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The saga of the BUFF begins, and where else should we discuss the heavy bombers that existed before, their shortfalls, and what inspired the B-52? To start, we need to briefly examine a few key bombers the Army Air Corps flew in WWII and following the war before the B-52 was fielded.
B-17 Flying Fortress
No discussion of WWII bombers could be complete without the B-17 Flying Fortress. Some 12,000+ of the venerable design were built, and in variants ranging from Model 299, and YB-17 to B-17G. It was so widely used in the European theater that of 1.5 million tons of ordnance expended on missions, nearly half (640,000 tons) were dropped by B-17s. The aircraft bristled with 13x .50 caliber machine guns for self-defense—top, belly, each side (waist) and both nose and tail—earning its moniker. It could carry up to 17,600 lbs of ordnance, but frequently only about 6,000 lbs and at a range of 2000 miles. It boasted 4 propeller-driven engines, and an airframe so tough it came legendary for its ability to take incredible battle damage and return to base. One aircraft, the All American, shot down an enemy fighter, who dived down over the attacking B-17, slicing its wing through the tail section of the B-17. Even with massive damage and the tail section barely staying together, the B-17 returned to base with its crew. B-17s have been immortalized in films as well, with a silver screen film Memphis Belle a store of the title aircraft and its landmark 25 missions over Europe. This aircraft has been restored and may be viewed at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH.
B-24 Liberator
Built by Consolidated, the B-24 had 4 supercharged, radial engines with tri-blade propellers and carried up to 16,000 pounds of ordnance. It could cruise at a relatively high speed and had good range. It was procured in enormous numbers in WWII after 1940, some 18,500 units – including 8,685 manufactured by Ford Motor Company – it holds records as the world's most produced bomber, heavy bomber, multi-engine aircraft, and American military aircraft in history. Its wing design was inferior to the B-17, handled ice poorly, and the aircraft handled poorly in bad weather as well as couldn’t handle as much battle damage as the B-17. While it had its flaws, it was flown in huge numbers and in every theater of WWII.
B-25 Mitchell
The B-25 Mitchell was named after a key father of the Air Force, Major General William "Billy" Mitchell. The B-25 was a medium bomber, designed to carry a 2400 lb bomb load 1200 miles at 300 MPH and it flew in combat in every WWII theater. The Mitchell had twin engines and a split tail. These aircraft were built in impressive numbers, numbering over 9800. They were built as bombers and strafing bombers, acting like fighter aircraft in close air support roles, and could be armed with 12-18x .50 caliber machine guns and even a 75mm cannon! The Mitchell was every bit as robustly built as the B-17, as noted in this excerpt: “One B-25C of the 321st Bomb Group was nicknamed "Patches" because its crew chief painted all the aircraft's flak hole patches with the bright yellow zinc chromate primer. By the end of the war, this aircraft had completed over 300 missions, had been belly-landed six times, and had over 400 patched holes.”
Perhaps the most important early contribution of the B-25 in WWII was that of the Doolittle Raiders. The B-25B first gained fame as the bomber used in the 18 April 1942 Doolittle Raid, in which 16 B-25Bs led by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle attacked mainland Japan, four months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The mission gave a much-needed lift in spirits to the Americans and alarmed the Japanese, who had believed their home islands to be inviolable by enemy forces. Although the amount of actual damage done was relatively minor, it forced the Japanese to divert troops for home defense for the remainder of the war. The bombers were turned into flying gas cans, stripped of most armament, except a modest 2000 lb bomb load, even replacing some guns with broomsticks to save weight.
The raiders took off from the carrier USS Hornet and successfully bombed Tokyo and four other Japanese cities without loss. Fifteen of the bombers subsequently crash-landed en route to recovery fields in eastern China. These losses were the result of the task force being spotted by a Japanese vessel, forcing the bombers to take off 170 mi (270 km) early, fuel exhaustion, stormy nighttime conditions with zero visibility, and lack of electronic homing aids at the recovery bases. Only one B-25 bomber landed intact, in Siberia, where its five-man crew was interned and the aircraft confiscated. Of the 80 aircrews, 69 survived their historic mission and eventually made it back to American lines.
B-29 Superfortress
The Superfortress was designed to carry a 20,000 lb internal bomb load 2667 miles at 400 MPH. It was state-of-the-art in many ways, including a pressurized fuselage (except the bomb bay), 8 remote-controlled machine guns and advanced twin wheeled, tricycle landing gear. Its $3 billion design and production cost far exceeded the already mind-bogglingly expensive Manhattan Project, and its goal to build an atomic bomb that cost a lesser $1.9 billion. The B-29 could fly higher (over 31,000 ft) and faster (350 MPH) than most Japanese aircraft of the war, and higher than most antiaircraft weaponry could reach, so it operated with nearly complete impunity. Its Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engines were fraught with maintenance headaches, and until the B-29D upgrades with newly-designed engines, engine problems plagued the Superfortress. In the late WWII era, the formidable B-29 was just being deployed and making air strikes upon a war-wearied and battered Japan. It could carry a very large bomb load, including two Grand Slam bombs weighing 22,000 lbs apiece, externally. Such bombs were used to destroy hardened targets such as submarine pens, bridges and underground facilities during the later parts of WWII. The B-29 arrived on the scene too late to really demonstrate its improvements over the B-17 Flying Fortress and other WWII bombers, but made history on 6 and 9 August 1945 with the planet’s first (and hopefully only) atomic combat strikes. “Silverplate” modified (all guns removed except tail, lightened) B-29s named Enola Gay and Bock’s Car delivered the 10,000 lb Little Boy and Fat Man bombs, respectively, on those dates. The B-29 production run ended with just shy of 4000 aircraft built. Over the war, four B-29s made an emergency landing in the Soviet Union; the Russians impounded and reverse engineered the aircraft, and built over 800 of its copy of the B-29, the Tupolev Tu-4.
B-50 Superfortress
The impetus for the B-50 (really an upgraded B-29) was the reliability problems of the B-29’s engines. The new Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engine resolved the problems, and was then the largest displacement piton engine in production. Other upgrades included a newly designed, lightweight and stronger wing made of a new type of aluminum, upgraded undercarriage to enable larger bomb loads, and a taller tail fin and rudder as well. It could carry the same bomb load as the B-29, but later revisions of the B-50 modified the double bomb bay to a single and allow carriage of very large nuclear weapons. The modifications also involved stretching the fuselage and wingspan as well. The first B-50s built were assigned to Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1948 to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, Chatham Air Force Base, Georgia, Castle Air Force Base, California and Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico received B-50Ds in 1949. The last SAC base to receive B-50Ds was Biggs Air Force Base, Texas in December 1950. The mission of these wings was to be nuclear-capable and, in wartime, be able to deliver the atomic bomb on enemy targets if ordered by the president. The B-50 was a bit faster than the B-29, but propeller-driven bomber aircraft were reaching a plateau, and SAC wanted more performance.
B-36 Peacemaker
How do you improve upon a big bomber and make it more capable? Make it bigger! Enter the B-36 Peacemaker. The United States feared Germany could eventually attack North America (and so-desired, under the Amerikabomber program), so it needed an intercontinental bomber. It was envisioned to be a maximum range of 10,000 mi, an effective combat radius of 4,000 mi with a 10,000 lb bombload, and a cruising speed between 240 and 300 mph at 40,000 ft altitude. Earlier design specifications were impractical at the time, so the specs were scaled back somewhat, but still highly advanced. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, the bomber was needed to attack Japan from Hawaiian bases. It first flew in August 1946, too late to aid in the Pacific theater, and was obsolete from its introduction, being a propeller aircraft. The B-36 was originally built with six pusher-style (propellers were behind the trailing edge of the wings) engines. These engines were the same as that which powered the B-50, and with the B-36D, four more engines—General Electric J47 jet engines were added in twin pods, at each wingtip. This enabled better takeoff and high-speed performance.
The B-36 was an ENORMOUS aircraft. It has the largest wingspan of any combat aircraft in the world: 230 feet long! The aircraft is so large (162 feet long) and wide it was nicknamed Aluminum Overcast for its ability to block out the sun when it cruised overhead. It was so heavy, airfields needed to be rebuilt to accommodate its bulk. It was not air-refuellable, but it had a 10,000+ mile range, a capability it frequently used in reconnaissance missions. Its more known moniker was Six Turnin & Four Burnin’, but maintenance issues with the enormous engines and carburetor icing would lead to engine fires, so “Two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking and two more unaccounted for” is more accurate! Although known as a strategic bomber, nuclear weapons delivery was not its initially-designed role; it quickly assumed the role of the only carrier of the city bus-sized Mark-17 nuclear bomb. The Mk-17 was so large (more than 20 feet long, and 42,000 lbs), only the B-36 could deliver it (until the BUFF was produced that is). The B-36 could carry more than 87,000 lbs of bombs in FOUR bomb bays! The aircraft was designed to deliver the earthquake bomb (a conventional bunker buster), another 43,000 lb bomb. As fighter aircraft of the day advanced, the gun turrets were eventually removed, leading to three featherweight modifications (as if the term could be used on such a large aircraft!). The B-36’s production run closed in 1954 with just under 400 built.
B-47 Stratojet
When the B-36 was built, it was a propeller aircraft at the twilight of propeller aircraft technology. What SAC needed was a faster bomber that could be refueled inflight and could fly higher to avoid enemy fighters. It was designed from the outset as a jet-powered nuclear bomber, one that could fly 3500 miles at 450-550 MPH and at 45,000 feet with a 25,000 lb bomb load. After a postwar discovery in Germany about swept wings, Boeing changed its design proposal to reflect the new technology. The aircraft had six jet engines; four in pods of two on each wing, and one near each wingtip. The landing gear was unique and bicycle-like tandem-style, so wingtip landing gear were placed on the engine pods for landing stability. The aircraft had a distinct nose-up attitude on the ground, so-designed as the tandem landing gear would not permit rotation (the pulling up on the aircraft nose on takeoff). The crew of three were seated tandem-style as well, under a long bubble canopy. This design cue would be seen in early development of the BUFF. It was a medium bomber, at only 116 feet wingspan and 107 feet long; it first flew in 1951, and over 2000 were built. Since early jet engines were not able to produce good takeoff thrust, to get heavily-loaded B-47s airborne, water/methanol injection on takeoff or solid-fuel rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) rockets could be fitted to the rear of the fuselage and deployed (and later jettisoned), added sufficient thrust to get airborne. The B-47 was a heavy contributor to nuclear alerts in the 1950s and 60s, and was an easy aircraft to fly, but was soon supplanted by the B-52 Stratofortress. It laid the groundwork for much of the B-52’s design cues, and served the USAF well until it was phased out.
To find this cache, calculate the coordinates from the information in this listing.
N 48° 20.ABC W 101° 17.DEF
A= Quantity of B-17s built, in thousands , XN,XXX aircraft, A=(Nx2)
B= Number of belly-landings by B-25 Mitchell nicknamed “Patches” , N, B=(N+1)
C= Number of remote-controlled machine guns on B-29 Superfortress, N guns, C=(N/2)
D= Year first B-50s built were assigned to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, XXNX, D=(N)
E= Wingspan of B-36 Peacemaker, XNX feet, E=(Nx3)
F= Number of jet engines on B-47 Stratojet, N engines, F=(N+3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_B-25_Mitchell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerikabomber
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_B-24_Liberator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-50_Superfortress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-47_Stratojet