ERB-47H was the designation assigned to three RB-47Hs (53-6245, 53-6246 and 53-6249) that were modified as special reconnaissance aircraft designed to detect and locate electromagnetic radio frequency emissions.
Like the RB-47H, the ERB-47H was equipped with a bomb bay pod that carried extra equipment and additional crew members, known as Electronic Warfare Officers (EWOs, aka Crows or Ravens). However, the normal crew complement of the ERB-47H was only five as opposed to six for the RB-47H, since the normal Raven One position in the RB-47H was eliminated and filled with additional equipment.
Like the RB-47H, the ERB-47H was sometimes sent on some rather dangerous missions near Communist airspace. An ERB-47H was intercepted and fired upon by a pair of North Korean MiG-17s over the Sea of Japan on April 27, 1965. Although heavily damaged, the plane managed to escape and make a safe landing at Yokota AB in Japan.
Sources:
-
American Combat Planes, Third Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner, Doubleday,
1982.
-
Post World War II Bombers, Marcelle Size Knaack, Office of Air Force
History, 1988.
-
The Boeing B-47, Peter Bowers, Aircraft in Profile, Doubleday, 1968.
-
Boeing Aircraft Since 1916, Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute Press,
1989.
-
United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.
-
E-mail from Bruce Bailey
-
E-mail from Eddie Davis on serials of ERB-47Es. 3 were converted.
- Boeing B-47 Stratojet--Variant Briefing. Bill Yenne, International Air Power Review, Vol 6, 2002.
