Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Low Altitude Bombing System) LABS Maneuver

[smeltedcheese]

balls

[canals22]

Fabulous stuff... great pilots. The golden age...

[MegaEagle63]

Awesome manoever

Are any of these aircraft preserved & still flying?

[hazeleyes1911a1]

I worked on the F-111A, it was called "loft bombing" with that aircraft. Used with ground concealment (mountains), it made delivery of smaller nukes survivable...Awesome maneuver with the B-47!!

[BeLikeWater1000]

damn that was cool.i really wish they would make an xbox game that utilized bombers like this, the b-52, and the b*58 hustler.

[baraxor]

Talk about a Hobson's choice...do the LABS and maybe lose your wing, or not do it and get caught in the nuke blast.

[jonesy97]

A L.A.B.S. manuver with a B-52? I'd pay good money to see that. Lol.

[Rockeroviejo]

great video....great!

[No1118117]

I seem to recall reading that is was specifically noted that the maneuver DID NOT cause any cracks in the airframe.

[Bradsworld1]

i would crap my pants if some made the LABS manouver with me in that

[ironroad18]

Just about every NATO plane from the time period practiced this maneuver. Most of the lighter tactical bombers/attack planes (or fighters carrying tactical nukes) had to do this maneuver in order of having a chance of surviving the air defenses and or the blast.

[Greenhornet270]

Grew up in Wichita; McConnell AFB; there were B-47's in the air 24/7; a beautiful ship...

[kolbpilot]

@Greenhornet270 They were at Schilling AFB also.

[geinman1287]

The LABS maneuver was developed when Soviet SAMS were becoming effective. The 47 was come in at low level, pop-up to altitude releasing the bomb on the upswing. It then dropped back to low level and got out of Dodge. The aircraft just could'nt stand up to the loads.

[geinman1287]

The 47s did this, but the stresses were so high that several suffered wing failure and were lost. The proceedure was then abandoned.

[Chuckjagermeister]

That's insane. Trying to get something nearly the size of a 707 to do an immelman. I'd think it would lose speed and stall by the time it reaches 90 degrees vertical. That is, if the tail section didn't fall off beforehand.

[145Slap789]

Amazing

[ryanlim2002]

One strong little sucker ain't it you old B-47?

[BlacktailFA]

Wow...

Sucks to be a B-47 Stratojet Aircrew!

[nazcasteve]

Yep, An impressive manoever, and not just limited to the B-47. Canberras, Vulcans, and a good few other cold war nuke bombers did it too, leading to the same airframe stresses. Cool to see some decent footage of it here though.