The Boeing B-47 represented a major advance in aeronautical engineering. It was America's first multi-engine jet aircraft and it established the basic principle of design. It introduced swept-back wings to large aircraft and the engines were hung below the wings on pylons.
This design proved so viable that it was used on the B-52 bomber and the KC-135 tanker that followed. The latter became the…
By 1960 the Cold War had heated up to the point that in Strategic Air Command (B-47's) we were getting very little flying time - only about one flight per month. Instead, we were spending nearly all our time on alert with the planes loaded and "cocked," ready for war. At my base in Savannah, while on alert duty we lived in an…