Boeing's Bomber Breakthrough
 
 
In 1946, the U.S. Air Force requested design proposals for a
long-range bomber with a speed of 450 mph, a range of 10,000
miles and a 10,000-pound bomb load capacity.  The Boeing
Corporation created 30 different designs to try to meet these
specifications, but none of them quite met the standards
required.  Then Boeing hit a series of breakthroughs. 
 
First, Boeing refined a method for in-flight refueling  which
made range much less of an issue.  Next, Boeing learned from
studies it was conducting on the B-47 that drag of such wide-wing
bombers was far lower than anticipated.  When applied to the
larger B-52, the new drag calculations projected a much longer
range.  Perhaps most important of all, when the proposed
turboprops encountered development problems, a new jet engine
appeared, the Pratt & Whitney J57.
 
Colonel Pete Warden of the Air Force deserves credit for the
engine breakthrough.  In October, 1948 he summoned six Boeing
designers to a hotel in Dayton, Ohio to help them meet the
specifications for this high-level bomber.  Earlier, Warden had
urged Pratt & Whitney to develop the J57.  Now he wanted Boeing
to design a bomber to use it.  
 
In classic "back-of-the-envelope" style, the hotel meetings ended
with a proposal for the XB-52, an eight-jet, swept-wing aircraft
that embodied all the best of the B-47.  Warden gave his
immediate approval, and one of the most important bomber programs
in history got underway.