The Boeing B-47 and the shaky start of the jet bomber

[General Savage]

THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD INTO THE JET AGE

The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was the first swept-winged jet bomber built in quantity for any air force, and was the mainstay of the medium-bombing strength of the Strategic Air Command throughout the 1950s. A total of 2041 Stratojets were built, making the B-47 program the largest American bomber project since the end of the Second World War.
The aircraft was primarily designed to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union.





The first XB-47 (46-065) [photos above] rolled out of the factory at Seattle, Washington, on September 12, 1947. It was powered by six 2750 General Electric J35-GE-7/9 turbojets. It was the first large American jet aircraft to feature a swept wing.
The first flight of the XB-47 took place on December 17, 1947, with Bob Robbins and Scott Osler at the controls.

A LONG GESTATION PERIOD

The size of the crew (three men) was unusually small for an aircraft of the size and complexity of the B-47, with the three-member crew having to confront more than three hundred gauges, dials, switches, and levers. The B-47 went through a long gestation period during which many problems had to be fixed, and it took a long time before the Stratojet could be considered as being combat-ready. The early service of the B-47 was marked by frequent crashes and accidents, and the plane got a reputation as a crew-killer. Although there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the Stratojet, the B-47 was relatively difficult to land and terribly unforgiving of crew mistakes or inattention. Fifty-five percent of B-47 accidents were traced to human error, either by aircrews or maintenance personnel. It took a long time before more effective crew training was able to reduce the accident rate to a more acceptable level. By 1954, training had become sufficiently effective that the B-47 now had the lowest accident rate of any jet aircraft. Nevertheless, the B-47 never outlived its early reputation as a crew-killer. As veteran Stratojet pilot Brig. General Earl C. Peck observed in 1975, the B-47 was often admired, respected, cursed or even feared, but almost never loved.



All who fly the skies today in the safety and comfort of jet airliners owe much to the B-47s development.