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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0885.PDF
FLIGHT, 4 April 1952 J£ - M Capable of flying furdier (and presumably higher) than the adapted Meteor, the Canberra P.R.3 appears, from a cursory examination, to have provision for seven cameras. Counterpart of the Meteor F.R.9 in the U.S.A.F. is the Lock heed RF-80, the hinged nose section of which can accommodate various combinations of cameras, up to five in number. As a replacement for this type in the Tactical Air Command a develop ment of the "swept Thunderjet," designated RF-84F, has been ordered in quantity j on this machine the air intakes for the Sapphire turbojet have been transferred to the wing-roots. In the U.S.A.F. long-distance strategic reconnaissance falls to both piston-engined and jet-propeller aircraft, in the former category being the Boeing RB-29 and RB-50 Superfortresses, and Convair RB-36. For the present the sole jet-propelled type is the North American RB-45 Tornado, but, eventually, a variant of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet will be introduced. The RB-50D carries a total of nine cameras in addition to bombs, special radar and flight-refuelling gear, and the RB-36 has provision for fourteen cameras—one of them with a 42m focal length—in the bomb bay. The RB-45C has five camera positions, in the nose and bomb bay. For naval service a development of the McDonnell Banshee, designated F2H-2P, has been produced to carry six types of camera, interchangeable for various missions. During 1949 an At the head of the page is a Convair RB-36D, which has provision for fourteen or more cameras. (Upper right) A McDonnell F2H-2P Banshee, showing the specially devel oped "photographic" nose. (Right) A North American RB-45 C is refuelled from a Boeing KB-29. The special nose of the RB-45 C is visible. '•1&~t experimental Banshee took a series of widely publicized pictures of Washington from heights between 48,846ft and 51,089ft, using a CA-8 cartographic camera, achieving, on the same flight, a maximum height of 52,000ft. The U.S. Navy also has a photo graphic reconnaissance version of the Grumman Panther. For longer range a new version of the North American Savage, designated AJ-2P, is being developed, and provision made for-eighteen camera installations, not all for simultaneous use.
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