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Boeing B47 Heavy SAC Bomber
Courtesy Boeing Museum of Flight.
Edited by David Barth November 2014. Photos are by David Barth.
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| The Boeing Museum of Flight. |
The subsonic Boeing B47 was a heavy bomber that went into service during the late 1940s and was designed to carry a nuclear bomb. The proposed bombing method, to protect the crew and the plane from the blast, was to execute an Immelmann and release the bomb during the maneuver. The pilot would go to full power, begin pulling up into a half-loop, release the bomb, and continue the half-loop, rolling level at the top, flying in the opposite direction to get away from the effects of the nuclear blast. Unfortunately, in at least one instance, the pilot pulled up too hard, causing a wing spar failure with one or both of the wings folding, in which case, the pilots had to bail out.
The pilots rode in tandem position, one in front of the other. The B47's service life was short-lived, lasting only a few years, and it was replaced by the venerable, subsonic Boeing B52 which, as of 2014, remains as the core of the U.S. bomber fleet, more than 60 years after it entered service with General Curtis Lemay's Strategic Air Command (SAC).
Although the very expensive, subsonic B1, at a billion dollars a copy, is also in service, there are too few of them to mount a massive response using conventional ordinance which is why the U.S. continues to maintain the B52 fleet.
The B47 can be considered an intermediate solution to national defense. The lessons learned in its design were incorporated into the incredibly effective B52, which was also designed to deliver nuclear weapons prior to the implementation of land and sea-based missiles. It has proven itself in the ability to deliver a plethora of conventional weapons including antipersonnel munitions as well as tunnel smashers and bunker-busters.
Boeing Heavy Bombers, like the Boeing B47, Boeing B52, Northrup B1, and others, made up the first leg of the U.S. Defense Triad. The other two legs were introduced later, consisting of land-based missiles and fleet ballistic missile submarines. As of 2014, heavy bombers continue to be one of the three legs and are often used to effectively deliver conventional ordinance.
As of 2014, the Boeing Museum of Flight did not have a B52 on display, perhaps due to lack of space. However, many museums across the country have one on display including one in Denver, Colorado and another at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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| Boeing B47 Heavy SAC Bomber. |
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| Boeing B47 Heavy SAC Bomber. |
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| Boeing B47 Heavy SAC Bomber. |
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| Boeing B47 Heavy SAC Bomber. |