Boeing B-50 Superfortress

what is it?

The Boeing B-50 Superfortress is a retired American strategic bomber. A post–World War II revision of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, it was fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, stronger structure, a taller tail fin, and other improvements. It was the last piston-engined bomber built by Boeing for the United States Air Force, and was refined into Boeing's final such design, the prototype B-54.

🔎How to recognise it: 6 jet engines · 43.1 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 634 km/htop speed
• size 78.5 tmax take-off weight
• built 370made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 79 years ago, in 1947.
• 🏎️Top speed is 4.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 43.1 m: about 10 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 13 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.3× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1947-06-25

introduced

1948

retired

1965

status

retired

number built

370

role

strategic bomber

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Boeing

engines

6× Pratt & Whitney R-4360-35 / General Electric J47-GE-23

crew

8

length

30.2 m

wingspan

43.1 m

height

10 m

max take-off weight

78.5 t

top speed

634 km/h

cruise speed

393 km/h

range

—

ceiling

11,247 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.