Boeing B-47 Stratojet Multi-Variant History Package for FS9

[Mick]

David and I have really outdone ourselves this time. Here is our latest release:

Boeing B-47 Stratojet Multi-Variant History Package for FS9

This package celebrates the service career of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, one of the most important U.S. Air Force aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s, and the plane that set the pattern for generations of later bombers and jet transports. Included are twenty models, depicting the XB-47, B-47A, B-47B early and late, TB-47B, WB-47B, XB-47D turboprop, B-47E early and late, EB-47E Air Force and Navy, WB-47E, QB-47E, RB-47E, NRB-47E, RB-47H early and late, and RB-47K, three panels, two sound sets, and thirty-four authentic skins depicting the B-47 in the colors and markings of the Strategic Air Command, Military Air Transport Command, Air Training Command, Air Research & Development Command, Air Materiel Command, Air Proving Ground Command, Systems Command and the U.S. Navy.

I might add that it also celebrates David's service working on real B-47s when he was in the Air Force.

Here are a couple of the planes in the package. With apologies to the late Herr Galland for swiping the title of his memoirs, here are "The First And The Last"

First, the first XB-47 prototype, first flown in December 1947:

View attachment 82513

And the last, an EB-47E operated by McDonnell-Douglas for the U.S. Navy as an electronic aggressor and for ECM testing. It made the last flight of an operational Stratojet thirty years later, in December 1977.

View attachment 82514

 

[Mick]

Mig Killer

Here's an interesting one.

Yes, the B-47 had a combat record. While the Strategic Air Command's bombardment wings were practicing the command's motto, "Peace Is Our Profession," the strategic reconnaissance wings were engaged in a low key but deadly shooting war with the Communist bloc. At least two RB-47s were shot down and others were attacked and damaged.

April 27, 1965 B-47H 53-4290 killed an attacking North Korean MiG-17 that, apparently directed by an inept radar intercept controller, flew into the tail turret's 30 degree cone of fire and was last seen trailing smoke and fire as it spun down into either the sea or a low cloud deck, depending on which witness statement is correct. The RB kept its recorders humming throughout the engagament and the wing's official history says the kill was confirmed by communications intelligence intercepts. 53-4290 survived the battle and returned safely to base in Japan, but was shot up so badly that it never flew again.

The pods hung from the rear fuselage and the outer wing panels are part of the Silver King upgrade.

View attachment 82515

 

[Mick]

Stratobear???

Here's one we don't see much written about.

Some sources say that the XB-47D was never meant to be anything but a test bed for those big turboprop engines. Another says that a production turboprop B-47 was considered seriously. Compared with regular jet B-47s, it would've had similar speed and altitude capability and much better range, and lack of range was the Stratojet's worse failing - wags said that the B-47 would be the perfect bomber for a war against Canada or Mexico. Whetever the Air Force really thought, only two XB-47Ds were built and they did valuable work as test beds.

View attachment 82516

 

[Mick]

Absolutely Sweet Marie!

The Military Air Transport Service's Airways and Air Communications Service had two updates B-47Bs, one only briefly and 51-2120 for a long time. Its mission was to test high altitude navigation aids to help the Federal Aviation Administration adapt its system for the new jet transports coming into service. Since it would be operating in airspace crowded with slower propliners when near major airports, the plane took on a series of progressively eye-catching liveries.

First it looked like any other high visibility Stratojet with International orange nose, rear fuselage band and wingtips. The typical MATS fin band read, "AACS," which stood for Airways and Air Communications Service. We didn't paint it because we have other Stratojets in that same basic livery.

Next 51-2120 lost the orange nose and gained big orange flashes on the fuselage and fin, much like those seen in red on some other AACS planes. But the fin band now read "AFCS" and the fuselage titles read, "Air Force Communications Service." Here's 51-2120 in that livery:

View attachment 82519

Then things became a bit curious. Next, 51-2120 acquired a new paint job and a name. But first, note that the fin band now reads "AACS" again. We don't know what happened to the Air Force Communications Service, but the Airways And Air Communications Service was back in business.

Whatever the proper name of the service, MATS was so pleased with their shiny new Stratojet that the held a command-wide contest to pick a name for it, to be painted on her nose when she received her new overall white livery. The winning name was, "Navaider." But something else curious happened:

View attachment 82520

Somehow, when her new name was painted on her nose, it was spelled, "Sweet Marie." We don't know if that name was inspired by the Bob Dylan song, "Absolutely Sweet Marie," but the song and the airplane were contemporaries, so maybe...

 

[Mick]

"Sweet Marie" was a fancy dresser, but this is what the majority of MATS Stratojets looked like:

View attachment 82521

 

[Mick]

Not all of them though! The Air Weather Service wasn't averse to color. The sole WB-47B, prototype for a fleet of WB-47Es, started out looking like the plane in the post above, except that she retained the early, more extensive anti-flash white undersurfaces from her time as a SAC bomber. First she gained some flashy red trim:

View attachment 82522

After a while the trim was repainted in International orange and it became more extensive around the nose and rear fuselage.

View attachment 82523

Finally, her undersides white was brought up to cover the vertical fin:

View attachment 82524

 

[Desert Rat]

Looking great, cleared for dowmloading, go get 'er boys.

Busy watching the football tonight, will try her out later. Soccer, not rugby for fairies, lol.

Jamie

 

[huub vink]

Nice work Mick and David! Great additions for our "cold war" flights simulator world!

Cheers,
Huub

 

[wombat666]

Really good package and one more reason to keep FS9 operational on my system.

 

[anels9]

Thanks very much you two. very nicely done

 

[ian elliot]

Great package, great to have an RB, think i'll take a look over Cuba this afternoon

 

[Mick]

Here's a transitional sequence of bomber paint schemes.

The first B-47s weren't nuclear capable (something not reported at the time!) That's because the Atomic Energy Commission, which was in a charge of the bombs, refused to release information to the aircraft manufacturers about things like weight, dimensions, center of gravity, type and location of mounting lugs and so on - all the while insisting that it was the manufacturers' job to design their aircraft around the bombs. So earlier Stratojets didn't need any protection against nuclear flash, and they remained in overall natural metal like this one from the 306th Bombardment Wing, the first B-47 unit in the Strategic Air Command:

View attachment 82536

Note the briefly worn WW2/Korea style fin marking.

Once the B-47 became nuclear-capable, the Air Force saw a need to protect the planes from the intensive heat and flash from nuclear explosions. A flash protection scheme was developed that covered the undersides of the wings and stabilizers, the lower half of the fuselage and the portion of the fuselage under the wings and stabilizers in a special white anti-flash paint. This plane from the 320th Bombardment Wing displays that scheme:

View attachment 82537

That scheme didn't last long. David worked on B-47s for years and says he never saw one painted like that. One source suggests that the special paint adhered poorly and tells a story about a SAC wing commander who garnered kudos at an inspection for his well-maintained airplanes after he had his ground crews slather his bombers with house paint. Whether or not that's true, it wasn't long before a new, less extensive anti-flash scheme appeared. This plane from the 19th Bomb Wing shows it:

View attachment 82538

This is what most SAC bombers looked like for most of the type's service life.

 

[Mick]

Another colorful paint job:

When advances in the Soviet air defense system made high altitude bombing too dangerous, the Air Force decided to send in its bombers at low altitude using a bomb toss technique. The bomber would ingress at low altitude, pull up and release the bomb in an upward arc, follow through into a half Cuban eight, dive and escape at low altitude. It sounds dicey but the result was described as "surprisingly accurate." To test the maneuver a B-47E was painted up and used for testing:

View attachment 82539

No, those aren't windows along the side of the bomb bay. They were some kind of photographic markings.

After the tests were conducted by Boeing the plane was salvaged without ever being delivered to the Air Force. The junking of a brand new airplane after the tests might suggest that the maneuvers were too much for the B-47, but the technique was introduced and practiced by SAC's bomb wings. The B-47 was aerobatic and the bomb toss maneuver wasn't a problem. What was a problem was the stresses induced by the high speed, low altitude penetration and escape. Wings broke, planes crashed, and after an extensive and expensive modification program the problem continued. It didn't help when the Air Force replaced the bomb toss maneuver with a low altitude lay-down technique and the B-47 fleet was retired as soon as there were enough B-52s and B-58s to take over the nuclear attack mission. It's been reported that the issue was kept from Soviet intelligence so that the US could gain some worthwhile reciprocal trade-off in nuclear arms reduction agreements for the B-47 withdrawal.

 

[Mick]

A couple more colorful Stratojets.

When David suggested this project I thought it would be easy for me as a painter. I'd seen that colorful WB-47, but aside from that I figured all B-47s looked pretty much alike, some had white undersides and some not, but I didn't think they ever had much color. Wrong!

This QB-47E drone is one of the more garish Stratojets:

View attachment 82540

And there's this one from the Air Force Flight Test Center:

View attachment 82541

And the ECM test plane:

View attachment 82542

 

[Josh Patterson]

I'd like to add that this works just fine in FSX with two issues. (Not sure if they're related to running it in FSX.) One, bomb bay doors don't open. The switch on the panel moves with the visor command but the doors don't animate. Two, engine smoke runs vertical instead of being in line with the engines. Does FS9 and FSX run the locations for the smoke effects in different orders in the CFG file to cause this? This one I can fix myself. THANK YOU for animating the sliding canopy! It's nice to get some fresh air when taxying! (BTW, was the canopy on the early planes incapable of being opened? The canopy doesn't animate on certain early models.) This is an animation I can't believe Virtavia left out of theirs (along with the drag chute.)

 

[Mick]

I'd like to add that this works just fine in FSX with two issues. (Not sure if they're related to running it in FSX.) One, bomb bay doors don't open. The switch on the panel moves with the visor command but the doors don't animate. Two, engine smoke runs vertical instead of being in line with the engines. Does FS9 and FSX run the locations for the smoke effects in different orders in the CFG file to cause this? This one I can fix myself. THANK YOU for animating the sliding canopy! It's nice to get some fresh air when taxying! (BTW, was the canopy on the early planes incapable of being opened? The canopy doesn't animate on certain early models.) This is an animation I can't believe Virtavia left out of theirs (along with the drag chute.)

Well, I'm not certain, but I believe all the things you mention are all FSX-related. I have not tested the animations personally but I know that David did, and he spent a lot of time and effort making sure they all work in FS9 before we released the plane. Neither of us runs FSX so no testing was done in that sim.

The canopy on the early models opens in FS9. The animation is different in the early and late models. Variants up through very early B-47Es had a canopy that slid backwards. Starting with early (but not the very earliest) B-47Es the canopy opened upwards (Or do I have it backwards?). In both cases the canopy didn't open very far, not enough to get in or out through it. It opened that little bit for ventilation on the ground.

I know that the bomb bay doors work properly in FS9 because I had to open and close them when I was working on the textures.

I seem to recall reading that smoke and similar effects work differently in FSX than they do in FS9 but I don't know any details. It might need an FSX-native smoke effect file as well as different entries in the aircraft.cfg section.

There are two different engine smokes. Both early and later models had regular jet exhaust smoke that starts automatically at a certain throttle setting or airspeed (I've already forgotten which) and ends when the plane climbs to contrail level, when contrails take over. (That last bit is an automatic FS9 thing, it's not specific to the model.) Later versions also have water-alcohol injection smoke that starts on the take-off roll and stops when the throttle is reduced, or when the system runs dry after 75 to 80 seconds from start. David had to do considerable fiddling under the hood to make that work and I don't understand that stuff, I'm mainly just a painter.

If you can tweak and of these items to make them work in FSX you are welcome to do so. We would be pleased if you would post your tweaks for others to make use of.

 

[normb]

Another great surprise from Mick and David!
Thanks for a great package. Having been raised in NH I have great memories of watching the SAC birds flying into and out of Pease AFB. Our house was in some inbound path since they were always passing right over our home and field. Very low a few times with the drogue (?) chutes out. One time there were two at once and I remember one turning quickly to stay clear or the other.

Thanks
NormB

 

[Mick]

Another great surprise from Mick and David!
Thanks for a great package. Having been raised in NH I have great memories of watching the SAC birds flying into and out of Pease AFB. Our house was in some inbound path since they were always passing right over our home and field. Very low a few times with the drogue (?) chutes out. One time there were two at once and I remember one turning quickly to stay clear or the other.
Thanks
NormB

I went to a number of great open houses and air shows at Pease and I have excellent memories of them. Some friends and I used to hit all the air shows and open houses in southern New England and we always thought that Pease put on the best open days of any of the Air Force bases in the New England area.

I'm sure that you've discovered the 509th Bomb Wing B-47 based at Pease in the Stratojet package.

I grew up right under the flight path to and from the main runway at Westover AFB in western Massachusetts. Like you near Pease, we constantly saw planes coming over really low and almost directly overhead. They were directly over the big park across the street from us, just far enough from directly overhead that we could see the sides as well as the bottom. In my infancy and toddlerhood Westover was a MATS base, but about the time I started grade school it became a SAC base. I saw many, many B-47s on final trailing their approach chutes. B-47s were one of the most common planes we saw, so many that I was astonished when, as an adult doing research for modeling, to find that the type was never based there.

Along with B-47s, and the B-52s and KC-135s that were based there, we also saw the base defense interceptors, F-86D, F-94C, F-102, and F-104, as well as various transports and other transient traffic. A mystery that puzzles me to this day is that almost all traffic we saw was approaching the main runway from the west for landing, which seems odd considering that our prevailing wind is from the west. But for some inscrutable reason, the B-52s and KC-135s, and only those types, took off to the west. So we'd see B-47s trailing their approach chutes, and all the other types with gear and flaps down, but the BUFFS and 135s would come over taking off, trailing water-alcohol injection smoke as they pulled up their landing gear. They were acting in accordance with the prevailing wind, but nobody else did.

The one time I know of that a KC-135 took off towards the east it ended up splattered across the Mass. Pike and killed a lot of people.

Westover had open houses that I thoroughly enjoyed as a kid. They still do sometimes, but in later years, as the region's population density grew, the limited road access became a problem. They had a big air show a couple years ago and there were stories in the news about people who left their homes in what should have been time to get to the gates when they opened in the morning, only to be still stuck in bumper to bumper traffic when the gates closed at the end of the day. They're having another one this summer. I stopped trying to attend Westover shows some years ago, but maybe this year the covid plague will still be happening and maybe that will keep the crowds smaller. Or maybe the plague will still be raging so much that they'll cancel the show. We'll see.

 

[Josh Patterson]

Well, I'm not certain, but I believe all the things you mention are all FSX-related. I have not tested the animations personally but I know that David did, and he spent a lot of time and effort making sure they all work in FS9 before we released the plane. Neither of us runs FSX so no testing was done in that sim.

The canopy on the early models opens in FS9. The animation is different in the early and late models. Variants up through very early B-47Es had a canopy that slid backwards. Starting with early (but not the very earliest) B-47Es the canopy opened upwards (Or do I have it backwards?). In both cases the canopy didn't open very far, not enough to get in or out through it. It opened that little bit for ventilation on the ground.

I know that the bomb bay doors work properly in FS9 because I had to open and close them when I was working on the textures.

I seem to recall reading that smoke and similar effects work differently in FSX than they do in FS9 but I don't know any details. It might need an FSX-native smoke effect file as well as different entries in the aircraft.cfg section.

There are two different engine smokes. Both early and later models had regular jet exhaust smoke that starts automatically at a certain throttle setting or airspeed (I've already forgotten which) and ends when the plane climbs to contrail level, when contrails take over. (That last bit is an automatic FS9 thing, it's not specific to the model.) Later versions also have water-alcohol injection smoke that starts on the take-off roll and stops when the throttle is reduced, or when the system runs dry after 75 to 80 seconds from start. David had to do considerable fiddling under the hood to make that work and I don't understand that stuff, I'm mainly just a painter.

If you can tweak and of these items to make them work in FSX you are welcome to do so. We would be pleased if you would post your tweaks for others to make use of.

Will do! The smoke effects work, but are just wildly out of place. They can be adjusted in the aircraft.cfg file. (I've had to do this on other planes.) You maybe right about the bomb bay animation as this was a problem on the freeware AlphaSim B-66. Once Virtavia upgraded it for FSX I could finally open the bomb bay doors! Give me a few minutes. I'll work on the smoke locations for FSX and post them here.

 

[Josh Patterson]

Here's a tweak to the smoke system to the early and late variants.

Here's what is currently in the aircraft.cfg files.
[smokesystem]


smoke.0 = 1.6, -38.18, -46.1, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.1 = 0.0, -18.36, -24.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.2 = 0.0, -18.36, -22.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.3 = 0.0, -18.36, 22.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.4 = 0.0, -18.36, 24.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.5 = 1.6, -38.18, 46.1, fx_B-47_Exhaust

Copy and paste this in its place in in the aircraft.cfg file in both the early and late folders.

[smokesystem]
smoke.0 = -38.18, -46.1, 1.6, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.1 = -18.36, -24.0, 0.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.2 = -18.36, -22.0, 0.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.3 = -18.36, 22.0, 0.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.4 = -18.36, 24.0, 0.0, fx_B-47_Exhaust
smoke.5 = -38.18, 46.1, 1.6, fx_B-47_Exhaust



Had I flown one of the later versions first this might have gone quicker as the effect locations for the water/alcohol injection are in the correct order!

(Oh, I don't know why the 2nd exit command wouldn't open the sliding canopy on the XB-47 yesterday but it is working fine today!)