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Wild Blue Yonder 1: 50 Years of Gs & Jets
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Wild Blue Yonder - Episode 1 - 50 Years of Gs and Jets (Digital Ranch) (Spectrum Holobyte)(1-107-40-101)(1994).iso
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00050_Field_50.txt
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1994-08-29
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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.