discovered it with their passenger planes. One thing it showed was that square windows were not a good idea for jet flight. They ultimately found out in 1954, two years after launch, and the Comet 1 was grounded forever. If losses of B-47 hulls could perhaps be hidden, the loss of the Comets could not.
It was not so much lack of metallurgic technical knowledge. They knew how to make the wings stronger; it was corrected quickly. They just did not know what strength level was necessary, since the concept of metal fatigue was, indeed, unknown.
Boeing, Douglas and the rest, beaten to the punch by de Havilland, were relieved. They even allegedly admitted that, without the Comet accidents, they would have made the exact same errors... de Havilland never really recovered and was absorbed in the early 1960s.
@@martinhoude3518 What are you trying to say? This guy’s comment was about metal fatigue, the B47 flew in 1947, and the comet in 1954. Exactly what lessons did boeing learn from a plane that came out 7 years later?
@@kingssuck06 The Comet had square windows, which magnified the problem of metal fatigue due to mis-evaluated stressors. It was not unknown before that, as the B-47 problems show, but its importance was not completely acknowledged and not widely known. Military technological problems don't have a quick way to make it to civilian technology.
The military plane was also flying at the edge of technology and material tolerance; civil aviation is supposed to be safe in comparison. That the wings would fail feels "logical"; that windows could create the fuselage failing problems, not quite intuitive. Boeing themselves, along with Douglas, benefited from the lessons of the Comet; they would have used square windows too.
@@kingssuck06 Yeah, I was wondering about those dates
@martinhoude3518 Comet had issues with the rivets causing minute stress cracks.
The Comet problem wasn't due to square windows.
My grandfather was a mechanic in the Air Force and worked on the B-47’s while deployed to Morocco in the 50’s. Other than the photos in his scrapbook he has from his time in the service, I’ve only been able to find little information on these jets since they became obsolete so quickly.
My Father did also and was deployed to Morocco or North Africa as he most often called it in conversation. He did maitainence on the 47's Communications, navigation and radar systems.
My sister has a ring he made out of a coin by tapping on it with a soup spoon while he was there. No pictures - I'd love to see yours. Is there one of a guy wrapped in a single piece of cloth for clothing? My dad used to talk about him.
B-47 crews, based in the CONUS, would occasionally deploy for six-week periods to North Africa, Spain, or Britain, so that they could be on alert from a position that would threaten the USSR without the need for air-to-air refueling.
they deployed to do Recon during the Gulf of Suez incident.
@@paulgray1699 I distinctly remember the son of an AF officer stationed in Libya telling me that the rule was, if you ran over a local...go back and run him over again to make sure he didn't survive---otherwise you would be paying his family for the rest of ALL their lives!
@@jelink22 OK. Pretty sure that didn't apply to my Dad as they were never allowed off base during the deployment.
Arguably the most beautiful bomber of it's time. I find humor in the fact of looking at it nose on, the B-47 appears to be smiling. I recently visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton Ohio. I was able to study it's lines and symmetry at length. It is built for speed and looks like an oversized fighter jet. You get the sense that it's going fast at rest and yearning to spread it's wings to the air.
The B-47, along with the Deperdussin Monocoque race plane and the Douglas DC-3 airliner, are among the most influential airplanes ever built. Modern subsonic jet airliners operate on the aerodynamic principles pioneered by the B-47.
that's nice to know they were just sitting next to the runway fully loaded with nuclear weapons ready to launch anytime geez people just has no idea how close we got to Armageddon
I was stationed at Eielson AFB. in "77", had the privilege of watching B-57, B-45 & B-47 from diffrent guard unit's still flying.
B-45 Tornado....Wow!! What was that aircraft like?
@@badian37 It was my second cart start and last I'd witness, B-57 being the first.
Me : I want a b52
Mom : we have a b52 at home
*B52 at home*
Lol
get a new idea, this shit is old.
@@noth606 get a better personality
B52 at home B47
@@devikwolf maybe you should. It's old and it gets very boring.
When men were men and had true grit. Arguably one of the proudest times in U.S. History.
Up here we have the B47 Pride of the Adirondacks that has been on display for decades after service at the Plattsburgh Air Force Base.
It is currently undergoing a restoration by a group of volunteers.
I worked on that plane back in the early 60s. It was a hanger queen for awhile after having a rough landing. I heard that the base no longer exists, is that correct?
@@AMVETSWA correct. PAFB closed in the 90's due to a BRAC commission decision. It's been a blow to the community that has been decades trying to recover.
Here is a little video I did last year of the Air Park and the work going on.
ruclips.net/video/1sV-QwW1YtM/видео.html
@@ChamplainValleyRailSnapshots Is the run way being utilized locally, or was it ripped out also?
My dad was a navigator on these jets with, Brigadier General, Ronald Urschler. My dad used to tell me the most incredible stories of their missions. I was in such awe. I thank General Urshler and co pilot, Don Brockel, for bringing my dad home every time.
when these lock downs are over, I think ill take a trip to America and go on a tour of all the aircraft museums
Don't wait- get out of that country now. It's horrific what they are doing to you with these lock downs
This aircraft is where SAC got really serious about it's mission
So flying a B36 is easy as pie.
A pilot flew one UNDER the Mackinaw Bridge which connects the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.
and Curtis Lemay made sure every SAC crew knew that he was furious about it.
My father, now over 100, was a WWII C47 pilot serving in N. Africa, Italy, and Britain, including dropping paratroopers on D-Day at 6 am, but after the war and a short airline stint and B-25 instructor, went into SAC RB-36's and eventually became a B47 pilot and squadron leader based at Pease AFB, NH. His life as a SAC squadron commander was very difficult with 2 weeks on ready status, 2 weeks off; then 3 month temporary duty based in Scotland and elsewhere on the Arctic Circle border with the USSR. Very tough on family. I ended up at MIT in aeronautical engineering though graduated differently. Actually, the innovations were many. The flex in the wings, which looks crazy in this video, was a major design innovation carried into all heavy jet aircraft. They actually flexed upward in flight. This movement actually improved its ability to withstand turbulence at high speeds--too rigid and stiff wings would catastrophically fail when hit by turbulence at over 400 mph. The long relatively thin and high aspect ratio (wing length divided by chord) wings also provide higher lift and lower drag (like gliders) than lower aspect ratio wings at higher altitudes and higher speeds. Higher altitudes greatly improve range and fuel efficiency in jet engines, finally making them a reasonable choice along with the design features of the B47 for commercial airliners instead of the cranky radial engines turbocharged for high altitude attached to stiff straight low aspect ratio wings. The B47 was faster and flew higher than fighters of the day--they needed to be able to shoot at ones coming up from below, not from in front or above-hence only the tail gun.
I remember seeing a B-47 when the first one stationed in Mountain Home AFB, Idaho announced its arrival by flying low over town in the summer of 1955 (think). My dad wound up being a B-47 navigator/bombardier a few years later, operating out of Pease AFB in New Hampshire. I watched a lot of MITO take-offs from our home in nearby Dover, as plane after plane soared over our heads from Pease, only five miles away. I also saw a huge explosion when one went down just after take-off, killing the entire crew. IIRC Pease alone lost four or five of them to accidents. Hence its name" "The Widowmaker". P.S, Remind me to tell you some time how my dad gave me a private tour of an operational and fully-armed Titan II ICBM site outside Tucson, AZ a few years later. Yep, I stood right underneath that sucker, which had a 10 megaton warhead and was ready to go!
Pease AFB was a very unique B-47 station. It had not just one but two air wings, the 100th and 509th Bombardment Wings with the 509th being the direct descendent of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki strike forces. (The 509th as part of the Eighth Air Force is now based at Whitman AFB with their B-2 bombers.) Pease was a key base for SAC's B-47 force and was one of the last AFB's to station the B-47 as the two wings converted to the B-52 by 1966.
When I was a kid, we lived at Hampton Beach, NH directly under the take-off flight path of B-47s and their SAC refueling tankers, the KC-97s, a B-29 variant. I used to run out of our house each time I heard them approaching and I still do today when Pease KC-135s (now phased out), its twelve new KC-46s, and C-5s (based at Westover Air Reserve Base) overfly Seabrook on their way out over the Atlantic. Yes, Pease and their SAC B-47s, B-52s (albeit very shortly based here due to transfer to the Vietnam theater), and the long-serving FB-111s are part of the genetics I suppose. I miss the AFB but at least the refurbished NH Air National Guard base excites nearly as much as times long ago.
PS Pease was the first base to receive the long-troubled Boeing (what a crappy company since its move to Chicago) KC-46 again demonstrating the importance of Pease to national defense strategy.
@@texleeger8973 I was there on Sept. 11 this year, when the Thunderbirds performed. I first saw the latter in the '60's at Pease when they were flying F-100 Super Sabres.
Interesting, the T-birds no longer perform that starburst then they climb together and then go into four directions and then descend to cross right above the runway.. Maybe it's considered too dangerous for crowds today, after the Italians careening into the crowd in Germany... The other thing I remember, one of the Honor Guard there for SECAF Donald Quarles fainted right in front of him during his review. It was damned hot that day!
I know I sound biased but hot damn, it never ceases to amaze me how innovative the US and Boeing are when it comes to aircraft. I mean, other then Germany, Japan, and the UK there arent many countries to produce groundbreaking aircraft. The Soviets did a few great aircraft (partially using german tech or stolen western tech) and the canadians had the Avro, but even massive countries like India, China, and France haven't dont much of note in the last century (although admittedly India wasnt independent for part of that). Even today China relies heavily on licensed Russian tech/designs or stolen tech/designs for their aircraft and France's Airbus mostly either produces aircraft very similar to other countries or they contribute to joint projects like the EuroFighter
Being a highly swept wing at high speed, they also learned about roll-reversal issues with the aileron system. This led to the employment of roll spoilers many high speed airplanes.
My Dad was stationed at Chennault AF base in Louisiana when I was in 7th grade. I remember being so scared every time they went on alert, because we never knew if it was real or a drill. All those jets taking off at once. Wow!
I was an Instrument Tech on the B47 from 1957 to 61 , loved to watch them take off on Jeto. bottles.
It was Moses Lake AFB, later renamed Larson AFB.
The first jets are and will always be some of my favorites
My father piloted the B47 and went on before he retired to pilot the B-58. He loved both planes, but did say having to wear a mask all the time in the unpressurized cabin of the 47 was kind of cumbersome.
My great Uncle died on this aircraft in South Dakota. Veteran of WWII. B25 Billy Mitchell. RIP Uncle Neil...
Underrated plane. It deserves to be flying like the B52
Yeah totally, even tough its not at all Adiquite for modern service
B52 is in another league better.
Medium range bombers are kinda obsolete as a role. They’d use a strike fighter or interdict or type instead.
No it doesn't it has a awful safety record
As in the video a 10% loss rate, but I bet it was larger than that when you include training accidents where the plane was not a complete write off.
Thats a lot of flight crew to lose.
Tip: SAC is pronounced just like the word “sack.” Otherwise excellent video.
Bbhe
So what you're saying is Soviet interceptors were meant to hit America right in the SAC?
@@skaldlouiscyphre2453 it meant that the Americans were going to hit the Soviets with their big steel SAC
Actually the , mostly American, tendency to pronounce avronyms as words evolved mainly in the 1950's. Prior to that it was not as common.
@@shebbs1 That may be, but for most of the the first 18 years of my life, my father was a pilot in SAC. He was a Colonel when SAC stood down. In all of my childhood, my father and his buddies called SAC “sack”, MAC “mack”, TAC “tack.” During official functions, these commands were referred to in the aforementioned manner or by their proper names, e.g. “Strategic Air Command.”
I am amazed to learn that the '47 was developed DURING World War II. Here's more proof that the reason German WWII equipment seems to be more "advanced" than Allied kit is that the Germans were more desperate and felt that they had to hurry their design and testing, despite the cost in reliability and even functionality.
Have to remember we using tried & true designs that were @ the zenith of their design. They could be produced in mass quantities w/out any manufacturing or teething problems inherent in radically new designs.
@@jamessimms415 Chieftain makes the point that early on, Washington realized that anything they sent over had to keep working, with regular maintenance, until it was destroyed because bringing it back for rebuilding was too big a burden. Even a lot of warships and transports were never stateside until the war ended.
But back to my first point: Can you imagine what it would have been like if USAAF had shown up in 1944 over Germany with a jet powered heavy bomber that would have outpaced the Focke-Wulf? But that would never have happened because the Stratojet wasn't ready yet. Even the B-29 was deliberately not flown against Germany because Command decided it wasn't needed there.
When my old man was flying these out of March AFB, the SOP for warhead delivery was to fly NOE (Nap Of the Earth) then pop up to 5 thousand feet; deploy the warhead, then split S away. They started to loose aircraft but nobody knew why; the crews never got out or didn't know what happened. Then the Air Force discovered that the wing root rivets were failing and the wings were coming off.
My dad had went into a 4 way purchase of a Navion so him and three other buddies could 'commute' from their recent PCS to Mtn Home AFB back to March where they all had houses still. The other three guys died in one of those crashes, and he bought out the widows; that's how he got our plane N3374G.
You could fly the 47 like a fighter, but it wasn't designed to fly it that way.
The B-47's days were numbered when it almost killed Jimmy Stewart.
It was known as "The Widow Maker".
Remember the seven 100 BW aircraft that were lost.
@@thefederalist9982, my father and crew were in the 100th, crashing shortly after takeoff. No survivors. 😢
@@6milemary419
When Mary?
I may have been a small boy then, but I remember it to this day.
@@thefederalist9982, December 8th, 1964.
@@6milemary419
A little more after the Nov. 4th crash of a KC-97.
Your father's plane went down in Newington or near Panaway Manor (?) - cannot remember which (I was a small boy).
(Pilot) Major Daniel J. Campion Jr., 34.
(Co-pilot) Captain Truman A. Burch, 28.
(Navigator) Major John R. North, 30.
(Observer) Captain Bennie Ward Forrester, 27.
Could you do a video on the harriers? Cos I've never seen a properly in depth video on that marvel of a plane
There’s a very good video on the subject of VTOL flight, primarily the Harrier, by Real Engineering
This channel is notorious for bad information and blatant errors, consider it entertainment
Pegasus
@@BikingVikingHH Good to know, random guy on the internet.
I grew up in Moses Lake. I lived close by the grant county international airport. My mom worked at a car rental place near the airport and I got to see many military aircraft since its one of the world's longest runways.
I worked on many of the B47 at Little Rock AFB from 1961 to 1964. Electronic Counter Measures on the 70 and later the 384 bomb wing.
I think the reason the B-52 had the airliner configuration with the pilot and co pilot sitting next to each other and the ability to get up and walk around the plane had to be the inline fighter configuration of the B-47 where the pilot was stuck in that seat for the duration of the flight. B-52 pilots could get up and go rest on a cot while the other one flew the plane.
There's actually enough room in a B-47 cockpit for the crew to get out of their seats. There's an accessway that runs along the left side of the cockpit which was how the pilot and copilot entered and exited the plane. In practice though, moving about the cockpit wasn't an option for them, the B-47 was a handful to fly and they were busy doing so pretty much the whole time it was airborne.
I'm from savannah, locals say that thing is still there off the coast of tybee.
Pretty sure one of local shrimpers found it and has it in his den.
I live there now. Even more mind blowing, I grew up in Moses Lake the place mentioned this video where the plane landed.
The B-36 and then the 47 had the shortest service lives in Air Force history...they were superceded by follow on designs so quickly. Imagine telling a young Lieutenant out of bomber school that his brand new B-52 in 1960 will still be flying in 2021...
My grandpa worked on the prototype for this bomber and he sure is proud of it.
He’s kinda losing his mind now but he can tell you about him working on this jet 😊
Love your videos man! 👍🏼
B-45 was the first operational jet bomber. B-47 was first with swept wings.
The world's first operational jet bomber was the German Ar 234, though the situation in 1945 meant that it was mostly confined to reconnaissance missions.
I got to fly in one of these back in the late 1950's. I was a kid in the Civil Air Patrol at a camp on a Texas Air base, near the end six of us were picked to ride on take off and landing training missions. Just after we finished the trips a tornado come across the base and wreaked a jet fighter and killed 3 airmen, I was miles away on the other side of the base. But I'll never forget that day.
Thank u for this great vid! My father headed up the repair crew on the
Reconnaissance RB-47H craft - for his 4 years of service during which time they had no mechanical failures. He will enjoy this.
For some reason this made me immediately think of the 747 mothership concept-
I immediately thought of the P-47 for some reason.
It sort of looks like a 747.
It’s weird but I thought of the USS Kitty Hawk for some reason
@@lizard869 i dont see the resemblance to a ship! Lol
Me too!
6:10 you forgot South Korea since my grandpa used to guard them in the early 60s
One of these was involved in an accident in Northern Ontario in the 50s near the old US military base near Pagwa. Apparently a fighter jet collided with one during a training exercise. For the longest time one of the engines stuck out of the river....
What is really amazing is that this thing was on the drawing boards while USAAF crews were flying over Germany and the Pacific in relatively crude, unpressurized B-17s, B-24s and B-25s and were operational only a few years later. Talk about fast progress of technology! I am sure the flying experience and the training that went into this was nothing less than revolutionary. Imagine the experience of a pilot, bombardier and navigator used to flying one of those “old birds” now behind the controls of a B-47 a few short years later!
According to the history books, Boeing placed the engines in underslung pods to prevent engine fires from consuming the wing. This had happened during the B29 development costing a plane and it's crew. Note that the British had used wing root mounted jet engines on their early jets..
I read somewhere that the engine pylons help counteract the bending force from the lift on the leading edge of the wing.
@@briancavanagh7048 Well, I won't discount it.
A B47 flew under the Makinac Bridge in Michigan.
And barely made it!
I remember watching B-47 aircraft landing at Luke AFB in Arizona, they had a drag chute deployed in the pattern to slow it down for landing. Circa 1963.
Back in the late seventies a good friend of mine was a retired AF B-47 pilot. He told me about all of his experiences flying the B-47. They used to use a rocket pack attached to the lower aft fuselage to assist take off. The early engines were very weak thrust wise. Everyone had to do a JATO take off to qualify. On his qualification flight the frame holding the rockets broke and rotated, so that the blast went into the fuselage. It did extensive damage. He managed to land safely. During debriefing he was asked if he wanted the flight to count as his qualification flight. You can guess his answer. He said the the ailerons at higher speeds would act as trim tabs cause the wings to twist. This sent the plane in the opposite direction. This is why the B-52 uses spoilers instead.
There’s one of these along Interstate 95. I think it’s in Georgia. Such a beautiful aircraft.
The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, in Pooler, GA.
@@bradgoodman9137 and not far from Hunter AFB, just south of Savannah, where 2nd Bomb Wing B-47s flew during the mid/late 1950s.
Where can I get that thumbnail picture? It’s gorgeous!
Its on Wikipedia. Type B-47B using JATO bottles to reduce takeoff distance
Kinetic Sculpture. When an object steps over the boundaries of form and function and, in spite of everything, becomes Art.
So typical (and sadly so human) such a magnificent object needed to be built for the delivery of mayhem and death.
There’s a B-47 still on static display in Plattsburgh, NY, near the former Plattsburgh AFB. In fact, it was given a polish last year and looks great. Beautiful aircraft.
B-52 Precursor
For those who might think a $10million contract wouldn't suggest much interest, $10million '44 dollars is equal to $148 million 2021 dollars
Fair, but even with inflation, $148 million is almost nothing for R&D budgets.
@@CrypidLore especially for such a ground breaking plane
I attended a talk by the initial test pilot. He said the prototype had only an ADF for navigation and shortly after departure from Boeing Field, they were on top of a solid under cast all the way to Mosses Lake where a five mile diameter sucker hole was in place directly over the field. They landed and remained on board while being towed into a hangar. Exiting the aircraft and hangar a few minutes later, the field was zero zero, completely fogged in.
The early jet engines spooled up erratically. Some would take 15 seconds going from idle to max power, others, thirty seconds. This presented asymmetric yaw/control problems, especially on approach for landing, go arounds and pattern work. The solution was an airborne,”Approach,” drag chute that allowed the pilots to keep the engines spooled at mid thrust where acceleration would be shorter and symmetrical. Airbase communities had to get used to the sight of aircraft flying around with chutes deployed and numerous panicked phone calls had to be fielded until the new normal was assimilated.
That is what my father flew. Beautiful aircraft.
They really knew how to build them back then.
There is something about aircraft from that time.
It was a beautiful plane!👍
As an airline mechanic trained in the 1960s I was quite familiar with the technology of the aircraft that fought WWII, as well as the later development of jet aircraft. In the 1970s I had a chance to closely inspect a B-47 that was parked at the airport in Pueblo, Colorado. The advanced design and complexity of everything I saw on the airplane made it hard to believe that the type first flew in 1947. It occurred to me that the air crews and maintenance crews of the time must have felt as if a super airplane from far in the future must have somehow been delivered into their care. I think the B-47 was as big a leap for the USAF as the Me-262 was for the Luftwaffe.
An old friend from Lincoln Ne was on the Stratojet and told me about 'cast bombing' and said a demo was done in view of the Russian Navy to make a point. He also spent many hours in a 'hot' plane at the end of a runway during the Cuban missile crisis - ready to go in case things went bad. Scary times!
This guy always sounds like he has to go to the bathroom really bad.
Keeps the vids short don't you think ,less bullshit ads
As a kid, I thought it was a cold-war fighter, not a bomber.
TBH I thought every war plane was a fighter
You were probably thinking of the P-47, VERY HARD TO CONFUSE.
@@b226tj no, I was looking at a book that had every single american military aircraft, which included pictures. I do love the p-47 though, it's a cool plane!
My dad was a crew chief on these at Altus AFB, OK. His B-47 has sat in the city park since, when these were decommissioned after the B-52 came on board.
This plane was ahead of its time .. and the Soviets knew it. They had nothing even close to competing, leading to a crucial strategic deterrent in the early hot phase of the Cold War. But pushing the envelope of technology came with a much greater margin for error. The pilots who strapped into these beasts were quite aware of those risks, as well as the advantage the B-47 provided to the country. They did so willingly in mission after mission, day after day, night after night. Hundreds of them died in training accidents so prevalent that to continue would be unheard of today. But the threat back then was existential. They knew that keeping that pressure on would keep us safe from a nuclear holocaust. They were correct. Their sacrifices and those of their families was not in vain. They protected us with everything they had, including life itself. We can never repay such heroism, but we can and should remember it always. God Bless, fair winds and clear skies to them all. Thank you my heroes !
Hey, loving the videos. Could you do a video on the F7U Cutlass? It's a pretty unique design, something a bit different :)
Skyray too
The gutless cutlass.
Gutless Cutless or Ensign Eliminator...
My fav is f4u
The Cutlass was dangerous and wasnt around for long. Prob not enough material for its own episide.
I went to go buy a pair of nice speakers from a retiree recently who told me his father was killed during the B47 flight test program. Longitudinal control problems..
1:15 A slide rule. Let that sink in.
A family friend was an Air Force pilot instructor. He flew bombers in WWII and cargo planes in Korea and early Viet Nam days til he retired. He was checked out in the B47 and he loved that aircraft. He said it was more like flying a fighter than a bomber.
On my short list of "Sex With Wings" along with the P-38 Lighting, F4U Corsair, B-58 Hustler, and the F-102 and F-106 Delta Dart and Daggers, and F-14 Tomcat among a few others....Everything else is just a truck with wings.....
Yeah, but you take the truck and shove two GE J-79's in it, bingo! Ya gotta F4H Phantom II!
@@johnharris7353 Three of my cousins (one Navy he served two tours in the "Brown Water Navy"), one a Marine "Grunt" with two tours under his belt, and one as an Air Force FAC embedded with various Army units during his two tours all spoke highly of the F4 especially in a close air support configuration during the Vietnam War. In fact Buddy (the Riverine Vet) made it abundantly clear on many occasions that he and his unit(s) owed their lives to Navy/Marine/and Air Force crews who put their "trucks" down in the weeds so to speak to provide that close air support. I have nothing but respect for the men who flew the F4 in ANY configuration and the plane itself for it's durability under fire and long and proud service life.
How about the F-15, it has never been shot down by another plane
@@rodirby5952 The F-15 is a great plane no doubt about it but so was the F-14, and the F-16 continues to soldier on. It's like the difference between a No. 2 pencil runway model and Raquel Welch in her prime, to my eye, when it comes to those earlier planes which reflect that post WWII "reach for the future"" attitude aircraft designers and builders had before it became clear that a flying truck that can be reconfigured from sleek supersonic fighter/interceptor to pretty damn fast bomber. But then my all time favorite Chevy Corvette is the split window model with the 327cid fuel injected (not very good fuel injection but fuel injection all the same). It's all in the eye of the beholder.
Inaccuracies here! !:-(
Yes, that's his trade mark. Interesting stories, botched details.
@@joeyjamison5772 sad 🖖
I love watching B-52’s do an elephant walk.
It was definately a giant leap forward for jet powered bombers and reconacance planes. I really like the model with the engines clustered behind the cockpit.
1:52 Wait a minute, wait a minute. In the early 1940’s, WWII was not “about to end”. And how does a Boeing aerodynamicist get sent to Germany on a “research trip” while we were at war with them?
In early 1945, much of Germany was under allied control
"Research trip"...you mean stealing aero secrets that the Germans had gathered? A lot of the aero and space travel came from Nazi engineering.
posted 23 mins ago and 23 comments... we live in a simulation
If the B-47 was such a good aircraft, why was it replaced with the B-52 in it's variants?
And now, the 52 has served for over 50 years! It's still being used in some capacity.
The need for long range bombers for a nuclear delivery system has been lost, due to the ICBM and submarines that can deliver nukes from anywhere in the world's oceans.
Because the B47 lacked the range SAC needed
The B-47 was an excellent plane and, when combined with excellent crews, were a very effective deterrent during the 1950s. The urgency of the Cold War, particularly during the early/mid 1950s, required something that worked, even as the B-52 was being developed.
But this clip does a pretty good job at making it clear why the B-47 was not going to last a long time. Weak J-47 engines, lack of range, and a number of details that contributed to the high accident rate all contributed to why they only flew for a few years.
Holly crap castle air museum I touch it 2 times a year it’s one of my favorite ones
Look up Paul Girl. Gen. Castles Navigator B17, story at base I.m related to him!
@@bryanguilbeau5636 that’s who it was named after?
Beautiful plane but a pain in the ass to fly
Maybe i'm wrong, but it sounded like you called the sabre an f - 88, not 86.
Dude. This plane is BAD ASS.....
MMM, I believe the North American B-45 Tornado was the first USAF Jet bomber that went into service. It did not have swept wings. Some of them were lent to the RAF to do clandestine reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union.
"groundbreaking aircraft" ... i see what you did there
I’m still waiting for this thing to be added to War Thunder.
Facts
My father helped build the B-47 at Boeing Wichita plant for a number of years. Then he worked on the B-52 when the B-47 construction was finished. Both of the USAAAF first jet bombers mostly came from one rather large building in Wichita, Kansas.
We know, that having the engines slung in pods, below the wings, has two advantages: (1) It allows for more wing-lift surface. (2) It lowers the center of gravity, giving the aircraft better handling when landing. All modern Jet liners utilize these design tactics. The Boeing design engineers who built this plane, are not the ones who designed the disastrous 737-MAX!