DENIS SMITH wrote:

In the trivia dept.  Any of you old types who have
flown the Pacific wonder what incident set the ball
rolling for the powers that be in Honolulu to require
an immediate right turn after takeoff from runway 8 at
Honolulu International?  Soon after the B-47 was made
operational two squadrons of them took off from Hickam
AFB for points east with as much fuel as they could
carry.  They required at least one, possibly two mid
air refueling points according to news reports of the
time.  It would have been okay had they not climbed
straight out over the city between Diamond Head and
the eastern end of the Koolau mountains.  That might
have been okay had they not commenced at just after
4AM, spacing the birds about 4 minutes apart.  They
were so heavy that by the time they passed Kaimuki
they were only about 1500ft above the ground.  Those
suckers were really noisy.  I remember all this
because I was awakened with the rest of the folks in
Honolulu and watched for my home in Manoa valley and
saw the news reports before most of the folks.  (I was
a delivery boy for the Honolulu Star Bulletin at the
time.)  My point is, the B47 was a speedster and was
designed for speed.  The fuel burn was horrendous!
Does anyone know what the comparative fuel burn was
between the "wing" and the B47?  (Pounds of fuel per
pounds of aircraft.)  One of the big selling points
for the BWB is that it is supposed to really beat the
747 in the area of fuel efficiency.  I've seen figures
as high as 25% in print.
DENIS 

First real point in favor that I have heard so far.
BTW reviewing most of the heavy accidents over the years very few 
were a conventional semi controlled off airport crash landing. Some were 
bombed or shot down. Most broke up in the air or flew into the side of a 
mountain. No amount of crash ability will help the pax there.

Paul Lamar
 
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