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These planes have guaranteed nuclear deterrence since 1945

The unveiling had been eagerly awaited – and then turned out to be somewhat disappointing.

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These planes have guaranteed nuclear deterrence since 1945

The unveiling had been eagerly awaited – and then turned out to be somewhat disappointing. Because the future super bomber of the USA, the B-21, does not offer a radically new design or other easily recognizable differences. In fact, it largely resembles its predecessor, the B-2. The advances under the smooth surface of the prototype remain secret, of course, because its job is to remain mysterious. That alone should deter Russia and China, the two potential enemy states.

The stealth model B-21 - it is almost undetectable by radar - represents the latest evolution of US heavy bombers, and from 2025 it should help to preserve peace and freedom in the world through deterrence. The roots of this concept go back to the 1930s - at that time they were still very modest.

In August 1934, the US Army Air Corps first requested the development of a heavy bomber. He should be able to carry a "significant bomb load" at a height of at least 3500 meters at a speed of at least 320 kilometers per hour over 1600 kilometers to the target.

While the Douglas Aircraft Corporation and the Martin Company each offered two-engine models, the B-18 and the Model 146, Boeing relied on four radial engines from the start. At the end of July 1935, less than a year after the invitation to tender, the Model 299, as it was called internally, completed its maiden flight.

Compared to other four-engined bombers of the mid-1930s, however, their performance was not particularly impressive. The two German designs for an "Ural bomber", the Dornier Do-19 and the Junkers Ju-89, were even slightly larger, the Soviet Petlyakov Pe-8 significantly more powerful. In the USA, too, people were by no means satisfied with the B-17 - which is why the Army Air Corps accepted the suggestion from the manufacturer Consolidated Aircraft in 1939, instead of building the B-17 under license (nicknamed "Flying Fortress") with the B-24 ( Nickname: "Liberator") to produce an alternative heavy bomber.

The sheer mass of US bombers (12,731 of the B-17 were built, and 18,482 of the B-24) raised these two types over the British four-engine models (Lancaster: 7,377, Halifax: 6,176 aircraft, Stirling: 2,380 ) and the Soviet Pe-8 (just 93 were produced); the only German four-engined bomber, the Heinkel He-177, turned out to be a bad design. In terms of performance, however, the American and British models were very similar if you compare the versions produced at the same time.

The construction of heavy bombers reached a new dimension in 1942: the competitors Boeing and Consolidated had heavily modified and modernized their respective basic designs; the result was the B-29 and B-32 (nicknamed "Dominator"). Both completed their maiden flight in September 1942. The Army Air Forces (the new name of the Army Air Corps) decided in favor of the B-29, but had the B-32 further developed in parallel in order to have an alternative if necessary.

But the Boeing engineers had solved their task well: after certain initial difficulties, their design not only proved to be convincing, versatile and extremely robust, but also had a lot of potential for further developments. Production of the B-32 was therefore discontinued in 1945 after 118 aircraft had been delivered, while the B-29 rolled off the assembly line almost 4,000 times.

It was B-29s (nicknamed "Superfortress") that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, forcing the Japanese Empire to surrender immediately. The Boeing machines also formed the core of the US nuclear power at the beginning of the Cold War, because only they (or their further development, the B-50) were able to bring atomic bombs to the target.

Incidentally, the Soviet Union copied the B-29 as closely as possible under the name Tupolev Tu-4; The basis for this were four B-29s that made an emergency landing in Siberia after operations against Japan at the end of 1944, which were dismantled and their components measured. Although the Soviet industry was significantly behind the American in terms of materials, it was possible to produce airworthy copies by 1947. Since the first Soviet atomic bombs in 1949 were exact copies of the American "Fat Man" type, that was fitting.

In the United States, the B-29 had already been decommissioned as a nuclear bomber in 1948 and as a conventional bomber in 1953, and the B-50 followed in 1955. Its successor in nuclear deterrence was initially the Consolidated B-36 (its quite serious nickname was "Peacemaker"), the last US Air Force strategic bomber equipped with piston engines (and jet engines as "boosters"). In terms of length and wingspan, it was the largest bomber that the United States has ever put into service: With a wingspan of 70 meters and a length of 50 meters, it is significantly larger than the future B-21 (official figures: 20 meters long and 50 meters wing width).

However, the “Peacemaker” did not prove itself, and so Boeing got its chance again. First with the six-engine B-47, which from 1951 guaranteed the USA's nuclear deterrence for twelve years, then with the mighty B-52, which entered service from 1959 and is still in use as a bomber 63 years later ( today, however, only with just under 60 copies, less than a tenth of the total B-52 manufactured). All crew members of a B-52 are younger than the machine they fly, because the last one was delivered in 1962. Her nickname is "Stratofortress", among pilots she also operates as "BUFF" ("Big ugly F***er"). Nevertheless, they are expected to remain active into the 2050s.

In addition to this Methusalem of military aviation, the USAF used two supersonic bombers: 116 examples of the Convair B-58 were built and were in service from 1956 to 1970, until they were retired due to numerous accidents. The Rockwell / Boeing B-1, whose development had already been discontinued, came into service in 1986. Up to 60 machines are to be used by 2036.

The Northrop B-2, which was actually planned as a successor, has been used by the USAF since 1997. But it proved so expensive that only 21 examples were built, of which 19 machines are officially active at the moment in December 2022 after a crash and an emergency landing with severe damage. According to the current status, they are to be replaced by the B-21 by 2032. Incidentally, their nickname is “Raider” – a reminder of the “Doolittle Raid” in 1942, when medium-heavy bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and attacked Tokyo more symbolically.

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