The two, cool videos in this post clearly show why B-47 crews loved this aircraft’s maneuverability and sweet handling for good reason.’
The two videos in this post make it quite evident why B-47 crews found this aircraft’s agility and awesome handling to be so appealing.
The exceptional agility of the B-47 was demonstrated in a series of maneuver tests carried out by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in 1954. The purpose of these tests was to investigate the B-47s’ ability to “toss bombs.” The plane would fly low and fast toward the target, pull up sharply, open the bomb bay doors, employ momentum to launch the bomb toward the target, and then complete the remaining half of an Immelmann turn to fly back the other way at the top of the loop.
By using this maneuver, the bomber was able to drop high explosives and nuclear weapons at low altitudes without running the risk of hitting heavily protected targets or suffering blast damage. It is memorable to see the large, sleek B-47 perform this maneuver (and barrel rolls too!).
During test flights, the aircraft’s several cameras provide distinct perspectives.
The Boeing B-47 Stratojet represented a milestone in aviation history and a revolution in aircraft design. It had sweeping wings, jet engines in underwing pods, main landing gear located on the fuselage, and automated systems that lowered the crew number to three, among many other cutting-edge technologies for the time.
More than 2,000 Stratojets were produced by Boeing, Douglas, and Lockheed between 1947 and 1957. The USAF flew 1,357 B-47s and 175 RB-47s during its most active period of operation in 1958, when it operated 28 B-47 bomb wings and four RB-47 reconnaissance wings.
However, this is not the first time that we saw such a large aircraft performing aerobatic maneuvers: on Jul. 17, 2018, at Farnborough Airshow Test, pilot Wayne Roberts, flying the Lockheed LM-100J Super Hercules, showed the aircraft’s amazing flying qualities (the aircraft also did a loop!). Click here to watch the video!