The North American B-45 Tornado was the first production jet-powered bomber for the USAF.

Gallery:

Features:

• Armament: 2x M3 12.7 mm machine guns, 16x AN-M64 500 lb bombs
• Livery: USAF, 47th Bomb Wing, 85th Bomb Squadron
• Auto-aim tail gun!
• Fairly accurate performance
• A cockpit that should be VR compatible

Controls:

• AG 1 and Yaw: Nose Steering
• AG 2: Bomb Bay
• Trim for trim
• VTOL for flaps

Notes:

• Thanks to ChiChiWerx for the roundels, plus ReinMcDeer for the auto-aim tutorial (and SenSkysh for the original code)
• Tail turret will auto-aim at close enough targets (~1.3 nm) within the cone of fire, press Fire Guns to shoot. The camera at the tail gunner position may help.

Background:

It was clear by the end of WW2 that jet-powered aircraft were the future, and it made sense to pursue a bomber using this new type of propulsion. A variety of initial designs were pitted against one another, with the B-45 emerging victorious and entering production in the late 1940s. North American’s design was conventional, largely resembling a contemporary medium bomber with the piston engines swapped for jets. It had a high-mounted, straight wing with two jet engines contained in a nacelle midway along the span, for a total of four engines. The pilot and copilot sat in a fighter style canopy, with a bombardier/navigator in the nose to operate the radar. A manned tailgun position was fitted with two machine guns for defense.

The initial B-45A was produced in the largest numbers but was generally unsatisfactory. The C variant of the Tornado was a significant upgrade, adding provisions for aerial refueling, wingtip fuel tanks, and upgraded engines, as well as fairing over the plexiglass nose. The bubble canopy was replaced with a framed canopy, trading visibility for structural reinforcement. By the time this variant of the Tornado was ready, newer designs like the B-47 Stratojet were available, and so only 10 of this type would be produced in all. The remainder of the order were converted to photo recon RB-45Cs, and it was this type that would see combat.

Operating as day and night recon aircraft over North Korea, the Tornado was generally successful. When intercepted by the MiG-15, however, it could offer little defense. Interestingly, a handful of aircraft were leased to the RAF as part of Operation Jiu Jitsu. At the dawn of the Cold War, these British aircrews flew the Tornado on direct overflights of the Soviet Union to peek behind the Iron Curtain. Their mission was to gather radar and signals data on Soviet bomber bases to inform targeting in the event of war. With RAF markings applied, they flew hundreds of miles deep into Soviet territory at night and at high altitude as part of their spying missions. Although broadly successful, the Tornado was soon replaced in all variants by more capable aircraft. Three B-45s survive today, one of each variant.