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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0391.PDF
25 March 1955. 391 heating system and boosted controls for all three axes. Antedatingthe fashion for bogie undercarriages, it has very large single main wheels with hydraulically operated, segmented disc brakes. Theengines are four General Electric J-47s of 5,200 lb thrust each. With all this the B-45 is by all accounts a completely straight-forward aircraft to fly. It is light and yiceless, has a good ceiling even at full load, and a top speed which is high considering itsdate of design. It carries a very good load, now mostly composed of fuel, and can remain airborne for four-and-a-half hours. Pilotsremark that it is only slightly sensitive to increased load and that even an overload take-off with the two under-nacelle 500-gallonexternal tanks fitted is no more difficult, and not much longer, than a normal one. The average length of the "missions" flown by the squadronsis 3 hr 15 min, but whatever the task the fuel load is apportioned so that, ideally, the aircraft will always land with the same reserve.The wing's operational commitments would entail mainly single- aircraft raids, presumably making use of "atomic capability" inhigh-level support of ground forces. The radius of action is not published, but it is in the region of 500 to 700 miles. The B-45cannot be air-refuelled; but, because of the lightness of the probable bomb load, the extra fuel tank mounted in the bomb-bayis now considered a permanent fixture, and extreme range must be considerable.The aircraft carries a crew of four, two pilots in tandem under the canopy and a navigator/bombardier down in the nose, all
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