Two Airplanes That Could Have Made It To FS9

[casey jones]

I like going through the never ending lists of FS9 airplanes at Fltsim.com, you never know what
you will find. The Convair XB-46 jet bomber and the Martin XB-48 would have been a great
addition to flying these little known early bombers. WWll had ended and the USAAF was now
the USAF and moving into the jet age, at the time all we had was the B-29, B-50, the XB-46
and XB-48 only had the spotlight for a quick few months. The XB-46 was Convairs entry
into the bomber competition and the Martin XB48 which was a four engine jet bomber, at
this early time Boeing had not been approached by the USAF. Thank goodness mr Clawson
and another gentleman did create the XB-35 and YRB-49 I love flying them, if it had not been
for Sec of the Air Force at that time the XB-49 may have become out jet bomber of choice,
instead he tried to destroy Northurp completely and ordered the destruction of all YB-49s
on the assembly line.

Cheers

Casey

 

[Mick]

Actually, the Secretary of the Air Force was only one factor that kept the B-49 from becoming a service bomber. There was also the fact that it couldn't carry the large nuclear bombs of the day (a rather serious deficiency for a plane seeking a roll as a nuclear bomber!) and an apparently incurable Dutch roll that made it a very poor bombing platform in terms of accuracy. Then there were the factors of limited range and limited payload, which put it in the class of a medium bomber. That meant it could never compete with the B-52 as a strategic heavy bomber, and the Air Force already had a better performing, more capable medium bomber (the B-47) that was much further along in the development process. Even without the Secretary's hostility towards Northrop, the B-49 was a non-starter.