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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2304.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 August 1954 243 BOEING B-47E In the Air . . . ^g B-47 picked up speed and height rapidly and we were soon skimming along level below cloud at about 325 kt. After a while an area of blue sky showed up and the pilot nipped through and picked up 20,000ft in a very short time indeed. Unless my ears were telling lies, pressure hardly kept pace with climb. Shortly after take-off I was mildly alarmed to see a white cloud of vapour appear from beneath the pilot's panel, and for a few seconds I was blacked-out in mist. I called the pilot who diagnosed condensation, saying that it was quite a common thing in these air craft and that he should have warned me about it. Generally the ride was smooth, and occasional patches of rough air were trans mitted as transverse shudders to the man in the nose—still me at that time. While the first checks were being made I worked on the sight and radar as I had been shown, but had little joy, owing to my inability to set it all up nicely. The time now came to change places with the co-pilot. This process is not very easy, but, having eased out of the harness of the ejector seat, disconnected oxygen and intercom and undipped emergency oxygen and the main feed pipe, I crawled aft with my back-chute just missing the various pieces of equipment in the walkway. I finally crawled over the second pilot and wormed up into the rear pilot's position, emerging into bright sunshine and space. In a few minutes I was strapped and variously plugged in. The odd drop of perspiration dripped from my Lombard, but all was fine. As soon as I had engaged the rear wheel I was invited to take over while the co-pilot, now turned navigator/bombardier again, got installed, and warmed and set up his equipment. What does a man do when he is suddenly put in control of some one else's big, beautiful bomber? Frankly, I grasped the wheel and did nothing but gazed round in awe at the magnificent view, the big shapely enclosure, the wings and their pods. After a while I moved the wheel somewhat gingerly, finding the ailerons pleasantly light, and the elevators a little heavier. I was reminded of the village policeman who once had the job of guarding Mr. Billy Butlin's Consul overnight after it had belly-landed in a field. When joined by the pilot in the morning, he indicated the control wheel and said, "If I pulled yon, would 'er dip a bit?" I did pull, and then pushed, and 'er did dip a bit, and in fact continued to dip a bit for some seconds until the fuel in the tanks which I had disturbed stopped sloshing about. The up-sweep towards the tips of the long slender wings can be seen quite clearly from the cockpits and in turbulence the wings flex, as may be plainly observed. This is said to produce a damping effect in rough air and to be conducive to smooth riding. The impression I gained was that the B-47 responds to controls quite slowly, like a big conventional aircraft, but that the controls themselves are pleasantly light for such a machine. The response to normal aileron movement in particular is positive but slow. The rudder is used more than I had expected, both to "centre the ball" in turns and, as mentioned earlier, in conjunction with the ailerons for lateral control. The controls do not seem to heavy-up appre ciably with increasing speed but the time taken to go into a turn is longer. For a few minutes I flew with elevator-control power off. There was sufficient control for safe flying under those circumstances, but the stick felt very soggy and over-balanced. So far we had been cruising, and after having made a few medium and fairly steep turns—endeavouring not to let the nose rise or fall too much—I asked permission to open up and see what the first signs of buffet felt like. The height was in the middle twenty-thousands at the time, and I was told that the engines would not object to 98 per cent r.p.m. almost indefinitely. The six throttles are easy to hold in the right hand and they move lightly and smoothly. This is another point which I have pre viously noticed with American aircraft I have flown—their throttle levers move very nicely, yet there is the hardly detectable friction to hold them at any point. Too many British aircraft—particularly the older ones—have stiff throttles, with back-lash. Speed built up quickly at first then more slowly, and finally settled down near the limit for no buffet and the limiting speed for 'he height. To feel the controls and buffet, therefore, I pulled the B -47 round fairly hard in a turn and managed to produce the first trembling I had expected. The man in the nose then came in Plaintively on the intercom to ask how he was expected to write NOTES ON B-47 VARIANTS Boeing XB-47: Two prototypes, the first flying on December 17th, 1947, and the second on July 21st, 1948. B-47A: Six J47-GE-11 turbojets of 5,200 lb thrust each. Eighteen built-in solid- propeliant a.t.o. rockets. Transparent nose cone, no tail armament. Small production batch, first being completed on March 1st, 1950. B-47B: Six J47-GE-23 (or PA-25 or ST-25) turbojets of 5,800 lb dry rating. No transparent nose cone. Provision for two 1,780-gal drop tanks. Large number built at Wichita, Tulsa and Marietta. KB-47B tanker has Flight Refuelling or Boeing equipment for high-speed fuel transfer. RB-47B has eight cameras and associated equipment in heated pack which can rapidly be installed in bomb bay. ETB-47B is a dual-control trainer. XB-47C: One-off experimental modification with four single pods, each housing one Allison J71 turbojet of about 9,700 lb static thrust. Believed not to have flown yet, although installation fully developed for Douglas B-66. XB-47D: One-off experimental aircraft with inner double pods replaced by large nacelles each housing a single Wright T49 turboprop of some 9,000 s.h.p. driving a single airscrew with wide-chord blades. Not yet flown. B-47E: Standard production bomber. Twin 20mm remote-control tail barbette, and very extensive detail modification. Nearly 2,000 built at Wichita, Marietta and Tulsa. RB-47E is a specialized photographic aircraft, with an extended nose. Very complete reconnaissance equipment is carried; the aircraft is not convertible for use as a bomber. There are also trainer, tanker and other types of B-47E, and one machine has been fitted with J57 turbojets in the outboard positions, for experimental development. BOEING B-47E: LEADING DATA Six General Electric J47-23 or 25 turbojets of 5,800 lb dry (or 6,500 lb wet) Three-seat bomber with provision for about 20,000 lb internal load and a single tank or container weighing about 15,000 lb under each wing. Span, 116ft; length, 108ft; height, 28ft; max. gross weight, 202,000 lb; max. speed, about 630 m.p.h. with a 4 lb pencil while wearing a 20 lb helmet . . . I did not stall the aircraft myself, but learned that there is no trick about it. Plenty of warning buffet is given 10 to 12 kt above stalling speed and at the point of stall there is a slight nose-up trim change. Whether the vortex generators have affected the stall I do not know; they are primarily to postpone buffet at high speeds, which also causes a pitch-up tendency. Intentional spins are not permitted but the recovery is reported to be normal. When fully stalled, particularly with flap down, the buffeting is apparently severe and this is the main reason for avoiding it. During this flying around I had adjusted the tail trimmer from time to time. The scale has marked on it the approximate e.g. position for the condition of flight. It is graduated to suit a Mach number of about 0.75 at cruising altitude. The e.g. moves forward during flight and must be known pretty accurately for approach and landing. Although I was now begining to get the idea, and there were a lot of things I wanted to try out higher up, at slow speed, with engines out, and with controls intentionally misused, time dic tated a return to base. I made the let-down before returning to the nose for the landing. The B-47 has no dive brakes and makes a rapid descent with wheels down and engines cut back to the flight-idling stop. The percentage r.p.m. at this setting vary auto matically with atmospheric conditons. The landing gear can be lowered at 305 kt and the let-down made at this speed. Up to 30 per cent of flap can also be lowered if speed is kept below 230 kt. By the time I had settled back in the navigator's chair we were nearing the airfield. The circuit was made at the normal height of about 1,200ft and the landing checks completed. Flaps were lowered at 220 kt and full flap at 195 kt. Before the turn-in, the approach chute was released at about 1,100ft and it was just pos sible to detect a gentle tug as it streamed. Its purpose is to permit more power to be used while making a reasonably steep appi "jach, and this in turn helps to give a quicker change in rate of descent at the pilot's discretion. As the wheels are lowered there seems to be a momentary nose-up, then nose-down, pitch-change; but this is scarcely discernible. After a second check on landing gear the final turn was made at about 150 kt, slowing to the speed called for, by a.u.w. for the final approach. The landing was smooth and it was possible to feel the rear bogie touch slightly before the front one. Next the main chute was released and again a gentle pull and more marked braking could be detected. The early part of the run was some what rough, but this was probably the runway. (I noticed on several civil airfields also that both taxi tracks and runways were less smooth than their counterparts at home.) Unfortunately there was little time to discuss the flight with the pilots, so with thanks and a few brief questions I scrambled out of my kit and set out for the new civil airport at Wichita to board the flight for Seattle, birthplace of the B-47 and B-52. *n approach chute first released nthe circuit is seen streaming shind the main landing chute ust after touch-down.
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