According to Boeing, every single big jet owes its existence to the B-47. It was a jet of “firsts” when it was first prototyped in 1947. It had swept back wings at a 35-degree angle as opposed to straight wings as seen on the previous B-29 bomber. Its 600+ mile per hour top speed was powered by jet engines hanging underneath the wings, when every other bomber was still propeller driven.
It’s worth noting that the Soviet Union’s Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” — developed in the early 1950s and still serves today in Russia’s air force — uses propellers. The B-47 was adopted into reconnaissance roles, weather reporting duty, and of course, carrying bombs.
It stopped production in 1956 with 2,032 B-47s in all varieties taking to the skies. The B-47, when it was new, broke the record for a transcontinental flight across the United States. It went from coast to coast in a little less than four hours.
In the closing days of World War II, when everything the military was developing was “ahead of its time,” the B-47 still looks futuristic today. Eventually, the B-47 was retired in favor of the much larger (and much uglier) B-52 Stratofortress, which still serves in the Air Force today.
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