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you gotta love the 707
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:14 am
by Pat Carry
Re: you gotta love the 707
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:44 pm
by SaxMan
Great article - It's not 100% accurate regarding the Boeing 314. There was a military follow-on, the Boeing PB-1, but it turned out to be quite unsatisfactory. So, the Navy agreed to drop production of the PB-1 so that the plant could be used to produce Boeing's new long range bomber -- the B-29.
Had the PB-1 been a success, the Navy may have been more reticent to turn over the production facilities and the B-29s production may have been delayed long enough to impact how World War II eventually ended. There probably still would have been an A-bomb, but only after an invasion of mainland Japan.
Re: you gotta love the 707
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 11:48 am
by JohnB
From what I've read, written by Boeing engineer and aviation historian peter M. Bowers, technically the PB-1 was fine.
He asserts that after the Battle of Midway, the Navy decided it wanted land based patrol bombers instead of flying boats...so the PB-1 was dropped and aircraft like the PBJ and were bought instead.
Re: you gotta love the 707
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 12:16 pm
by SaxMan
Correction - it was the PBB-1 Sea Ranger, not a PB-1. The PB-1 was, of course, the Navy equivalent of the B-17.
A little more research on the topic indicates that John B's account is an accurate one. The PBB-1 was considered unnecessary with the advent of longer ranged land based patrol aircraft. It was quite a plane, though.
Re: you gotta love the 707
Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 6:35 am
by daviemax
Another point, that is the PBB-1 had a B-29-type wing and two R-3350 engines. Therefore it was quite dissimilar to the 314.
Re: you gotta love the 707
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 7:24 pm
by Jerry O'Neill
"...it can do everything but read."!!!!