Warplanes of the USA: Boeing B-50 Superfortress

Boeing B-50 Superfortress

(USAF Photo)

Boeing B-50D-95-BO Superfortress (Serial No. 48-096). This is a Boeing photo shoot over Puget Sound, Washington-converted to EB-50D standards as mothership for the Bell X-2 flight test program, 1948.

The Boeing B-50 Superfortress is an American strategic bomber. A post–World War II revision of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, it was fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, stronger structure, a taller tail fin, and other improvements. It was the last piston-engined bomber built by Boeing for the United States Air Force, and was further refined into Boeing's final such design, the prototype B-54. Although not as well known as its direct predecessor, the B-50 was in USAF service for nearly 20 years.After its primary service with Strategic Air Command (SAC) ended, B-50 airframes were modified into aerial tankers for Tactical Air Command (TAC) (KB-50) and as weather reconnaissance aircraft (WB-50) for the Air Weather Service. Both the tanker and hurricane hunter versions were retired in March 1965. (Wikipedia)

(USAF Photo)

Boeing B-50D-90-BO Superfortress (Serial No. 48-096).

(NMNA Photo)

Boeing KB-50J Superfortress refueling a North American FJ-4B Fury from VMA-214.

(NMNA Photo)

U.S. Navy McDonnell F3H-2 Demon (BuNo 145205) of Fighter Squadron VF-21 "Free Lancers" refueling from a U.S. Air Force Boeing KB-50J Superfortress. VF-21 was assigned to Carrier Air Group 2 (CVG-2) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CVA-41) for a deployment to the Western Pacific from 15 August 1959 to 25 March 1960.

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(USAF/NACA Photo)

Researchplane Bell X-1 number 3 being mated with the B-50 Superfortress motherplane, 1 Nov 1951.

Survivors

Five B-50 aircraft survive:

(USAF Photo)

Boeing B-50AAF (Serial No. 46-0010) Lucky Lady II. This aircraft was the first plane to fly around the world nonstop, between26 February and 2 March 1949. 46-0010 was refueled four times in the air by KB-29 tanker planes of the 43rd ir Refuelling Squadron, over the Azores, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Hawaii. The circumnavigation took 94 hours and 1 minute, and covered 37,743 km (23,452 miles) at an average speed of 398 km/h (249 mph). Lucky Lady II was disassembled after a serious accident, and its forward fuselage is stored outside at Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California.

(Greg5030 Photo)

Boeing WB-50DAF (Serial No. 49-0310). National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

(Alan Wilson Photo)

Boeing AF (Serial No. 49-0351) Flight of the Phoenix. Castle Air Museum at the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California. This was the last B-50 to be flown, being delivered to MASDC at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, on 6 October 1965. It was put on display at the Castle Air Museum in 1980.

(Mike Freer - Touchdown-aviation Photo)

Boeing KB-50JAF (Serial No. 49-0372). Pima Air & Space Museum adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.

Boeing KB-50J (Serial No. 49-0389). This aircraft is on outdoor display at the Air Mobility Command Museum.

(VT9A5CC Photo)

Boeing KB-50J Superfortress (Serial No. 49-0389), painted as 48-0114, c/n 16165.  This aircraft was transferred from McDill Air Force Base, near Tampa, Florida.

Boeing AF (Serial No. 49-0389). Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, Delaware. Formerly an outdoor display at MacDill Memorial Park at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. In 2018, 49–0389 was dismantled and relocated to the Air Mobility Command Museum; as of 2024, the airframe was on outdoor display while undergoing restoration.

(USAF Photo)

Boeing EB-50D Superfortress (Serial No. 49-096) with a Bell X-2.

(USAF Photo)

Bell X-2 being loaded aboard the Boeing B-50A Superfortress “mothership,” (Serial No. 46-011).

(USAF Photo)

Bell X-2 on ramp with a Boeing B-50 mothership and support crew.

(NACA Photo)

The Bell Aircraft Company X-2 (46-674) drops away from its Boeing B-50 mothership in this photo. Lt. Col. Frank "Pete" Everest piloted 674 on its first unpowered flight on August 5 1954. He made the first rocket-powered flight on November 18, 1955. Everest made the first supersonic X-2 flight in 674 on April 25, 1956, achieving a speed of Mach 1.40. In July, he reached Mach 2.87, just short of the Mach 3 goal.

(TOPFOTO)

Boeing B-50 Superfortress (Serial No. 46-045), "Satan's Mate", 1949.

(USAF Photo)

Boeing B-50 Superfortress (Serial No. 47-122).

(USAF Photo)

Boeing B-50D-95-BO Superfortress (Serial No. 48-096).

On 10 November 1950, a United States Air Force Boeing B-50 Superfortress Strategic Bomber of the 43d Bomb Wing was on a routine weapons ferrying flight between Goose Bay, Labrador and Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. As the bomber was cruising at an altitude of 10,500 feet over Canada, the B-50 lost two of her four Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines. As the crew were struggling to maintain altitude, they elected to jettison their empty Mk. 4 nuclear bomb casing at 1400hrs directly above the St. Lawrence River near the small village of St. Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, located approximately 90 miles northeast of Quebec City, Canada.

(USAF Photo)

The B-50 was carrying a Mark 4 implosion-type nuclear bomb based on the earlier Mk. 3 Fat Man design used in both the Trinity test, as well as the bombing of Nagasaki.  The Mk. 4 nuclear bomb variant introduced the concept of in-flight insertion (IFI), a weapons safety concept which keeps the nuclear core stored outside the bomb until close to the drop point. Arming the Mk. 4 required opening the casing's front hatch, removing the forward polar cap, two outer pentagonal lenses with their detonators, and two inner explosive blocks, exposing the composite uranium and plutonium fissile pit. A weaponeer would then insert the core with the use of a special vacuum tool. At that point, the Mk. 4 would become fully operational with an explosive yield of up to 31 kilotons (31 thousand tons of TNT).

The nuclear bomb casing was observed detonating upon impact with the water surface in the middle of the twelve-mile-wide St. Lawrence River. The subsequent blast was felt by Canadian residents within a 25-mile (40 km) radius from the epicentre of the detonation. The United States Air Force officials released an explanation to the shaken Canadians that the B-50 Superfortress had in fact released three conventional non-nuclear 500-pound HE bombs.

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