The Boeing B-54; Ultimate Superfortress 

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I was fortunate to have met and talked with Curtis Lemay nearly every Sunday one summer at the old South Coast gun club off the end of Jeffery road in Irvine California back around 1977-78 or so. I was in my early twenties and did not know much of what this old warrior had done. But I did know Lemay had commanded the B29 campaign in the pacific and since the B29 was one of my favorite bombers of WWII, I Leaned in close because he was hard of hearing and we were on a shooting range and enthusiastically asked Lemay about the B29. To my chagrin he furrowed his brow and said they were troublesome, rushed into service before they were ready. He told me they lost more B29s and crews to mechanical issues, engine fires and other teething problems than they ever lost over Japan to the enemy. Well that burst my bubble! He told me early on when they started operations out of bases in china each B29 had to fly 4 missions over the hump to supply itself with enough fuel and bombs for one mission over Japan. He said that is where a lot of B29s were lost. I remember him saying something about later operations out of the Marianas where he ordered all armament but the tail guns removed and ordered the incendiary missions flown much lower than 30,000 feet where they previously had poor results. He said the crews did not like those orders but he made them do it anyway. I recently read on Wikipedia that Lemay flew lead in them early low level raids over Japan as he had done over Europe in B17's. Lead from the front. A true Warrior. So it comes as no surprise to me after watching Ed Nash's vidio that Lemay who had the previous year, taken over command of Strategic Air Command did not want or need the B54. He had B36's, B47's and B52's in growing numbers. As another aside, a Marine gunny sergeant from nearby El Toro Marine Corp air station told me one day referring to Lemay that "That Old Man is probably the best pistol shot on this range right now". I saw Lemay's pistol case open on the shooting bench and it contained 5 or 6 1911 pistols. Lemay told me some were one offs from an air force armory tool room. When I asked Lemay to shoot my new series 70 Gold Cup he obliged. He said it would not shoot accurately. Then he told me by chance he would be in New York the coming week and would be stopping by the Colt factory in Hartford and that he would relate his experience with a "New" series 70 Gold Cup to whoever he was going there to see. Which led to it being sent back to Colt with a note from me to a certain person stating that this is the pistol Lemay had shot, Please fix it. Which they did. Still got it. Still shoots straight too. Since that summer I have learned much more about Curtis Lemay. You can read on Wikipedia about most of his exploits. I am forever "kicking" myself for not knowing that in 1938 he flew as lead navigator with a group of B17s on a pre war good will tour to Buenos Aries. Missions over Germany in B17s. Dangerous ones like Regensburg. I would have asked him about commanding SAC. B36s etc. But alas all I knew of his exploits then was that he was in command of the pacific B29s. Missed opportunity to hear first hand of history that I can only read about now. One more tidbit about B50s. Years ago I once ran across an older gent that related he had spent most of his entire enlistment in the Air Force replacing burned up exhaust stacks and spark plugs on KB50s that were used to refuel early jet fighters inflight. He told me the KB50 would have to have the throttles wide open while flying in a very shallow down hill configuration to be going fast enough to keep the jets from stalling while refueling. I don't know if all 28 exhaust stacks on an R-4360 would burn off and need replaced but that engine had 56 spark plugs x 4 ! That sounds like a lot of scraped knuckles in tight places to me.

Well done Ed - this is genuinely the first time I've ever heard of the B-54. Great video; your channel is coming along nicely.

Something left out of the B-29 and B-54 weight tables: the mass of all the mechanics needed to change all those spark plugs!

Boeing hardly had reason to be angry, they were about to mint serious coin selling USAF B47s, B52s, and C135 variants (for the obtuse, military 717 derivatives like C135, KC135, RC135, EC135, etc).

Damn I've read a lot about this subject but never heard about the B-54 until today. Thank you!!!

My was a flight engineer on B29s, he flew some of the last missions over Japan, and Korea (until they were withdrawn). Then was assigned to WB-50s (the weather recon version). It was that aircraft that the B29's tendency to catch fire caught up with him. He survived it fortunately for me:)

And here I was thinking I was semi knowledgeable about military aircraft. Ed does it again

If LeMay cancels your bomber program it deserved to be cancelled. He was a very technically minded officer and was a bomber pilot himself.

I used to impress my friends by telling them 'that's not a B-29, that's a B-50'. I'm not feeling so smug now. I never heard of the development of this aircraft. It looks like it would have been a beast, but still a sparrow compared to the B-36. Thanks for the video - very informative and since I learned something new this was a good day.

I'd never even heard of the B-54 lmao and I've heard of a lotta planes. Amazing video as usual, Ed

Don't forget the B47. No tears for Boeing, they had a few projects 'on the go' at the time.

Le May was right - they would have been entering service around the time the Valiant, Vulcan, and Victor were first flying. That would have made them look very old indeed

I´m quite impressed that the USAF ordered the B-54 when they already had the B-36 in production at the time. Great video as always!

It’s what I learn after I think I know everything that counts. And with every video you post I learn more. Many thanks.

Great stuff. Been into this sort of thing my whole life and never heard of the B-54. What a super channel!

Never heard about the B-54 before. It's just great to find out about planes like this on your channel!

Thank you for this introduction. Never heard of this bomber.

Hi Ed. Just finished reading your book, Desert Sniper. Would highly recommend.

I have never heard of this aircraft before. Thank you Ed for bringing this awesome plane to light!!!!

Thanks I've never heard of the B54 before and it's story was fascinating

Absolutely love these videos the research Ed does is amazing. The B 54 looked absolutely beautiful what a shame that one was never completed and took to the skies.... 👍

Great work Ed. It would be interesting to do a deep dive on the B-29's fire control system, something nobody has done that I can see so far. Far beyond remote control, it was a true, although crude, "fly-by-wire" control system, just not flight controls. The gunner aimed, and his sight sent voltages representing sight azimuth, elevation, and target range (by the gunner sizing the sight reticle) to a central computer via Selsyn synchros in the sight head, the computer took the information and applied half a dozen adjustments to the signals to correct for this, that and the other thing (lead, turret/gunner parallax, ballistic characteristics, altitude, temperature, true airspeed, etc), before sending its own voltage signals to Selsyns in the turret to aim the turret. The gunner pointed at and tracked the target, but the computer electrically pointed the guns somewhere else, where it calculated where they should be pointing to get hits based on the target's location provided by the gunner. Modern fly-by-wire does more or less the same thing.

Never heard of this one, great vid. Great to see you're getting sponsored, well deserved.

Very good job sir!!! I have been an aviation fan for years and never heard of it!!!

What a fascinating video. I love this channels output. 🇬🇧

Thank you very much for this most interesting and informative video. I'd never heard of the B54 until now! Thanks once again!

Ed, you're doing a great job, buddy!

Ed, you are an ace aviation historian and congrats on being able to get so much co-operation from Boeing.

I always love how the B-29 cost more than the A bomb. Also shows how many resources the USA had to co develop the two most expensive weapons at the same time in WW2.

Thank you for this story of the B-54! I don't know how I missed knowing about it. I spent five years as an Air Force firefighter in the 70s, in SAC, mostly around B-52s, at Loring AFB, Maine and Andersen AFB, Guam.

The "fix" for the B-29 was the B-29C with redesigned, vastly improved R3350 engines with some of the improvements of the B-29D such as the longer wing coupled with the experience with the SILVERPLATE aircraft which demonstrated that most of the heavy, complex defensive armament wasn't needed. They wouldn't have needed the B-36. Thankfully, Curtis Le1May had a big thing for jets.

Never heard about this plane before. Thanks for another great video mate.

Excellent presentation.

I love failed projects stuff. So many what if’s. Very interesting. Thanks 😊

In Graham Whites book on the R-4360 engine a whole chapter is devoted to the engines development for the B-54. The engines were tested in a modified B-50 and essentially they found that the R-4360's where operating to within an inch of death producing those 4,500 ponies at altitude. The back pressure of the immense exhaust system for the VDT's also started to melt the exhaust valves and over load the valve system in general.

You did it again! Never even heard of the B-54 before now (that I know of). Thank you. Also, before you mentioned it earlier. I never would have guessed that the B-29 cost more than the Manhattan Project. ☮

Great narrative on a forgotten project. Good research, also. Thanks

Very informative video. Knew of the B-50 as I have a model kit of one in my kit stash but must admit the B-54 is a new one on me.

That once again was a very interesting post, thumbs up to Boeing for their assistance.

Never knew about this plane, thank you.

An excellent resumé of the US Bomber policy in the post war years and an aeroplane of which I was not aware. Thanks very much. Ed

Great video as always on a interesting subject. Never heard of this bomber before.

Hey thanks for making a video about the "ultra fortress"!

Last time I was this early, Boeing made good airplanes.

Fascinating video.

Great video, didn't know this one.

I lived right beside the Austin Airport private plane section in the 90's when they parked the last flying B-29 there. It was huge compared to anything else there but could not opperate out of the modern Jet Liner facilities.

Thank you for not insulting us by omitting Feet and HP, much appreciated!!

Thanks for another dose of interesting aviation Ed 👍🏼 Video on the B-36 perhaps?

Good stuff. Didnt know much about it before.

The B-47 preceded the B-52, and was a groundbreaking aircraft.

Ed, are you getting enough sleep mate? This is already the third video in 3 days. Not that I'm complaining, they are great! Thank you!

Terrific video, and hat's off to Boeing's archive team!

Interesting and entertaining video pertaining to the Boeing B-54 ! General LeMay knew the Jets were the future for SAC!

I'm a big fan of "what might have been" aircraft. Thanks for letting me know of one that I missed.

Excellent video about this amazing aircraft. I would love to build this beast in 1/72 scale.

Boeing when it calculated Ultrafortress' expected range: "it's over *9000!!!* "

Nice Ed 👌 I haven't heard of the b 54

A great summary. I have to say that prototype in the pictures looks more like a mock-up than something that might one day fly. As you say it was left behind by the dawn of the jet age, and given the work Boeing were doing at that same time on their B-47 and B-52 contracts they had little reason to be disappointed.

Amazing that he keeps finding significant airplanes that I've never even heard of.

Thank you for that, I have missed the B-50 and the B-54 entirely.

Would've loved to see at least a prototype built and flown. Gorgeous airplane!!!

Well that is a plane I've never heard of and don't remember them even mentioning at the Wright Patt AFB Museum. I saw a 29, and a 36 and 52. They may have had a B-50 out in one of the hangars, it was raining heavily the day I went, so I stayed in the main museum area.

My late father flew WB-29s, KB-29s and KB-50J's during his 26 years as a USAF pilot. You might want to do a piece on the KB-50Js, which had SIX engines - four P&W R-4360s plus two jet engines under the wings. Aerial refueling of jet fighters (F-100s) and bombers (B-66s) among other aircraft was especially dangerous from these tankers due to the vastly different performance envelopes of the prop-driven and jet aircraft.

How interesting this video regarding the B-54! I must say that that altrough I have a quite good knowledge about American airplanes I never heard about the B-54! It could have been an interesting bomber but general Curtis's LeMay was correct to cancel the production of this bomber as he realised that it was already obsolete before being putted in production. Thanks for sharing this interesting video and I just subscribed 👍👍

Wow! I didn't even know they made some B-50s. Nice!

@7:07 Convair B-36 Peacemaker, not "Peacekeeper" I think? Very interesting video, thanks.

I too had no idea about the existence of this beauty 👍👍

I thought I was pretty savvy about Air Force aircraft during the late 1940s-1950s. I've never heard of the B-54 but I think General LeMay was right in choosing the B-36. It filled an important period during the formation of SAC until replaced by the B-47 and B-52.

You are one of my Go 2 guys when it comes to aviation history relative to lesser known or forgotten aircraft types. While watching your video on the Boeing B-54, I decided to look back at the 1946 beginnings of the Boeing B-52. I recognize that the B-54 & B-52 are not directly competitively related in the sense of a fly-off competition. I looked into the competitors against the B-52 as it's development program adapted to each change in specifications regarding what the USAF required the aircraft to do. What interested me were these competing designs in the following list. - Boeing Model 462 (the winner - 3 variants) - Convair Long Range Heavy Bombardment Airplane (forward swept wing bomber depicted on cover) - Martin Model 216 (”flying aircraft carrier” - 2 variants) - Martin Model 232 (description only) - Douglas Very Long Range Bomber C (VLRB-C - 2 variants) - Douglas Model 1112 (heavy bomber derivative of XB-42 - 3 variants) - Douglas Model 1155 (interim jet bomber derived from DC-6 - 2 variants) - Douglas Model 1211 (giant swept wing turboprop bomber - 40 variants) - Bonus drawings of Douglas X-3 Stiletto photo reconnaissance aircraft mounted under a B-36 and Douglas impressions of the Boeing B-52 (2 variants). In the future, can you address the aircraft that were in competition with Boeing's B-52?

Just so you know, the name of the B-36 was Peacemaker, not Peacekeeper; that name was given to the LGM-118 ICBM, which was first known only as the MX.

Amazing.

Have wanted to see more pics of this or drawings. One picture I see looked like they had a sperry ball turret mounted on it.

It looks like I'm with most others that never heard of a B-54. I have seen one, and many years later forgot which, a B-29 or B-50 that GE used to have for developmental items (remotely controlled gun turrets for one) at the Schenectady, NY County Airport. It would occasionally cruise overhead, which of course us kids would then enjoy. The Superfort hanger is still in service with an aircraft museum

Boeing: The ultimate B-29 is our B-54. USSR: Hold my beer...

Nice video! A video about the Soviet B-29 derivatives would be cool.

checking out blink list ,,,cheers

Close on the B-36. It was the Peacemaker, not Peacekeeper. The Peacekeeper was the ICBM that was intended to replace the Minuteman systems beginning in the late 1970s.

As a kid in the late fifties and early sixties I can still remember the sound of 4 engine planes flying high overhead. You could hear them for miles and miles or several minutes.

I read a story about B-29 development, I believe it was WWII magazine, that stated that a machine shop in New Jersey got the contract to produce exhaust cam rings for the Wright R-3350. It posited that a German sympathizer employee may have purposely machined the lobe "off" by just enough to cause the overheating problems the engine was experiencing.

Was there ever consideration for mounting a turboprop or even turbojet to the B-29 fuselage?

Even though it was over shadowed by the B-36, I think it was an amazing plane! The engines were amazing! So much was going on transitioning to jet engines.

Most of Boeing's designs were very pleasing to the eye, especially the B50.

It would be informative to hear about the Consolidated B-32 Dominator as a competitor to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

there was a variable discharge turbine and T-35 gas turbine mockup for the convair b36 wich would alter the pusher engine configuration

B-54 Never heard before Glad to know now

This aircraft with its massive long wings could be a fantastic R/C slope glider !

ive seen 1 of the 2 flying still! (B-29 SuperFortresss)

It wasn't the cost of development , but the cost of each airframe ($600,000 in 1943 Dollars) times the number of airframes built at the five plants (4500 + ) ran the total cost of the ENTIRE Program past the cost of the Manhattan Project .

The B-50 bomber was a long range heavy plane. It fits in here somewhere. My father flew it during the Korean War.

I thought I knew just about all military aircraft. Guess I was wrong! This is the first time I've heard about the B54.

This was incredible!! :) Although I am very much interested in aviation, I had never heard of the B-54. Just out of curiosity... wasn't Boeing also building the B-47 at the time? I think this entered service in the very late 1940s as well.

Great video. Just one very minor correction. The Convair B-36 was called the Peacemaker, not the Peace Keeper. Not a big deal and you're right. The B-36 really did make the B-54 unnecessary.

I've never heard of the B54, I do remember the B52's ,but that was a New Wave rock group. :)

Great geekair flying factoids & salute series! Nash matters!

MY DAD WAS A FLIGHT ENGINEER ON 29’s.HE WAS AN ACE MECHANIC AND SPENT HIS ENTIRE ENLISTMENT ONTHE ROSEWELL NM. BASES TROUBLE SHOOTING ENGINE PROBLEMS! WAS SCHEDULED FOR OVERSEAS DEPLOYMENT,IN SEPTEMBER,BUT THE BOMB CANCELED THAT! THAT IS PROBABLY WHY I AM HERE!

Just a thank you. This is an outstanding video! I am just curious how long this information has been available to the public. I was born in '52' my dad loved airplanes & we lived near Barksdale AFB - SAC B-52's are still stationed there as they ere back then. I hardly believe the public would have had access to this information back then.

I remember, when the USAF were in residence at Bovingdon, Herts, UK, inspecting a tanker version at an 'open day'. I guess this was a conversion of the B-50 with a KC- designation?

I would like a video about the Swedish J-21 twin-boom pusher fighter! A remarkable plane..