In the dawn of the atomic era, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet established the design template for multi-engine jet aviation. Conceived from an Army Air Forces requirement for a high-altitude jet reconnaissance platform, early concepts like the Model 424 mounted turbojets onto conventional straight wings. The breakthrough arrived in May 1945, when Boeing aeronautical engineer George Schairer inspected captured German aerodynamic data at Braunschweig. Confirming the high-speed benefits of swept airfoils, Boeing re-engineered the aircraft with a 35-degree swept wing, podded General Electric J47 engines, and a thin, flexible structure capable of deflecting seventeen feet at the tips.
On December 17, 1947, test pilot Robert Robbins flew the XB-47 prototype on its maiden voyage from Seattle to Moses Lake. Powered by six axial-flow turbojets, the Stratojet was aerodynamically slick enough to outrun contemporary piston and jet fighters. Because thin wings could not house traditional tricycle landing gear, Boeing incorporated a tandem bicycle arrangement that required crews to land flat on both main gears to prevent severe porpoising.
Assigned to the Strategic Air Command under General Curtis LeMay, the B-47 became the primary nuclear deterrent throughout the 1950s. Operating at 35,000 feet, crews encountered coffin corner, where a margin of only a few knots separated high-speed Mach buffeting from low-speed stall. Sluggish engine spool-up times led to the introduction of solid-fuel rocket-assisted takeoff bottles for heavily loaded scrambles and German-designed 32-foot ribbon drag chutes to decelerate during landing.
From rapid minimum interval takeoffs trailing thick water-injection smoke to forward deployment across Morocco, Greenland, and the United Kingdom, the Stratojet held the line during the tensest years of the Cold War. As Soviet defenses evolved, SAC transitioned the fleet to low-level penetration and toss-bombing, exposing the airframe to structural fatigue that eventually hastened its retirement in favor of the B-52 Stratofortress. Restored from vintage archival film, this documentary details the development, flight characteristics, and operational history of America's first swept-wing jet bomber.
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00:00:00 Operating on the Aerodynamic Edge
00:01:25 Tandem Bicycle Gear and Ground Handling
00:03:22 Fixed Takeoff Attitude and Flaperon Control
00:04:47 RATO Rockets and High Gross Weight Launches
00:05:39 Stratospheric Fuel Consumption and Fire Isolation
00:07:35 Mach Limits and Compressibility Physics
00:08:53 Aerodynamic Buffeting and Control Reversal
00:12:19 Transitioning from Pistons to Multi-Engine Jets
00:14:12 The 1943 Requirement and Secret German Wind Tunnel Data
00:17:41 The 17-Foot Wing Arc and Podded Engine Architecture
00:18:45 Maiden Flight of the XB-47: December 17, 1947
00:20:32 Landing Dynamics, Porpoising Risks, and Ribbon Drag Chutes
00:22:11 Precision Mission Planning and Pound-Calibrated Fuel Gauges
00:26:38 Boundary Layer Airflow and Outboard Wing Stalls
00:38:43 Coffin Corner: Engine Spool Latency at Altitude
00:46:11 Strategic Air Command and Nuclear Deterrence Posture
00:48:12 Boeing Model Evolution: From Straight Wings to Model 450
00:51:22 Prototype Flight Testing, Canopy Hazards, and Tex Johnston
00:57:47 High-Altitude Atlantic Crossings and Coffin Corner Navigation
01:01:21 Minimum Interval Takeoffs and Nuclear Readiness Ramps
01:03:23 The 1958 Tybee Island Collision and Lost Mark 15 Bomb
01:05:28 Structural Fatigue and the Stratojet's Final 1986 Flight
#B47Stratojet #AviationHistory #ColdWarJets 
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