Pages

Thursday, March 14, 2013

T.N. Japan B-47 Strato-Jet

Today Toys & Stuff has got a real cool jet from years past - the B-47 Strato-Jet from T.N. of Japan. It's probably easier to let Wikipedia introduce this vintage warbird:

"The Boeing Model 450 B-47 Stratojet was a long-range, six-engined, jet-powered medium bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speeds and at high altitudes to avoid enemy interception. The B-47's mission was primarily to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union. With its engines carried in pods under the swept wing, the B-47 was a major innovation in post-World War II combat jet design, and helped lead to modern jet airliners.

The B-47 entered service with the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1951. It never saw combat as a bomber, but was a mainstay of SAC's bomber strength during the 1950s and early 1960s, and remained in use as a bomber until 1965. It was also adapted to a number of other missions, including photo reconnaissance, electronic intelligence and weather reconnaissance, remaining in service as a reconnaissance platform until 1969 and as a testbed until 1977."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-47_Stratojet)

I remember the B-47 as one of the three main stars of the 1955 movie Strategic Air Command. The other two were James Stewart and June Allyson. As you know James Stewart himself was a pilot and pushed the studio to make the film to advance the cause of the American Air Force back in the 1950s. He retired as a Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.
Back on Feb 29, 2012 Toys & Stuff featured a nice little plastic B-47 from Marx, but this baby is much sweeter. Note that the correct spelling is 'Stratojet' not 'Strato-jet' as shown on the box cover. It is battery operated with blinking lights and rolls along the ground. It has the usual two-piece fuselage and wing assembly construction. The major parts are tin-litho while the engine nacelles are plastic and measures 12 1/4" (31.1cm) L x 14" (35.6cm) WS x 4 1/2" (11.4cm) H. Enjoy!