Boeing B-50 Superfortress

B-50 Superfortress
A Boeing B-50D in flight
General information
Type	Strategic bomber
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Boeing
Primary user	United States Air Force
Number built	370
History
Manufactured	1947–1953
Introduction date	1948
First flight	25 June 1947
Retired	1965
Developed from	Boeing B-29 Superfortress
Variants	Boeing B-54
Developed into	Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter

The Boeing B-50 Superfortress is an 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.^[1]