Boeing B-50 Superfortress
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Boeing B-50 Superfortress
The 16th Pilot Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:30 am
The B-50 strategic bomber was a post-WWII revision of the B-29. Improvements included:
• Larger engines
• Redesigned engine nacelles and engine mounts
• Enlarged vertical tail and rudder (to maintain adequate yaw control during engine-out conditions)
• Reinforced wing structure (required due to increased engine mass, larger gyroscopic forces from larger propellers, greater fuel load, and revised landing gear loading)
• Revised routing for engine gases (cooling, intake, exhaust and intercooler ducts; also oil lines)
• Upgraded remote turret fire-control equipment
• Landing gear strengthened and takeoff weight increased from 133,500 lb / 60,555 kg to 173,000 lb / 78,471 kg
• Increased fuel capacity with underwing fuel tanks being added.
• Improvements to flight control systems (the B-29 was difficult to fly; with increased weights the B-50 would have been more so).
It was the last piston-engine bomber designed by Boeing for the USAF, and was in service for nearly 20 years.
The B-50 was also adapted for use as a tanker and a weather reconnaissance aircraft, but was retired in 1965 due to metal fatigue and corrosion found in the wreckage of a KB-50J, which crashed in October of 1964.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-50_Superfortress
• Larger engines
• Redesigned engine nacelles and engine mounts
• Enlarged vertical tail and rudder (to maintain adequate yaw control during engine-out conditions)
• Reinforced wing structure (required due to increased engine mass, larger gyroscopic forces from larger propellers, greater fuel load, and revised landing gear loading)
• Revised routing for engine gases (cooling, intake, exhaust and intercooler ducts; also oil lines)
• Upgraded remote turret fire-control equipment
• Landing gear strengthened and takeoff weight increased from 133,500 lb / 60,555 kg to 173,000 lb / 78,471 kg
• Increased fuel capacity with underwing fuel tanks being added.
• Improvements to flight control systems (the B-29 was difficult to fly; with increased weights the B-50 would have been more so).
It was the last piston-engine bomber designed by Boeing for the USAF, and was in service for nearly 20 years.
The B-50 was also adapted for use as a tanker and a weather reconnaissance aircraft, but was retired in 1965 due to metal fatigue and corrosion found in the wreckage of a KB-50J, which crashed in October of 1964.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-50_Superfortress
The 16th Pilot- Posts : 64
Join date : 2011-06-18
Age : 29
Location : Spokane, WA -
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