Boeing XB-47 Stratojet prototype 46-065 takes off using built-in rocket-assisted-take-off bottles

The Boeing B-47 Stratojet is a retired American long-range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. The primary mission of the B-47, that first flew in December 1947, was as a nuclear bomber capable of striking targets within the Soviet Union.

The first prototypes were fitted with General Electric J35 turbojets, the production version of the TG-180, with 17.7 kN of thrust. Early jet engines did not develop good thrust at low speeds, so to assist take off when heavily loaded, the B-47 had provisions for fitting solid-fuel rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) rockets, each generating roughly 4.4 kN of static thrust. Early aircraft had mounts for nine RATO units built into each side of the rear fuselage, arranged in three rows of three bottles.

Both XB-47 prototypes were test flown at Edwards AFB; the first XB-47 46-065 was disassembled and scrapped in 1954, making the second prototype 46-066 the sole surviving XB-47. Upon retirement, XB-47 46-066 was restored and placed on display at the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum in Rantoul, Illinois, remaining there until the museum announced its closure due to financial difficulties in April 2015. In late 2015, the Flight Test Historical Foundation began fundraising to purchase XB-47 46-066 for relocation to the Flight Test Museum at Edwards AFB. The purchase was completed in August 2016 and on 21 September 2016 the aircraft arrived at Edwards AFB for reassembly, restoration and eventual display at the Flight Test Museum.

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