Miscellaneous
RB-45 Facts and Figures

Courtesy Howard S. Myers
B-45 and RB-45 Firsts!

1) First USAF jeb bomber to go into full production.
2) First jet aircraft to be refueled in the air.
3) First jet aircraft to drop a nuclear device.
4) First jet aircraft to have its operational speed set by percentage of Mach.
5) First aircraft to drop bombs at over 500 mph.
6) First aircraft to fly the Pacific nonstop winning, in 1952, for SAC's Strategic Reconnaissance Wing's crew, the McKay Trophy.
7) First four-engine jet to participate in combat actions (Korean Theater)
8)First four-engine jet lost in combat action over enemy air space (4 December 1950, Korean Theater).
9) First American four-engine jet aircraft to penetrate the Soviet Union on a reconnaissnce intelligence mission during the Cold War (Initially flown by RAF crews, later by US crews).
RB-45C
Specifications & Performance

* Wing span — 89', 2"
* Height — 25', 2"
* Engines — 4 GE, J47-15S
* Armament — 2 Fifty cal. Machine Guns in tail.
* Crew— 3, Pilot, Copilot, Radar Navigator
* Maximum Speed — 600 MPH
* Cruise Speed — 500 MPH
* Service Ceiling — 40,000'
Left: Early model RB-45s carried tail gunners with fully operational twin .50 caliber machine guns, but in Korea the gunner was deleted and the guns were fixed to fire upward at a 45 degree angle or downward at a 45 degree angle, operated by the pilot through a toggle switch. Once adjusted on the gtround, they could not be moved. In this photo single barrel at right is in neutral position. Immediately below, facing downward and looking like a gun barrel, is the fuel jettison pipe and, further forward and behind it, the retractable tail bumper.
Right: Loading the forward oblique camera into the nose of 48-027 prior to its all black paint job. Covering left distinctive glassed-over port in nose for camera lens. The 91st Strategic Recon Wing's 84th Bomb Sqdn. had already sent a three-ship detachment to Korea in the fall of 1950, only six months after the RB-45C's first flight. One crashed en route at Midway and another (48-015) was shot down on December 4, 1950 by Mig 15s during an unescorted, high speed run.
Today, at least three B-45s are on display at museums across the country. One is at the US Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB, near Dayton, Ohio; another at kCastle AFB Air Museum, near lAtwater, California; and a third example at the new $26 million 37 acre Strategic Air Command Museum, located near Offutt AFB, outside Omaha, Nebraska.

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