Boeing RB-47K Stratojet

Last revised January 3, 2003


An additional 15 RB-47E aircraft on order were completed as RB-47Ks. They differed from the RB-47E in being equipped for both weather and photographic reconnaissance at all altitudes. These involved the use of high-resolution and side-looking radars. The first RB-47K was delivered in December of 1955.

The RB-47K was basically an airborne weather information gathering system They were operated by the 338th SRS, 55th Strategic Wing, and flew all over the world gathering weather data for SAC and sampling the radioactive fallout from foreign nuclear tests. They were phased out in the early 1960s.

Sources:


  1. American Combat Planes, Third Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner, Doubleday, 1982.

  2. Post World War II Bombers, Marcelle Size Knaack, Office of Air Force History, 1988.

  3. The Boeing B-47, Peter Bowers, Aircraft in Profile, Doubleday, 1968.

  4. Boeing Aircraft Since 1916, Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute Press, 1989.

  5. United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  6. Boeing B-47 Stratojet--Variant Briefing. Bill Yenne, International Air Power Review, Vol 6, 2002.