The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was an important aircraft that truly brought bomber design into the jet age.

Gallery:

Features:

• Armament: 2x M24 20 mm cannons, 1x Mark 6 26 kt nuclear bomb
• Livery: USAF, Bare Metal and Anti-flash White
• Auto-aim tail gun!
• Fairly accurate performance
• A cockpit that should be VR compatible

Controls:

• AG 1 and Yaw: Nose Steering
• AG 2: Bomb Bay
• AG 3: Drogue Chute
• AG 4: Drop Tanks
• Trim for trim
• VTOL for flaps

Notes:

• Thanks to ChiChiWerx for the roundels, plus ReinMcDeer for the auto-aim tutorial (and SenSkysh for the original code)
• Tail turret will auto-aim at targets within 1.3 NM, press Fire Guns to shoot

Background:

In the 1950s the USAF was keen to become an all-jet force. The B-45 Tornado had been a fine introductory jet bomber, but it was a conventional design and only meant to last until something more ambitious was ready. Aerodynamics and propulsion advanced at a rapid pace in the late 1940s. There was a desire to leverage these advances to create a cutting edge jet bomber which rivalled or exceeded the performance of contemporary fighters.

Flying just nine months after the B-45, the B-47 Stratojet could cruise faster, carry more, and fly twice as far. Although its shape looks unremarkable by today’s standards, it represented a significant evolution in aircraft design. A crew of three was housed in a pressurized forward compartment: a navigator up front and a pilot and copilot under a fighter-style canopy. The slightly anhedral wings were high-mounted and swept back by 35 degrees. Three engines were slung under each wing, with a pod of two inboard and a single engine outboard. The tubular fuselage tapered considerably along its length, ending with a remotely operated, radar-guided tail turret. The tail surfaces were also fully swept back. The Stratojet featured bicycle landing gear, with a front and rear pair of wheels in the fuselage supported by outrigger wheels in the engine pods. To facilitate takeoff, the rear wheel was shorter, resulting in a nose-up attitude on the ground. A drogue chute was carried, as were JATO bottles initially before being discontinued. The bomb bay was small for an aircraft of its size, highlighting the B-47’s intended role as a nuclear bomber.

While it never dropped conventional or nuclear bombs in combat, the Stratojet carried out many recon flights around Soviet territory. These flights occasionally came under fire from MiGs, which usually ended poorly for the B-47. Beyond recon and bomber Stratojets, many other variants were created, spanning everything from electronic warfare to engine testbeds. Stratojets were the Air Force’s premier nuclear bomber until the early 1960s. The B-47 was an important but often forgotten link between the early jet aircraft of the 1940s and the swept wing marvels of the 1950s. With over 2,000 built, several survive today in museums across the U.S.