The Boeing B-47 Statojet was an American long range, six-engine, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. The B-47's primary mission was to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union. With its engines carried in nacelles under the swept wing, the B-47 was a major innovation in post-World War II combat jet design, and contributed to the development of modern jet airliners. The B-47 entered service with the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1951. It never saw combat as a bomber, but was a mainstay of SAC's bomber strength during the 1950s and early 1960s, and remained in use as a bomber until 1965 It was also adopted to a number of other missions, including photographic reconnaissance, electronic intelligence and weather reconnaissance, remaining in service as a reconnaissance aircraft until 1969 and as a test bed until 1977. I was fortunate enough to see a few of these when I joined the service. One in February 1964 at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, while it was flying approaches dragging a drag chute. In 1966 at Clark AFB, Philippines there were a couple RB-47s and again I was fortunate enough to see them fly. Most of the regular bomber squadron had already been equipped with B-52s. The 1955 movie 'Strategic Air Command' with James Steward in the lead role shows excellent real footage of both the B-36 and the B-47. Specifications (B-47E) Crew: 3 Length: 107-ft 1 in (32.65 m) Wingspan: 116-ft 0 in (35.37 m) Height: 28-ft 0 in (8.54 m) Wing area: 1,428 sq ft (132.7 sq m) Empty weight: 79,074 lb (35,867 kg) Loaded eight: 133,030 ib(60,340 kg) Max. takeoff weight: 230,000 lb (100,000 kg) Powerplant: 6 x General Electric J47-GE-25 turbojets, 7,200 lbf each Performance: Maximum speed: 607 mph (528 kts, 977 km/h) Cruise speed: 557 mph (484 kn, 896 km/h) Combat radius: 2,013 mi (1,749 nmi, 3,240 km) with 20,000 lb (9,000 kg) bombload Ferry range: 4,647 mi (4,037 nmi, 7,478 km) Service ceiling: 33,100-ft (10,100 m) Rate of climb: 4,660 ft/min (23.7 m/s) Armanent: Guns: 2 x 20 mm (0.787 in) M24 A1 autocannon in a remote controlled tail turret with AN/APC-39 gun-laying lazer Bombs: 25,000 lb (11,000 kg) ordinance including 2 x Mk 15 nuclear bombs (3.3 megaton yield) or 1 x B 41 nuclear bomb (25 megaton yield) or 1 x B 53 nuclear bomb ( 9 megaton yield) or 28 x 500 lb (227 kg) conventional bombs. This picture was taken on 29 Octonber 2016, Sig... The Pima Air Museum allows more space between aircraft on static display to allow for better pictures, but the conditions for picture taking weren't exactly ideal. The harsh mid-afternoon sunlight cast harsh shadows and limited angles, and overcast skies are hard to come by in Southern Arizona and the temperature was pretty hot. Phoenix had a high of 96 F (~35 C) that day and Tucson was about the same.