Boeing B-50 Superfortress

Overview

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. Although not as well known as its direct predecessor, the B-50 was in USAF service for nearly 20 years. After their primary service with Strategic Air Command (SAC) ended, B-50s were modified to serve as KB-50 aerial tankers for Tactical Air Command (TAC) and WB-50 weather reconnaissance aircraft for the Air Weather Service. These tanker and hurricane-hunter variants were retired in March 1965 after metal fatigue and corrosion were found in the wreckage of a KB-50J, 48-065, that crashed on 14 October 1964.