The Americans enjoy a position of splendid geographic isolation, bordered as they are by the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic wastes. Their defence requirements are basically, therefore, the long-range fighter and the long-range bomber. Great Britain, on the other hand, is close in to the European mainland, less than a thousand miles from Russia in the East and also very approachable from across the Arctic. Our prime need is for fast-climbing all-weather interceptors and medium-range bombers. The American strategic situation led first to the Boeing B-29—designed for the Pacific war but fitting exactly into the general picture—from which the Convair B-36 "global" bomber specification was evolved. The need to replace the limited performance of the piston engine by a jet bomber capable of a contemporary speed, despite all difficulties inherent in the high turbine fuel consumption, became obvious as the jet fighter came into its own after the war. The first large American jet bombers appeared rapidly after the war; mostly they were of conventional layout, but one, the Boeing B-47, was both original and advanced in its whole conception.
Posts
