The XB-46 held a conventional design arrangement as bombers of the period went. The nose section held the bombardier behind a plexiglass nosecone and the flight crew - pilot and copilot seated in tandem - were under a single-piece teardrop-style canopy with little framing used to provide excellent vision out-of-the-cockpit. The wing mainplanes were set at midships and were straight, high-mounted appendages each featuring an underslung engine nacelle. The fuselage was of an elegant design form and made extremely aerodynamically refined which served the speeds involved rather nicely. The empennage was capped by a single vertical tail fin and low-mounted horizontal planes. A tricycle undercarriage complete the look of this most modern bomber airplane.
Power was to come from 4 x Allison J35-A-3 turbojet engines developing 4,000lb of thrust each and in the assumed B-46 production forms, this was to be supplanted by 4 x General Electric J47 turbojets of 5,200lb thrust each for improved performance.
Internally, the aircraft was slated to carry a war load of up to 22,000lb in the way of conventional drop ordnance. There were also plans to introduce a twin-gunned "stinger" emplacement at the tail showcasing 2 x 0.50 caliber heavy machine guns through a powered Emerson Electric Company turret sporting an APG-27 remote-controlled sighting system.
As finalized, the XB-46 held a maximum speed of 545 miles per hour, a cruising speed near 440 miles per hour, a range out to 2,870 miles and a service ceiling up to 40,000 feet.
First flight for the XB-46 occurred on April 2nd, 1947 and initial results were largely positive though not without issue. Tests continued into September of that year with 64 flights being recorded though, in August, the USAF had terminated its interest in the CONVAIR product as the Boeing XB-47 had progressed to its expectations. The XA-44 / XB-53 product followed in cancellation, this during 1949, and the arrival of the B-47 also affected production totals of the competing XB-45 / B-45.
On the whole, the XB-46 proved a sound bomber design and only the sole flyable prototype XB-46 was ever completed. Its airframe was eventually scrapped over the years but it continued in testing various components under the USAF banner into late 1950.
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