Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter
- CountryUnited States of America
- TypeFreighter
- PowerplantsKC-97G - Four 2610kW (3500hp) Pratt & Whitney R-4360-59B Wasp Major 28 cylinder radial piston engines driving four blade constant speed propellers.
- PerformanceKC-97G - Max speed 603km/h (325kt), cruising speed 482km/h (260kt). Service ceiling 35,000ft. Range with max fuel 6920km (3735nm).
- WeightsKC-97G - Empty 37,450kg (82,500lb), max takeoff 79,450kg (175,000lb).
- DimentionsKC-97G - Wing span 43.05m (141ft 3in), length 35.81m (117ft 5in), height 11.67m (38ft 3in). Wing area 164.5m2 (1769sq ft).
- CapacityFlightcrew of two pilots, flight engineer, and, in military service, a navigator and radio operator. When configured for passengers can seat more than 100 (Stratocruisers in airline service typically seated 55).
- ProductionTotal military Model 367 production of 27 C-97s and 808 KC-97s, in addition to which 55 civil Model 377 Stratocruiser airliners were built.
Boeing's Stratofreighter shaped the spine of the US Air Force's Military Airlift Transport Service (MATS) amid the early 1950s, and more than 800 were manufactured for utilization as tankers and aerial refuellers.
The Model 367 Stratofreighter is focused around the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the Allies' most mechanically developed assault plane to see benefit in World War 2, and an airplane acclaimed (or scandalous) for dropping the main nuclear bombs utilized operationally as a part of fighting on Japan in the end phases of that clash. The B-29 flew without precedent for September 1942 by which time Boeing had effectively concentrated on a vehicle rendition, using the B-29's wing, motors, tail and lower fuselage, joined with another upper fuselage segment. The new twofold projection fuselage shape was extremely different, furthermore structured the premise for future Boeing plane air transport fuselage cross areas.
The US Army Air Force was awed with Boeing's suggestions and requested three models be fabricated, the first of which flew on November 15 1944. Ten advancement YC-97s were accordingly requested, the final one of which spoke to generation airplane, emphasizing the all the more influential R-4360 motors and taller tail created for the B-50, an enhanced B-29. The principal generation C-97a was conveyed in October 1949.
Improvement of the C-97 prompted the C-97c, which was utilized for setback clearing, and the KC-97e, KC-97f and KC-97g aeronautical tankers. More than 590 KC-97gs were manufactured. The KC-97 was the US Air Force's essential tanker until supplanted by the plane fueled KC-135, the ancestor to the Boeing 707. Little quantities of 377 Stratocruiser aerial shuttles were additionally manufactured, yet the final one of these have long been resigned.
Numerous Stratofreighters survived their military administration to be obtained by regular citizen administrators for utilization as vessels and flame aerial attackers. Just two were still airworthy in 2002, one of them worked by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation and alternate as a firefighter by Hawkins & Powers.
Pictures of Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter
