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Originally Posted by flybigjet
The B-36 Peacemaker. One of the only bombers to have never dropped a bomb in anger during its operational career.
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As a kid visiting my grandparents in El Paso, Texas, I would see B-36s fly over out of Biggs AFB there. Incredible sound with those six R-4360 engines!
The other bomber that did not drop a bomb in anger was the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, a medium bomber with six J47 jets, Over 2,000 were built. The RB-47H Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) reconnaissance version can be said to have seen combat, though; RB-47Hs made many shallow overflights of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and were fired upon. In July 1960, a Soviet MiG-19 shot down an RB-47H with a crew of six; two crew members survived and were imprisoned for a while. And I also hear rumors that RB-36s made high-altitude overflights of the Soviet Union in the 1950s, but none got caught.
Two Navy bombers (heavy attack aircraft) did not drop bombs in anger: the North American AJ three-engine (two recips and a jet) Savage and the North American A-5A Vigilante. Like the RB-47, the AJ -- in AJ-2P recon form -- apparently did do overflights of China in the 1950s. And the A-5A morphed into the RA-5C reconnaissance version which saw plenty of combat in Vietnam but without weapons; many were shot down.