XB-53

The forward swept wing XB-53 was designed by convair based on german research data captured in world war two. The XB-53 was originally intended as an atack aircraft tp be known as the XA-44. The wings would be forward swept at a 30 degree angle with an 8 degree dihedral. The wing, which also functioned as the horizantal stabilizer, was situated at the aft portion of the fuselage. Pitch and roll adjustments were made with the wing mounted contol surfaces. The XB-53 featured elevators on the inboard wing and ailerons on the outboard. The wingtips also functioned as a variable incidence and control surfaces. It's turbojet engines were concealed in the fuselage. The XB-53 had a weight capacity of 60,000 LBs. And had a range of 2,000 miles. Its three General Electric J35 engines proppeled the craft to 580 MPH and allowed it to carry up to 12,000 LBs of bombs.

globalsecurity.org

[edit on 26-10-2004 by MacKiller]

blue cell,

It is customary on ATS to add your own take on the item you have posted in addition to the quote and link you posted.

Thanks
FredT

Edit: Here is another more direct link:
www.wpafb.af.mil...

No doubt, they benifited greatly from the OSS's work in securing the technology and the scientists behind the German war machine in WWII.



[edit on 10/26/04 by FredT]

thats a dangerous bomber with rockets and machine guns to protect itself

Interesting, I'd never heard of the B-53 or B-54 before. Thanks for the link.
What was the German plane that the B-51 was a copy of? Was it a Focke Wulf night fighter design?

- That link just goes to the main site. Where am I supposed to go from there to find the info on the bomber?

Originally posted by Murcielago

- That link just goes to the main site. Where am I supposed to go from there to find the info on the bomber?

you the find info on the bomber here:

www.globalsecurity.org...

Global Security's picture is 404 (not found). I did manage to find a picture on a page that is in french.

Here is the:Link (Its half way down the page - Illustration)

=-Rich

Originally posted by rvfried
Global Security's picture is 404 (not found). I did manage to find a picture on a page that is in french.

Here is the:Link (Its half way down the page - Illustration)

=-Rich

you mean this picture?:


I'm pretty sure that's the one, it's the only illustrated one and the filename is xb53.jpg

I found this picture using google image search for "xb-53" and found this pic, it looks nothing like the one that rvfried posted

originally posted by: waynos
Interesting, I'd never heard of the B-53 or B-54 before. Thanks for the link.
What was the German plane that the B-51 was a copy of? Was it a Focke Wulf night fighter design?

The XB-51 was originally designated XA-45, and it was originally designed as a straight wing aircraft with two turboprop engines and two auxiliary turbojets in the engine nacelles. When the Martin light bomber design was redesignated XB-51, the design of it was changed to a trijet tactical bomber with two forward fuselage-mounted turbojets and a third turbojet in the rear fuselage, backswept wings, and a T-tail configuration.

The Convair XA-44/XB-53 was actually not the first US aircraft design with forward swept wings. Cornelius Aircraft built the FG-1 forward swept wing fuel glider, which remained at the prototype stage only, and designed the BG-3 forward swept wing bomb glider (which did not progress beyond the design phase).

Link:
up-ship.com...
www.secretprojects.co.uk...