V o L u m e I : a d

desired effect: U.S. military leaders within the Strategic

Air Command (SAC) loudly pronounced the need for in-

creased funding to reduce the so-called bomber gap. Such

pessimistic claims were later found to have as much to do

with SAC self-aggrandizement as with actual Soviet capa-

bilities. The Bison entered service in 1956, but only about

150 Mya-4s were produced. The Bison was, in fact, a

strategic white elephant with a maximum range of 7,700

miles, far short of intercontinental round-trip flight. Bisons

were, in fact, employed largely as tanker and reconnais-

sance aircraft.

More successful was its turboprop contemporary, the

Tu-95 Bear of 1955. Conspicuously employing four sets of

18-foot diameter contrarotating propellers, the Bear was

the world’s fastest propeller-driven aircraft, capable of cruis-

ing speeds of more than 500 mph. It had a range of 9,000

miles with a payload of up to 25,000 pounds. The Bear was

intended as a nuclear bomber.

This design was countered by the Boeing B-52 Strato-

fortress. This phenomenal aircraft joined SAC in 1955 and

become the enduring long-range strategic bomber of the

U.S. fleet throughout the entire Cold War. Continued up-

grades allowed the B-52 to continue as the workhorse U.S.

strategic bomber into the twenty-first century. With a range

of 8,800 miles, the B-52 could carry a phenomenal 40,000

pounds of bombs or missiles. B-52s played a leading role in

the Vietnam War, flying in direct support of ground forces

in South Vietnam and, in December 1972, bombing Hanoi

and Haiphong. In January 1991 a B-52H flew nonstop from

Louisiana to Baghdad to drop cruise missiles and return, the longest bomb-

ing mission in history.

After successfully developing a nuclear weapon in 1952, Great Britain

sought to maintain parity with the two superpowers by fielding a series of

nuclear-capable bombers, known collectively as the V-bombers. The sequence

began with the Vickers Valiant in 1955, which released Britain’s first air-

dropped nuclear weapon in a test over Australia in 1956. The Valiant was fol-

lowed in quick succession by the Vulcan and Victor, although the V-bombers

lost their strategic role to the Royal Navy’s Polaris submarines as early as

1968. Indeed, the only bombs dropped in anger by the later models came

well after the series had lost its nuclear mandate when, in 1982, Vulcans were

enlisted to bomb the Falkland Islands, with Victors providing aerial refueling

support en route.

The 1956 arrival of the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, a dedicated aerial

refueling aircraft, meant that strategic bombers had ranges limited only

by crew fatigue. In accordance with the policy of mutual assured destruction

(MAD), SAC Commander General Curtis LeMay kept a certain number of

nuclear-equipped B-52s airborne at all times. Given their now seemingly

Aircraft

87

Aircraft Types by Country

Model

Produced By

Year

Fixed-wing

I-28 Beagle

Soviet Union

1948

Tu-4 Bull

Soviet Union

1949

Mya-4 Bison

Soviet Union

1949

Mystère II

France

1954

U-2 Dragon Lady

United States

1954

Tu-95 Bear

Soviet Union

1955

Vickers Valiant

Britain

1955

B-52 Stratofortress

United States

1955

KC-135 Stratotanker

United States

1956

C-130 Hercules

United States

1956

Lightning

Britain

1959

MiG-21 Fishbed

Soviet Union

1959

F-4 Phantom II

United States

1961

ak-25RD Mandrake

Soviet Union

1963

SR-71 Blackbird

United States

1966

MiG-25 Foxbat

Soviet Union

1970

IL-76 Candid

Soviet Union

1971

Panavia Tornado

Britain, Italy, Germany

1974

MiG-23 Flogger

Soviet Union

1975

F-15 Eagle

United States

1976

F-16 Fighting Falcon

United States

1979

F/A-18 Hornet

United States

1983

MiG-29 Fulcrum

Soviet Union

1983

Su-27 Flanker

Soviet Union

1986

B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber

United States

1989

Rotary-wing

Sikorsky R-5

United States

1946

UH-1 Iroquois

United States

1956

Mi-6

Soviet Union

1956

CH-47 Chinook

United States

1961

S-64

Soviet Union

1962

AH-1 HueyCobra

United States

1966

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limitless range, the sole remaining hindrance to bomber dominance was the

ability to avoid interception by enemy fighters or antiaircraft missiles. In

response, both sides in the Cold War shifted their attention to speed in the

1960s and 1970s, often with limited results. The first to arrive was the Mach 2

Tu-22M Backfire that, like its MiG-23 and Su-17 fighter counterparts, used

variable-geometry wings to achieve high-speed, low-level flight. Variable

geometry was also used on the Rockwell (later Boeing) B-1B Lancer that,

although originally conceived in 1965, took twenty years to emerge from its

incubation period, the A-model having been shelved entirely in 1977. Even

less timely was the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which

made its inopportune entrance on 17 July 1989 and shortly thereafter, with

the end of the Cold War, lost its primary adversary and mission while racking

up a final cost of more than $2.2 billion per airframe.

The bomber gap and the later missile gap reinforced America’s need for

actionable intelligence in the form of aerial espionage. To this end, President

Dwight D. Eisenhower requested what came to be known as the Lockheed

U-2 Dragon Lady in 1954, and the plane conducted its first operational mis-

sion on 4 July 1956 by overflying Leningrad and Moscow. Overflights of

Soviet airspace continued until 1 May 1960, when a U-2 piloted by Francis

Gary Powers was shot down over Sverdlovsk. In 1966 Lockheed followed

the U-2 with the remarkable SR-71 Blackbird, which continues to hold the

world speed record of 2,193 mph. Both planes enjoyed operational lives span-

ning the remainder of the Cold War.

The primary British contribution to the reconnaissance effort came in

the form of the Hawker-Siddeley (later BAe Systems) Nimrod, which was

derived from the de Havilland Comet airliner and began service in 1969 in

maritime signals intelligence and antisubmarine roles.

Soviet efforts at a dedicated aerial reconnaissance platform emerged

only after Powers’s downing in the form of the Yakovlev Yak-25RD Man-

drake, which entered into service in April 1963 and achieved only limited

success. More frequently used by the Soviets were reconnaissance-adapted

fighters and bombers, including the Tu-95, Tu-160, MiG-21, and MiG-25.

Despite the often hot engagements between pilots on either side of the

Cold War divide, the first post–World War II test for Western airpower came

not in the form of outright battle but rather in an uneasy test of resolve

between Stalin and Truman over the Berlin Blockade and subsequent airlift

beginning in June 1948. Operation 

VITTLES

and its British counterpart 

PLAIN

-

FARE

began on 26 June when eighty U.S. Air Force Douglas C-47 Gooney

Bird cargo planes lifted milk, flour, and medicine to the citizens of Berlin.

With a maximum load capacity of just three tons, the twin-engine C-47 could

not carry the goods necessary for an operation that would last until May 1949,

and soon the Allies enlisted the help of the four-engine C-54 Skymaster,

which had a nine-ton capacity.

Tactical airlift was redefined in 1956 with the advent of the Lockheed

C-130 Hercules (also known as Herc). Capable of short takeoffs on dirt run-

ways and equipped with four turboprops mounted high on the wings for

maximum ground clearance, the Herc proved to be an exceptionally capable

88

Aircraft

In 1966 Lockheed

followed the U-2

with the remarkable

SR-71 Blackbird,

which continues to

hold the world speed

record at 2,193 mph.

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