Talk-Polywell.org

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:43 pm**

Hmm, the WB-57 is 57 years old.

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:11 pm**

Roger wrote:Hmm, the WB-57 is 57 years old.

It doesn't look like a plane built in 1951.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:13 pm**

MSimon wrote:
Roger wrote:Hmm, the WB-57 is 57 years old.
It doesn't look like a plane built in 1951.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/

The inception of the B-57 dates back to 1944, when World War II brought English Electric Company Ltd back into the business of designing airplanes. The company had gotten out of the design business in 1926, but with the dawn of the jet engine, the company decided to answer a proposal sent out by the Ministry of Aircraft Production. The first test flight of the B-57 Canberra was May of 1949.

The United States Air Force first got interested in the Canberra, as well as many other aircraft, in 1950 when it was looking for a replacement for the aging Douglas B-26 Invader. The Air Force was to make its final selection for the replacement aircraft after a final demonstration in February of 1951. The B-57 was flown in by the Royal Air Force for the demonstration, making the flight across the Atlantic in four hours and forty minutes, setting an unofficial record time for the crossing in either direction. This was also the first unrefuelled Atlantic crossing by any jet-powered aircraft. Coming into the demonstration flight with such fan-fare, the Canberra easily stole the show, and won the contract.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/history.html

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:14 pm**

I thought only the section from cockpit and forward looked more recent than mid/late 50s. The overall wing shape definitely looked only a decade or so post-war.

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:18 pm**

wiki said the plane was licensed to Martin to build in 1951, as a 2 seater, not the English 3 seater.

...hints of the Mosquito bombers of WW2, or the P-61 Black Widow, the large wing particularly. Looks like a good solid platform, thusly its long service.

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:15 pm**

It sort of reminds me of the CF-100. First straight-wing production aircraft to break the sound barrier.

Not the wings/tail so much, but the forward section definitely...

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:40 pm**

Hey, we're 57/100ths of the way there!

Posted: **Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:20 pm**

Of course, this is the high-altitude research version with the stretched wing.

The original B-57 planform looked a lot more "typical" of english "twin jets" of the era (think meteor, etc.)

Posted: **Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:01 pm**

I often wonder about the mission of those long wing B-57's operating out of Osan AB, Korea in the early Seventies?

High Altitude Reconnaisance to be sure, but not the whole story.

I could tell, but then.... well.... you know!

Posted: **Thu Sep 11, 2008 5:09 pm**

LEFT-ON, brother!