83
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Accepted
What are these engineers doing sitting on a large format drawing of B-47s aircraft?
As commented by Anilv, they are examining a factory production layout/plan. They most likely are attempting to resolve a production or supply problem, though as Anilv suggests, they may also be ...
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40
votes
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Why/How is the B-52 still in service?
Three reasons:
The B-52 stayed useful by taking on "easier" roles as it aged.
It actually started life as a high-performance penetrator, relying on speed and altitude to stay safe. Think Early Cold ...
- 3,994
32
votes
Why does the B-2 have a smaller payload than other bombers of comparable size?
The simple answer is that it is optimized for being low observable/stealthy, and long range, rather than for maximum payload.
When you design an aircraft, you make a variety of trade offs depending ...
- 4,191
29
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What are these engineers doing sitting on a large format drawing of B-47s aircraft?
Just to confirm, one of the sites you mentioned says:
Планирование производства бомбардировщиков B–47 на заводе ВВС США №6.
Завод ВВС США №6, был построен в 1942–1943 годах в небольшом городке ...
- 32.3k
24
votes
What is the meaning of nose-art on the Tu-160 bomber?
(wikimedia.org)
Most of the Tu-160 in service are named, much like the B-2 bombers are.
The one in the image is S/N: 7-02 "Василий Решетников / Vasily Reshetnikov" named after a WW2 pilot.
You can ...
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20
votes
Accepted
Why did Britain develop three different bombers (V-bombers) after WW2 instead of one?
I've heard numerous reasons cited - perhaps due to the secrecy around all things nuclear - but from what I know, there are a few reasons:
Speed of deployment
Of the three designs, the Valiant was ...
- 311
20
votes
Why does the B-2 Spirit have a pattern of thin white lines?
At a guess, they're 'walk here' lines, to show where you can walk, with the rest of the airframe being 'don't walk'.
- 4,588
17
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of nose-art on the Tu-160 bomber?
Most Tu-160's are named after notable Soviet military pilots. English Wikipedia doesn't have a complete list; here's a link to the Russian version. Out of 16 currently active Tu-160's, 9 are named ...
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16
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Why did Britain develop three different bombers (V-bombers) after WW2 instead of one?
After the end of WWII there was an awareness at the British air ministry that a new type of bomber would be needed for nuclear warfare against the USSR. The specification that the government put ...
- 52.8k
13
votes
Accepted
Why do the B-2 Spirit's split elevons seem almost always deployed?
First, the linked video is not high speed -- that was a slow pass, intended to wow the crowd at an air show. Second, in that pass the aircraft was held in a bank, first toward the crowd, then away ...
- 16.6k
10
votes
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What are some disadvantages that come with a design like a B-2 spirit bomber?
The main problem with the B-2 Spirit (or any flying wing aircraft, for that matter) is that they are statically unstable.
Source
If the lift vector of the wing acts before the center of gravity (as ...
- 99.9k
10
votes
Isn't a "land based navy bomber" just an air force bomber?
The terms "Navy" and "Air Force" refer to distinctly different branches of military service. (The United States also has the Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard, and Space Force)
Most ...
- 24.1k
9
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Why does the B-2 have a smaller payload than other bombers of comparable size?
The B-1 and B-52 were introduced at a time when most bombs were not guided. Thus, the mission for these older bombers required larger payloads to deliver large quantities of "dumb" bombs to blanket ...
- 8,532
9
votes
What is the meaning of nose-art on the Tu-160 bomber?
Both messages are Russian names: Vasily Reshetnikov (flew 307 missions in WWII mainly as a pilot for a long-range bomber, Hero of the Soviet Union) in this picture and Alexander Novikov (Chief marshal ...
- 12k
8
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Why do air forces still use bombers?
Short Answer: Because not every war or military mission needs an ICBM
On the practical level, some air forces still use bombers because large payloads of standoff weapons like air launched cruise ...
- 4,191
7
votes
Accepted
Did the jet stream really stop the B-29, or was it just bad luck?
Jets form along warm/cold airmass boundaries, such as the mid latitude Polar and Tropical air mass borders, where the warm side tapers off into a wedge shape at the top of the airmass at the ...
- 125k
7
votes
Why does the B-2 Spirit have a pattern of thin white lines?
Military aircraft, believe it or not, have relatively thin sheets of aluminum, titanium, composite, or honeycomb panels for much of the airframe. To prevent these more fragile areas from being damaged,...
- 71
7
votes
Was a strategic bomber raid ever completely wiped out?
If you mean a "heavy bomber flight" being one that was completely destroyed, then yes... And it happens to be a very famous one...
The Doolittle Raid consisted of 16 bombers that bombed ...
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7
votes
Accepted
What are the terrain-following radar modes of the B1-B?
S/M/H = Soft, Medium, Hard. I had an F-111E pilot describe the TFR on H(ard) as being in a Jeep at 500mph.
The A-K modes would seem to be these:
The B-1B has a single Westinghouse APQ-164 radar with ...
- 6,958
5
votes
Why do air forces still use bombers?
Bombers are one of the cornerstones of the Nuclear Triad. Along with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and Sumarine launched nuclear weapons, nuclear bombers provide the Nuclear Triad with three ...
- 71.8k
4
votes
Accepted
What are the 2 protrusions next to the fore ground lights on the Tu-22M3?
They appear to be pitot tubes, part of the air data system.
- 18.8k
4
votes
When did the Tu95 first use its armament in combat?
Last year (!), at least per Wikipedia:
On 17 November 2015, Tu-95s had their combat debut, being employed for the first time in long range airstrikes as part of the Russian military intervention in ...
- 1,822
4
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What are some disadvantages that come with a design like a B-2 spirit bomber?
If you’re talking about flying wings, which is what a B-2 Spirit is, they offer the following advantages and disadvantages:
ADVANTAGES
Extremely clean design. The absence of a fuselage, empennage, ...
- 71.8k
3
votes
Why do air forces still use bombers?
Lots of other good answers here, but in the interest of getting a bit more global:
Let's say you're Angola and you're trying to set up your own air force after gaining independence from Portugal in ...
- 863
3
votes
Accepted
What causes this surface texture, and how does it affect flight characteristics?
I believe this is buckling of the fuselage, due to heavy compression loading.
Buckling is the process of out-of-stress-plane movement which happens under compression. The below image shows it well.
...
- 6,567
3
votes
Accepted
What were the typical dimensions of a WW2 US bomber formation?
The size of the bomber formations (bombers streams) varied significantly depending on the number of bombers , the time , location and other things. The most common figure quoted figure is around 70 ...
- 99.9k
3
votes
Why does the B-2 have a smaller payload than other bombers of comparable size?
For several reasons:
Philosophy of Use: the B-2 was designed from the drawing board upward to be a nuclear bomber to specifically used for penetration of dense Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) ...
- 71.8k
2
votes
Did the jet stream really stop the B-29, or was it just bad luck?
The above picture has been described as an illustration of the effect of the jet stream on bombing accuracy.
If the suggestion is that the physical effect of the wind shear around the jet stream ...
- 21.4k
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