The Spanish Inquistion also had Zeppelins!:D:D
Speaking of underwater crash sites and bombers, here’s an interesting webpage that documents the discovery of “San Diego’s Lost B-36 Peacemaker”. It has a cool video/artist’s simulation of the fateful flight.
I believe I once heard the XB-70 referred to as the Savior, because whenever the AF brass were taken to see the prototype, they’d say “Jeeesus Christ!”
For various reasons, there were some truly wacky bombers produced in the late stages of WWII and the early Cold War.
Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster Contrarotating pusher props?
Martin XB-51 Anhedral wings and flying T tail?
Martin XB-48 Six jet engines on a 100,000-lb MTOW plane?
Convair XB-53. Never built, and a damn good thing
The B1-B ‘Lancer’ might look sleek, but the similar looking Russian Tupolev Tu-22M ‘Backfire’ and the larger Tu-160 ‘Blackjack’ have substantially better performance. However, in a real shootout, the B-52 equipped with AGM-86 ALCM and AGM-129 ACM was arguable more effective and certainly more economical than any of the high performance bombers.
The Vulcan looks cool and has a reputation for being a smooth flyer, but it is a dog and was nearly useless for its intended interim purpose as a strategic bomb truck. The ultimate plan was that it would fly two Blue Streaks ALBMs to standoff range and let them go, which made the plane obsolete when the Blue Streak program was canceled. Fortunately, the Vulcan proved to be an adequate medium bomber with substantial range and ended up ultimately serving a number of different roles.
I think for timeless classic design you can’t beat the B-17, though the B-24 was also an exceptional WW2 bomber with a distinctive profile.
Stranger
IIRC the B-1B has 1/100 the RCS of a B-52.
I need to find my photos of the AGM-86 and AGM-109 on and in a B-52.
Don’t forget: Vulcans flew from Ascension Island to bomb the runway at Port Stanley during the Falklands War. They held the record for the longest air combat missions ever up until the Gulf War, IIRC.
Plus, not many bombers get to be in a movie with a stage name. The Vulcan appeared in* Thunderball* as the “Vindicator” (which was a pretty awesome V-bomber name, IMHO)
I second the B-36.
I keep thinking I’ve love to see an Alternate Universe (conventional)WW3 in the 1950’s/1960’s with the B-36 in widespread service.
True, but with long range standoff missiles they didn’t need to get very close. The B-1B, on other hand, was a series of compromises that didn’t end up making anyone happy. The plane is maintenance intensive, not stealthy enough to be invisible in terms of penetrating advanced radar coverage, and not fast enough to outrun MiG 31 ‘Foxbat’. There is some speculation that the B-1B was actually intended to goad the Soviets into copying the design and distract from the B-2 stealth bomber program. While the B-2 was considerably more capable as a strategic deep infiltration bomber, the story overall doesn’t make sense as the B-1B was built in significant quantities at substantial overall lifecycle cost, and the supposed Soviet clones were actually produced before the B-1B came into production and achieved most of the required performance specs that the B-1 never met. As a strategic bomber, the B-1B was a failure in fulfilling the criteria. The B-52 in its later variants met all the necessary end requirements save for penetration, which was adequately provided by ICBMs, SLBMs, and the “long range” IRBMs in Western Europe that the Soviets most feared.
Stranger
It would have been a pretty grim universe, since the B-36 was initially designed as the truly long-distance bomber we’d need to bomb Europe if England had been lost. (Perhaps something like David Brin’s “Thor Meets Captain America”–which you can read here.)
But they were pretty impressive planes–which I remember from my very early childhood. Especially that sound. This picture of a B-36 next to a B-29 gives an idea of the size.
As a classicist, I’m personally fond of the B-17.
Wow.
EDIT: It would have been cool if they’d included a B-17 as well.
Sweet Jesus Fuck. That’s a big damn plane.
When I was growing up, our house was under the landing path for the local AFB. I saw the B-36, B-47, and B-52. The B-36 was the only one that rattled all the windows in the house. You could feel it in your guts.
A Pic of the B-36 I took myself at the Air Force Museum in Dayton.
Google Images failed me on that one, but I did find this, which is cool: http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/aircraft-pictures/2008/06/19/B52B17large.jpg
Agreed. The Lancaster was grounded recently due to propeller issues and needed to raise 100 grand to replace the props. Sad to think that one day it won’t fly again.
If I’d lived out here as a kid, I’m pretty sure I would have made my parents take me to the museum weekly. I saw the dedication of HMCS Haida, including an overflight by the Lanc and the B-25. A couple of weeks ago a Mig-15 flew over my softball game. It takes me back to building models in my parents basement at age 12 or so.
I saw a B-1B at an airshow in the Norfolk area. They took it some distance away and made a sonic boom.
The energy in a sonic boom is related to the size of the aircraft making it, did you know that? Specifically, the cross-section, iirc. A big aircraft makes a bigger boom than a fighter does.
Yow.
For a size comparison of various bombers and other assorted aircraft, check out this aerial view of Castle Air Museum.
I gotta go with the plane that destroyed the core of the Japanese Navy, the Douglas Dauntless.
And 2nd, der Ju-87 Stuka
I’ve always been partial to dive bombers.
You can see a Vulcan (in what appears to be the Vindicator livery from Thunderball!) off to the right… it’s pretty damn big for a supersonic combat jet, though obviously dwarfed by the B-52 and B-36.
A couple cool Russian designs include:
TB-3 (in this picture, you see paratroopers climbing onto the wing before jumping off. At times, the plane apparently took off with paratroopers loaded on the wing, holding on to ropes so they wouldn’t be blown off)
