Customer Reviews

Boeing's B-47 Stratojet

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As a child, my family often drove through Plattsburgh and once stopped at the former SAC base. There sat "The Pride of the Adirondacks", a B-47 on permanent display at a quiet park by Lake Champlain. It was striking. Its sleek, graceful lines and shiney aluminum marked it as thoroughly modern. Decades after its last flight, it was still poised to take-off.

Lloyd's book underscores the immensely vital deterrent and other roles the plane filled during the tense, early days of the Cold War. But that part of the B-47 story (thankfully) does not dominate the book. The hero of the book is the B-47 itself. Lloyd's work traces the development of this revolutionary plane in brisk, compelling detail. The chapters establish its seminal, technological accomplishments. The accompanying pictures perfectly complement the text. Lloyd's picture compilation is absolutely second-to-none. Perhaps the best way to describe the book is "enjoyable biography" for it very much is a biography of a remarkable airplane.

A few extant B-47s dot the American landscape today. They sit. Like the "Pride of the Adirondacks", not one of them will ever fly again. But Lloyd's book lets them soar.

Al Lloyd has done another outstanding job of portraying the aviation history of Boeing and the USAF in this coverage of the Boeing B-47. This airplane was so far ahead of its time that even its flight and ground crews had a hard time getting up to speed and understanding its then complex systems. Even now over some 50 years later we are still benefiting from those advances in this planes design. As a former Air Force Crew Chief on this plane I find many interesting items in this book reminding me of our difficulties in learning and keeping up with this emerging technology. Its coverage is a hallmark of Lloyd's attention to detail. If you have an interest in the cold war years and a like interest in the change over from prop to jet multi engine aircraft, this book is a must.

When I was a young Second LT back in the mid-60's, I was assigned to Davis-Monthan AFB. Besides SAC and TAC operations , D-M was the site of MASDC (now AMARC) ,AKA the "Boneyard". Back then,nearly 5,000 airplanes were stored there. Every morning, from my apartment, I would look out over 1500 B-47's lined up in rows, gleaming in the morning sun. I often wondered where they had come from and what their various stories were.

By 1969, the "Great Silver Fleet"(as it were) of B-47's was largely gonefrom the Arizona landscape - cut up and melted down on site (this was before EPA forbade such things) and the scrap sold. Only two were left on base by 1970, and others were scattered around the US in museums. I hoped then that someday I would see a good reference text, memorializing and defining the service of this Proud silver bird. Alwyn Lloyd had done just that.

The B-47 has been out of the USAF Inventory for nearly 40 years now, and has been largely forgotten by today's crop of kids,who prefer to see yet another book on the F-15, F-16, F-18. etc. It's a shame , because the 47 was a precedent-breaking and trend setting machine, whose lines can still be seen in many products of the Boeing Company and others.

While it wasn't the sleekest of the four machines in the 1945 Jet Bomber competition (the Convair XB-46 holds that distinction), it certainly had the greatest range,payload and development potential of the four Contenders (XB-45,XB-46,XB-47,XB-48). We'll never see 2,000 unit production runs for a U.S.Bomber again, nor see the number of conversions that the 47 underwent during its 15 year operational life. Alwyn Lloyd does a marvelous job of bringing the varied history of the Aircraft back to life. Earlier works, such as Lindsey Peacock's 1987 opus on the 47, were handicapped by security restrictions that have since been lifted.

The appendices on Production, Model Numbers, Units assigned, etc alone are worth the purchase price. The numerous photos, diagrams, etc. in the text make this work an outstanding value - even more so with the 30% markdown normally offered by Amazon. Highly recommended !

The author of this book has managed to find a lot of great photos of various B-47s in different configurations. It's a nice large format book with high-quality printing. Definitely worth getting if you are interested in this aircraft.

What a thrill to find this thorough study of the best aircraft I ever flew! I'm amazed at the depth of the research Mr.Lloyd must had at his diposal in order to come up with this excellent presentation on the B/RB 47. Of course, as an A/C in the 90th SRW in SAC, I prefer the "RB." That additional 32.5 inches added to the nose, that accommodated our forward oblique camera, made it a "prettier" design. I found only one tiny error and two possible omissions. The lightning flash on the vertical stabilizer (Pg 106) in the 319th Sqdn. was Red, not Blue. Blue was for the 320th and Yellow was for the 321st. But who cares at this distance. He made no mention of the bird's tendency to "porpoise" on the REALLY bad landing. It could generate the mother of all "PIO's" (Pilot Induced Oscillations); to the extend that it would shed all six engines. The other important feature of it's thin flexible wing was it's behavior at high speed (450+ knots). The wing would twist when down aileron was applied which forced the wing leading edge down resulting in an aileron reversal. This characteristic caused the loss on one aircraft in my squadron.
Nevertheless, for any of the Cold War folks still around this is a book that belongs in your library. For any students of Aviation history, The 35 degree swept wing (that we copied from the Germans), and the podded engines were first used in this design and can still be seen today at your local airport. The B/RB 47 was the grandaddy of them all.

Speciality Press have done it again - Al Lloyd did a great job researching on a great 1950' bomber. Particular sharp and crisp b&w photography all over. (a few color pages complement the volume) This book is a pleasure to read, especially the prototype stories. This looks looks to me like the definite volume on one very important aircraft (not only bomber) designs (swept wings, podded engines..)after WW2. Definitely recommended.

I have purchased many aviation books. I wish they were all like this one. This book has so many facts and figures (what I like). This book will provide more infomation than anyone will ever need to know as this aircraft will never fly again. I only wish I could find a book on the B-52 that is similar to this one.

This book brought back many good memories of the glory days of the Air Force and SAC in particular. The B-47 was without a doubt, the most beautiful yet fierce looking aircraft ever built. In the '50s, when technology wasn't taken for granite, but admired, the B-47 demanded much admiration.

This book is in itself amazing. The attention to detail, the quality of the books construction and the material , all add to the minute detail of this aircraft that the author painstakingly included. If you or someone you love, flew or worked on this aircraft, this book will bring hours of reflection or admiration to those that served in our great military.

And to the younger generation, it will reveal that this generation was not a group of illiterate old fogies. The systems components on this aircraft, the Com/nav, the bomb/nav, autopilot, engines, ECM (electronic countermeasure), weapon systems were removed and repaired to the component, i.e. the lowest level of component of the system, by the technicians and mechanics. There were no printed circuits and integrated circuits or modules to be replaced and shipped to manufacturer for replacement or repair.

I think that that increased our appreciation for not only this aircraft, but, but technology in general.

Buy it, you will appreciate it.

Having served in SAC and extensively envolved with the B-47; I found this book offering to be one of the more comprehensive and technical books being offered that the average aircraft buff or technician would appreciate. Look at it in stages and you will be amazed at how technical an aircraft the B-47 was - it will delight you with new information at every reading. I highly recommend this book to one and all - good job Mr. Lloyd!

If you have ever been around this remarkable aircraft, you need this book. Mr. Lloyd was on the Boeing payroll when this aircraft was being designed and produced.
I attended a lecture given by him at the Museum of Flight and have an autographed copy of his book, the most authoritive one on the aircraft I have found.
I had the pleasure of working on the last of the fleet, the RB-47H, as an electronics technician and am proud of my experience in SAC and with this aircraft.
You can see one for real at the National Museum of the US Air force in Dayton, OH. (One that I actually worked on: 53-4299)