Boeing B-47 Prototypes & Projects

[Yellow Palace]

According to this article the B-47 was considered for the Gunship II requirement that lead to the AC-130, which did indeed carry four M61s.

The Awesome Power of USAF Gunships | Air & Space Forces Magazine

The big guns pouring it on from a pylon turn can ruin an enemy's whole day.

www.airandspaceforces.com

Whether the drawing has any link to this proposal, I have no idea. There's certainly no mention of the B-47 in the official USAF history of gunship development.

 

[iverson]

and

The drawing is from Habermehl and Hopkins, Boeing B-47 Stratojet: Strategic Air Command's Transitional Bomber (Crecy, 2028):200-201.

They say that Tropic Moon IV was a Boeing/Emerson Electric proposal that did not impress the USAF. Some 30-40 of the best B-47 airframes available would have been given a new radar, Low-Light-Level Television (LLLTV), an IR sensor, and a laser range finder. Armament would have included a bomb-bay-mounted bomblet dispenser in addition to the M61 gun turrets.

The book also discusses other proposals for using updated B-47s in Vietnam, as bombers, reconaissance platforms, and remotely piloted flying bombs filled with explosive slurry.

 

[hesham]

From Boeing magazine 1950.

 

[hesham]

From Air Force 1950,

the upper right picture 2 is to a half model from its developments,very
strange to me ?,have a look..

 

[BAROBA]

That would be model 448.
It has 3 pages of information ( mostly pictures) in Scott Lowther's book:
Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and evolution.
Pages 22 to 24.

Edit: Updated with extra book information

 

[hesham]

From Air Force 1957.