painting by John Young http://www.brooksart.com/Younglist.html
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The Boeing B-47 actually first flew in 1947 - just two years after the end of WWII.
It was a huge jump in aviation design. The thin wings had a radical 35 degree swept back angle and the engines were slung under those wings instead of buried in the fuselage. The B-47 was the prototype for most of the jet designs today.
Instead of heavy drag inducing machine gun turrets it had only a tail gun and relied on it's amazing speed for defense. She flew faster and higher than any Soviet fighter of the time.
The B-47 was the first purpose built nuclear bomber in the U.S. inventory. Although it was classified as a medium range bomber it worked well with the new technology of mid-air refueling and therefore could reach any enemy target in the world. Most of the 2,000 bombers built were "forward deployed" in locations close to the USSR such as the United Kingdom, and Greenland.
During the early 1950's, when our deterrent was almost completely reliant on bombers, the B-47 gave the U.S. and NATO overwhelming atomic superiority.
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note: it's fun to post links to videos but the cable channels get a lot of facts wrong- the first video on this list makes 3 mistakes in the first 30 sec- do these people stop to think that they are making a documentary?
all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!
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