B-47
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Real Identity: Boeing B-47 Stratojet
Affiliation(s): U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command
Specifications: Two .50-cal Browning Machine Guns, General Electric J35 Turbojets, Ribbon Drag Chute
In 1943, there were concerns that a jet bomber would be needed if Nazi Germany succeeded in invading Great Britain. US Army Air Force General Hap Arnold commissioned California Institute of Technology aerodynamicist, Theodore von Karman to form the "Scientific Advisory Group." The group would be composed of American scientists that would travel to Europe and study captured German technology. One member was Boeing's chief aerodynamicist, George Schairer. Schairer noticed the planes used a swept wings feature and convinced his company to incorporate it. In 1947, Boeing was selected to produce the bomber and two prototypes dubbed "XB-47" were ordered. Introduced in June 1951, the B-47 was a medium-sized and medium-range bomber primarily designed to fly at high sub-sonic speed to the Soviet Union. It was considered one of the greatest innovations of the post World War II era.
The B-47 was so fast that it broke records without much effort. In 1953, it was made a fully operational aircraft in the Air Force. One major concern was it was sluggish on takeoff and fast on landing. If the pilot put the plane down at the wrong angle, it would cartwheel to its destruction. This weakness was realized when Colonel Ace Morgan and his three passengers flew a modified B-47 cross country and survived a horrifying crash in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.