The Boeing B-47 Stratojet is a retired American long-range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft.
The B-47’s primary mission was as a nuclear bomber capable of striking the Soviet Union.
Related Article: List of All The Nuclear Strategic Bombers aircraft ever made
In this article, we will share two cool videos that show B-47 aircraft’s manoeuvrability and bombing abilities
In the first Video, a B-47 aircraft is conducting Toss bombing or Toss bombing. Low Altitude Bombing System (LABS) is a method of bombing where the attacking aircraft pulls upward when releasing its bomb load, giving the bomb additional time of flight by starting its ballistic path with an upward vector.
The aircraft would approach the target low and at high speed, pull up sharply, open bomb bay doors, use momentum to literally fling the bomb towards the target and then execute the rest of a half loop Immelmann turn so that they were flying back in the opposite direction at the top of the loop.
This maneuver allowed the bomber to drop nuclear and high explosive weapons at low altitudes without danger of blast damage or flying directly over heavily defended targets.
In the Second Video, you can see a big Stratojet do an Immelman turn & more!
Cameras located all over the aircraft give unique views during the test flights
In 1954 the Air Force conducted a series of maneuver tests that showcased the B-47’s outstanding agility.
However, this is not the first time that we saw such a large aircraft performing aerobatic manoeuvres:
on Jul. 17, 2018 at Farnborough Airshow Test pilot Wayne Roberts, flying the Lockheed LM-100J Super Hercules, showed the aircraft amazing flying qualities (the aircraft in fact also did a loop!).
Click here to watch the video!
