Secret US strategic bomber projects 1946-1950

I'd like to alert the abovetopsecret.com community of a new magazine devoted solely to US aerospace projects and prototypes called The American Aerospace Archive, which focuses on aircraft, helicopter and missile R&D from the 1920s to the 1950s. The latest issue focuses on the B-52 competition of 1946 and Douglas strategic bomber projects from 1947-1950:



It covers a wide variety of studies, including forward swept wing aircraft, "mother ships" equipped with parasite recon aircraft, and many other unusual configurations, most published here for the first time. As you will see, the B-52 could have been a very different looking aircraft had the USAF chosen another design! A full low resolution preview can be seen at the link above; a high resolution preview of the first 7 pages are up at Scribd.

Previous issues have covered commercial derivatives of the giant Martin JRM Mars flying boat and a navalized version of North American F-107A called the FJ-5, which had an unusual dorsal intake. All information comes from official government and contractor documents held by the National Archives, corporate archives, and museums. For more information, please check out Aero Archive Press.

[edit on 5-3-2009 by SecretProjectsHistorian]

[edit on 5-3-2009 by SecretProjectsHistorian]