The C-97 Stratofreighter was a heavy military cargo made out of former bomber designs such as the Boeing B-50 and B-29 Superfortresses.
The iconic, state-of-the-art B29 was the only aircraft that used nuclear weapons during combat and was also responsible for dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was such a successful aircraft that Boeing decided to develop more versions out of its base design.
One of them was the C-97 Stratofreighter, which had a unique look with a larger-diameter fuselage upper lobe and a smaller one in the lower lobe, making for a “double-bubble” section.
The C-97 was first flown in 1945 and soon proved to be a highly successful aircraft. And even though only 77 models were rolled out, a whopping 811 of its KC-97 tanker variant eventually became the backbone of the Strategic Air Command’s early Cold War missions…
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Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
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