Two B-47Es (51-5219, 51-5220) were completed in January 1954 as YDB-47E for service tests with the Bell GAM-63 Rascal air to surface missile. The missile was suspended from the starboard side of the fuselage behind the wing. After the missile was released, it was guided to the target by radio control from the parent YDB-47E. These modifications resulted in a model number change to 450-167-50.
Two additional B-47Es (53-2345, 53-2346) were converted to Rascal carriers under the designation DB-47E. They were essentially similar to the YDB-47E except they carried the Boeing designation of Model 450-172-52. These later served as drone directors with the 3205th Drone Group at Eglin AFB in Florida.
Plans to produce a large number of DB-47Es were abandoned when the GAM-63 Rascal program was cancelled in 1958.
Sources:
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American Combat Planes, Third Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner, Doubleday,
1982.
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Post World War II Bombers, Marcelle Size Knaack, Office of Air Force
History, 1988.
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The Boeing B-47, Peter Bowers, Aircraft in Profile, Doubleday, 1968.
-
Boeing Aircraft Since 1916, Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute Press,
1989.
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United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.
- Boeing B-47 Stratojet--Variant Briefing. Bill Yenne, International Air Power Review, Vol 6, 2002.
