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The sole XB-44 Superfortress was a B-29 Superfortress converted to test the possibility of using the R-4360 radial engine.. Development of an improved B-29 started in 1944, with the desire to replace the unreliable Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engines with the more powerful four-row, 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines, America's largest-ever displacement aircraft ...
The Lucky Lady II was a B-50 of the 43rd Bombardment Group, equipped with 12 .50-caliber (12.7mm) machine guns. For its circumnavigation mission, a fuel tank was added in the bomb bay for extra range. The mission required a double crew with three pilots, under the command of Capt. James Gallagher. The crews rotated in shifts of four to six hours.
A USAF KC-135 boom operator refuels a USAF F-16 during a mission over Iraq. A USAF KC-10 boom operator refuels a Dutch F-16 during a mission over Afghanistan.. In the U.S. Air Force (USAF), a boom operator is an aircrew member aboard tanker aircraft who is responsible for safely and effectively transferring aviation fuel from one military aircraft to another during flight (known as aerial ...
By 1951, the emergence of the Soviet MiG-15 interceptor in the skies of North Korea signaled the end of the propeller-driven B-50 as a first-line strategic bomber. Received Boeing B-47 Stratojet jet bombers in 1954, and in 1955 began receiving early model of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Inactivated in 1963 due to retirement of the B-52B and ...
The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter is a long-range heavy military cargo aircraft developed from the B-29 and B-50 bombers. Design work began in 1942, the first of three prototype XC-97s flew on 9 November 1944 and the first of six service-test YC-97s flew on 11 March 1947.
The B-52's US$72,000 cost per hour of flight is more than the B-1B's US$63,000 cost per hour, but less than the B-2's US$135,000 per hour. [ 232 ] The Long Range Strike Bomber program is intended to yield a stealthy successor for the B-52 and B-1 that would begin service in the 2020s; it is intended to produce 80 to 100 aircraft.
The yellow building in the lower right is a mole hole, also known as a readiness crew building. Minot AFB , ND , in 1973 with its 'Christmas tree' at capacity. A Christmas tree was a type of alert area constructed by the United States Air Force (USAF) for the Strategic Air Command (SAC) during the Cold War .
A second flight will take place in October 1948 and will be successful. October 14 – U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager takes the rocket-powered Bell X-1 past the speed of sound in the first controlled, supersonic, level flight. The flight, which achieves Mach 1.06, sets a new world air speed record of 807.2 mph (1,299.1 km/h). A few days ...