Boeing B-47 Stratojet

Updated: October 2026 – A silver fuselage, slender as a pencil, above it a wing swept far back with six engines in pods: anyone standing in front of a Boeing B-47 Stratojet for the first time instantly recognizes the archetype of a modern jet. The bomber first flew in 1947 and was far ahead of its time. Here you will learn how the B-47 came about, which of its ideas ended up in the Boeing 707, how to recognize it in a museum and where the last examples stand today.

What was the B-47 Stratojet?

The B-47 was a six-engine medium-range bomber of the US Air Force and the first large jet bomber from Boeing. In the 1950s it formed the backbone of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), America’s bomber force in the Cold War. Its job was to carry nuclear weapons over long distances in an emergency – with aerial refueling and from forward bases, as far as the Soviet Union.

The crew consisted of only three people: pilot and copilot sat one behind the other under a long bubble canopy, and the navigator, who was also the bombardier, worked in the fuselage nose. For defense there was a remotely controlled tail position with two 20 mm cannons. The rest of the concept bet everything on speed: at just under 1,000 km/h, the B-47 was hardly slower than many fighters of its day.

From today’s perspective, the B-47 is interesting above all as a technology pioneer. The swept wing with engines in pods on pylons became production-ready with it – and still shapes almost every airliner you see at the airport.

Origins: “Stop the bomber design”

The story begins in 1943 with an initially informal requirement from the US Army Air Forces for a jet-powered reconnaissance bomber. Boeing’s first sketches still looked like a scaled-down B-29 with a straight wing and four jet engines. The problem: with straight wings, a jet quickly hits aerodynamic limits at high speeds.

The turning point came in May 1945. Boeing aerodynamicist George Schairer visited a German aeronautical research laboratory near Braunschweig with an American expert group and saw results there on wing sweep. He then telegraphed Seattle to stop the existing bomber design. Boeing checked the idea immediately; calculations by Boeing engineer Vic Ganzer yielded a favorable sweep of around 35 degrees.

After that it went step by step. The engines moved out of the fuselage into pods on pylons under the wing. That brought several advantages at once:

Through several intermediate stages this became the Boeing Model 450. In April 1946 the Army Air Forces ordered two prototypes under the designation XB-47. On December 17, 1947 – exactly 44 years to the day after the Wright brothers’ first powered flight – the first XB-47 took off with test pilots Robert Robbins and Scott Osler at Boeing Field in Seattle and landed after 27 minutes in Moses Lake in eastern Washington State.

Teething problems of a pioneer

Testing showed how new the concept was. The B-47 tended toward Dutch roll, a wobble around the vertical and longitudinal axes that Boeing got under control with an automatic yaw damper. The thin, long wing visibly flexed in flight, and at high speed the aileron could twist the wing so that the aircraft rolled in the wrong direction. The Air Force therefore limited the permitted indicated airspeed. Vortex generators on the wing helped against airflow separation. Scott Osler was killed on an early test flight when the canopy came off in flight.

In February 1949 the prototype proved what it was capable of: pilots Russ Schleeh and Joe Howell flew from Moses Lake across the USA to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, averaging around 978 km/h.

Technology you can see on the museum aircraft

Many of the B-47’s solutions were stopgaps for a wing so thin there was hardly any room in it. That is exactly what makes it exciting in a museum.

Bicycle landing gear: A normal main gear did not fit in the wing. Boeing therefore placed two gear units one behind the other under the fuselage and added slender outrigger wheels that extend from the inner engine pods. Because the aircraft could not raise its nose on takeoff as usual, it already sits at the right angle of attack on the ground – look for the slightly raised nose.

Drag chutes: The clean wing braked poorly. On approach the B-47 used a small chute about 5 m in diameter to get slow enough without pulling the engines all the way back, and a large drag chute after touchdown.

Rocket-assisted takeoff: The early General Electric J47 engines – today GE Aerospace – delivered comparatively little thrust. For heavy takeoffs the B-47 therefore got JATO rockets: first 18 built into the fuselage, later a jettisonable rack with 33 rockets. Later J47s also received water-methanol injection for more takeoff thrust.

Fighter-style canopy: The long Plexiglas canopy under which the pilots sit one behind the other is unusual for a bomber and the most striking detail of the nose.

Feature	B-47E (rounded)
Length	32.6 m
Wingspan	35.4 m
Wing area	132.7 m²
Max. takeoff weight	around 100 t
Top speed	around 975 km/h
Cruise speed	around 895 km/h
Service ceiling	around 12,300 m
Engines	6 × GE J47-GE-25

The versions at a glance

The B-47 was built in many variants and later often converted. For museum visitors, the main lines are enough:

Version	Role	Note
XB-47	Prototype	Two built, the first still with J35 engines
B-47A	Pre-production	Ten aircraft for testing and training
B-47B	First production version	Around 400 built, with aerial refueling
B-47E	Main version	Over 1,300 built, more powerful engines, tail position with cannons
RB-47E / RB-47H / RB-47K	Reconnaissance	Photo, electronic and weather reconnaissance
EB-47E	Electronic warfare	Jammers, a few later with the US Navy
WB-47E	Weather reconnaissance	Last B-47s in active Air Force service

The B-47E was built at three plants: Boeing built it in Wichita (Kansas), Lockheed in Marietta (Georgia) and Douglas in Tulsa (Oklahoma). That three manufacturers worked on the same bomber shows how badly the Air Force wanted the aircraft.

In the Cold War: backbone of the Strategic Air Command

The first production aircraft reached the force from 1951, and the B-47 was operational from around 1953. By 1956 the Air Force had equipped 28 bomb wings and five reconnaissance wings with the type. Because the range was not enough for targets in the Soviet Union without further help, SAC relied on aerial refueling by tankers like the propeller-driven KC-97 Stratofreighter and on forward bases.

Under Operation Reflex, B-47s rotated from 1957 to forward bases in Great Britain, Spain and Morocco, and later Guam in the Pacific was added. There, crews took turns on constant alert. Anyone who looks into the history of British airfields therefore keeps coming across traces of the B-47 era.

The reconnaissance versions were especially sensitive. RB-47s flew along the borders of the Soviet Union and partly across them. On July 1, 1960, Soviet fighters shot down an RB-47H over the Barents Sea; four crew members died, two were taken prisoner and later released. These electronic reconnaissance aircraft were the predecessors of today’s RC-135.

The end of an era

With the larger B-52 Stratofortress and intercontinental missiles, the B-47 lost its role. As a bomber it left SAC in the mid-1960s. The last RB-47H was retired at the end of 1967, and the WB-47E weather aircraft followed in 1969. A few EB-47Es flew for the US Navy until 1977 as jamming aircraft in exercises. On June 17, 1986, a B-47E took off one last time: it was ferried from China Lake to the Castle Air Museum in California, where it still stands today.

From the B-47 to the Boeing 707

For plane spotters, the B-47 matters above all because its blueprint lives on in civil aviation. With it and the B-52, Boeing had gained experience with large, swept jet aircraft, but had hardly any success in the airline business. In the early 1950s the company therefore built a jet prototype at its own expense: the Model 367-80, Dash 80 for short. It first flew on July 15, 1954.

The Dash 80 took over the basic features that had become production-ready with the B-47:

• swept wing for high cruise speeds
• engines in single pods on pylons under the wing
• yaw damper against the wobble, as Boeing had developed it for the B-47

Unlike the B-47, the Dash 80 got a low-mounted wing and a normal nose-wheel landing gear – prerequisites for a passenger aircraft. It gave rise to the KC-135 Stratotanker and the Boeing 707-120. The whole story is told in the article Boeing 707: history.

A comparison with the British De Havilland Comet is worthwhile: it was the first jet airliner, but had its engines hidden in the wing root. The podded layout from Seattle prevailed. So when you see an A320 or a 787 today with engines under the wing, you are indirectly looking at a legacy of the B-47.

The Dash 80 itself stands today in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington. How to photograph best there is on the spot page Udvar-Hazy Center.

How to recognize the B-47

In a museum the B-47 often stands among other postwar bombers. Three glances are enough for a sure identification.

The serial number on the tail tells you the fiscal year of the order and helps you look up the history of the individual aircraft. How the system of US serial numbers works is explained in the article US military serials; you can often find the life stories of individual aircraft in databases such as Scramble.

Where to see the B-47 today

Just over 20 B-47s survive, all in the USA. None of the aircraft is airworthy. Some are in large museums, others are displayed at active Air Force bases, where you can only get in under special visiting rules.

Place	Aircraft	Note
National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton (Ohio)	RB-47H 53-4299	Electronic reconnaissance aircraft, restored to its 1960 condition
Museum of Flight, Seattle (Washington)	B-47E 51-7066	Former weather aircraft, converted back to SAC bomber look
Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson (Arizona)	EB-47E 53-2135	Part of a large collection of postwar bombers
Castle Air Museum, Atwater (California)	B-47E 52-0166	The aircraft of the last B-47 flight in 1986
Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum, Ashland (Nebraska)	EB-47E 52-1412	In the large SAC exhibition
Kansas Aviation Museum, Wichita (Kansas)	WB-47E 51-2387	In the city where Boeing built most B-47s
Air Force Flight Test Museum, Edwards (California)	XB-47 46-066	Only surviving prototype, restoration pending

For Europeans, Dayton, Seattle and Tucson are the most obvious destinations, because there you can see several generations of Boeing bombers at once. At the National Museum of the US Air Force the RB-47H stands near other Cold War types; directions and photo positions are on the spot page Dayton. The Museum of Flight is right at Boeing Field, from which the XB-47 took off on its first flight in 1947 – more on the spot page Museum of Flight. At the Pima Air & Space Museum many aircraft stand outdoors; tips are on the spot page Tucson.

Photo tips for the B-47 in the museum

When the light suits an outdoor site, you can calculate in advance with the guide Planning sun position for your photo spot. And if you are interested in the work behind such exhibits: the article Volunteering at aviation museums shows how you can help with restorations yourself.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The B-47 Stratojet was a front-line bomber for only a good decade, but its influence reaches every jet that glides in over your spot today. The swept wing and the engines on pylons became production-ready with it, and through the Dash 80 and the 707 they landed in civil aviation. You will not see the B-47 fly anymore, but in museums like Dayton, Seattle and Tucson you can experience the archetype of the modern jet up close.