Boeing B-47 Stratojet

EB-47E


The Tee Town B-47s then led to a specialized ECM conversion of the B-47E, which was given the designation EB-47E.

The initial EB-47 conversion featured a set of 16 jammers in a removable cradle stored in the bomb bay, plus radar warning receivers and chaff dispensers.

These were known as "Phase IV" or "Blue Cradle" EB-47Es.

The more advanced "Phase V" EB-47E featured a pressurized module that was stowed in the bomb bay, with 13 jammers under control of two Crows.

While the Phase IV jammer system was "broadband", blanketing a wide range of frequencies in hopes of jamming radars operating somewhere within that range, the Phase V jammer system could be selectively tuned to specific radar
frequencies by the crows, permitting much higher jammer power on the frequencies that did the most good.

A radar jammer tends to announce its presence and location by the radio signals it emits, and EB-47E crews were perfectly aware that they were unlikely to return from an operational mission into the USSR.

If they could cover for B-47 bombers, however, the sacrifice would be worth it.

About 40 B-47Es were converted to EB-47Es. Of course they couldn't carry bombs, but they did retain the tail turret.

B-47E 52-0410 and 52-0412 were converted to EB-47Es in the mid-1960s for service with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s Fleet Electronic
Warfare Systems Group [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Considered to be on indefinite loan from USAF, these aircraft were unlike the USAF EB-47Es, with some of their ECM gear fitted into pods carried on the external fuel tank pylons.

They were used for tests of naval ECM systems and as "electronic aggressors" in naval exercises.

These two aircraft were the last B-47s in service, and 52-0410 performed the very last operational flight of a B-47 on 20 December 1977 when it was flown to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], NH and put on display at the main gate.

Following the closure of Pease AFB in 1991, this aircraft was disassembled and trucked to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], SD where it donated its nose and engines to RB-47H 53-4299 which is in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in Dayton, OH.

EB-47E (TT)


Three B-47Es were converted to the highly specialized EB-47E(TT) "Tell Two" configuration to be used for "telemetry
intelligence", picking up radio signals from Soviet missile tests and space launches.

The Tell Two was the precursor to the RC-135S Rivet Ball and Cobra Ball.

The EB-47E(TT)s featured a "Crow capsule" in the bomb bay loaded with the appropriate gear and two ECM operators (known as Crows), and also featured odd and distinctive antennas just below each side of the cockpit.

All three of these aircraft were operated out of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and stayed in service until 1967.

The antennas on the nose of the aircraft attracted a good deal of attention from base personnel, and crews made up imaginative stories about them, for example claiming they were part of a "return to fighter (RTF)" defensive system that would cause Soviet air-to-air missiles to loop back and shoot down their own launch fighters.

In reality, they were specialized receiver antennas used for intercepting telemetry signals from Soviet space and missile launches.

ETB-47E

As with the B-47B, a few B-47Es were converted to trainers, with a fourth seat for an instructor, and given the designation ETB-47E.

These aircraft were used to replace TB-47Bs that had "got too long in the tooth," and served into the early 1960s.

DB-47E / YDB-47E

Two B-47Es were converted to YDB-47Es to support the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] stand-off missile program, and two more B-47Es were converted to DB-47Es in preparation for the operational introduction of the missile before the program was axed.

These two DB-47Es were later used as drone controller aircraft.

JB-47E

Several B-47Es were assigned to other specialized test duties and given the blanket designation of JB-47E.

One was used in the late 1960s to test "fly by wire" control system concepts.

Boeing JB-47E-110-BW

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JTB-47E

Two B-47Es were also used for secret flight experiments in the early 1960s and given the designation JTB-47E, and a third, even more mysterious modified B-47E was given the designation JRB-47E.

They appear to have been test platforms for ECM systems.

NB-47E

Finally, a B-47E was loaned to the U.S. Navy to help test the GE [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] turbofan for the Lockheed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] carrier-based antisubmarine warfare aircraft.

This B-47E was given the designation NB-47E and performed test flights from 1969 through 1975.

QB-47E

A total of 14 B-47Es were converted to QB-47E target drones in 1959 and 1960.

These aircraft were radio-controlled, and included such interesting features as self-destruct charges and arresting gear to assist in landings.

They also carried pods mounted on the external tank pylons to help in scoring weapons tests.

Apparently most of the missiles fired on them were directed for a near-miss, but the QB-47Es were nonetheless eventually whittled down to two survivors that were retired in the early 1970s.

On 20 August 1963, a QB-47 veered off course on its landing approach at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and crash landed on a stretch of road that ran parallel to the runway.

Two cars were crushed by the crash landing, killing two occupants, Robert W. Glass and Dr. Robert Bundy, and injuring a third, Dorothy Phillips.
Mr. Glass and Dr. Bundy both worked for the Minnesota [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at the time, a firm which had just completed flight tests on an inertia guidance sub-system for the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] project at the base.

Mrs. Phillips was the wife of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] James Phillips, a crew chief at the base.

Mrs. Phillips was treated for moderate injuries and released later that day. Both vehicles were destroyed by fire.

The QB-47 that crashed was used for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] tests, which normally operated from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Auxiliary Field Number Three ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]), approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of the main base.

RB-47E

The B-47E was also the basis for a number of important long-range reconnaissance variants.

The only B-47s to see anything that resembled combat were these reconnaissance variants.

They operated from almost every airfield that gave them access to the USSR, and often probed Soviet airspace.

Boeing-Wichita built 240 RB-47E reconnaissance variants, similar to the B-47E but with a nose stretched by 34 in (0.86 m), giving them an arguably more elegant appearance than the bomber variants of the B-47.

The long nose was used to stow up to 11 cameras, which could include:

• An O-15 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] camera for low-altitude work.
  
• A forward oblique camera for low-altitude work.
  
• A K-17 trimetrogon (three-angle) camera for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].
  
• K-36 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].
  

The RB-47E could carry photoflash [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for night [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Although the RB-47E could be [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], its fuel capacity was increased, to a total of 18,400 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
(70,000 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).

The navigator controlled the cameras, becoming a "navigator-photographer" instead of a "navigator-bombardier".

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RB 47E

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WB-47E


Following the single WB-47B weather reconnaissance conversion, in the early 1960s 34 B-47Es were converted by Lockheed into WB-47Es for weather reconnaissance.

These aircraft were stripped of combat gear, including the tail turret.

They were fitted with cameras in the nose to take pictures of cloud formations, and carried a special meteorological
instrument pod in the bomb bay.

Initially assigned to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (MATS), they became part of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (MAC) when that organization was established.

The last WB-47E was retired on 31 October 1969, and was the last B-47 in operational USAF service.