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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 system's purpose was to ensure that an aircraft's payload of nuclear weapons would detonate in the event of the crew becoming debilitated by enemy defences such as missiles. [1] Once armed, the system would ensure that the onboard nuclear weapons detonated if the aircraft dropped below a predetermined altitude.
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.
Returning one of several US Mark 4 nuclear bombs secretly deployed at Goose Bay AFB in Labrador, a USAF Boeing B-50 Superfortress had engine trouble and jettisoned the weapon at 10,500 feet (3,200 m). The crew set the bomb to self-destruct at 2,500 ft (760 m), and released it over the St. Lawrence River. [1]
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (1 C, 5 P) Pages in category "1950s United States bomber aircraft" The following 12 pages are in this category, out of 12 total.
In 1953 the propeller-driven B-29s and B-50s were replaced with Boeing B-47 Stratojet deployments to English bases. These temporary duty postings (TDY) typically involved an entire wing of 45 B-47s, along with 20 Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter aerial refuelling tankers, which were held at readiness at an English base for ninety days. In 1958 TDY ...
[1] On May 29, 1948, contracts were placed by the Air Force for 14 B-54A bombers and 29 RB-54A reconnaissance aircraft. [2] [3] [4] [1] However, on April 18, 1949, the B-54 project was canceled due to the development of better-performing jet aircraft; construction of the prototype B-54A had started at Seattle but was never completed. [1]
Operation Power Flite was a United States Air Force mission in which three Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses became the first jet aircraft to circle the world nonstop, when they made the journey in January 1957 in 45 hours and 19 minutes, using in-flight refueling to stay aloft.