Post War US Bomber Development

[KJ_Lesnick]

I know the US factored speed and altitude immensely in post-war bomber designs such as the B-47, B-52, B-58, and B-70. 

I'm wondering how much regard they had for maneuverability if they even factored it in...

[scooter]

I think the Bomber Mafia was still thinking bomber streams, with the Hustler and Valkyrie dashing into to hit strategic tactical targets, like C3 (Command, Control, Communications) facilities, giving the rest of the inbound bomber force hopefully MiG and SAM free times.  SAC's experience in Vietnam, of streams of bombers loaded with conventional explosives, started to change that opinion, when the NVA would start firing AAA so many aircraft after the lead.  Add in the fact that they used the same routes day after day after day, it gave the North Vietnamese the ability to site their air defenses to cause the most damage to the unescorted bomber streams.

And they did the same thing during the Operation Allied Force, the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia, resulting in the shootdown of an F-117 by obsolete SA-3 Goa SAMs

[KJ_Lesnick]

Scooter

I had a hunch, though there is the B-36 which they were arguing could fly so high that nothing could fly with them (even the F-86 had trouble maneuvering up at altitude to catch them) but that might have been an exception to the rule

[Librarian]

I recall a section in a book, "Cold War Peacemaker" I think, were it was mentioned that for a short period the B-36 attained the before-and-since-unattainable, the unescorted bombing mission. At the height and speed the B-36 cruised any contemporary fighter approaching the B-36 was as manoevrable as a brick. The B-36 could then deliver its powerful 20mm cannon defensive armament. With the advent of air/surface to air missiles this advantage was lost.