Highball trials unit-where?

Letter from Barnes Wallis in Leo Lane's papers concerning the use of a jet aircraft for Highball. Anyone know of a jet aircraft that was available and capable of carrying 12000 lbs (5400 Kgs) in late 1945? A British aircraft was surely several years away (Canberra?). A US one?

Peter wrote:

Interesting. I suspect it was on the drawing board in 1945 or at least in specification form, so could well have been the Canberra. The question is would Wallis have known about the original versions of the Canberra design or was it just based on the specs that every manufacturer would have had access to?

The informal 1943 requirement for a jet-powered reconnaissance bomber, drawn up by the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) to prompt manufacturers to start research into jet bombers. In 1944 this initial concept evolved into a formal request-for-proposal to design a new bomber with a maximum speed of 550 mph (890 km/h), a cruise speed of 450 mph (720 km/h), a range of 3,500 mi (5,600 km) and a service ceiling of 45,000 ft (13,700 m). In December 1944, North American Aviation, the Convair Corp., Boeing and the Glenn Martin Company submitted proposals for the new long-range jet bomber. Wind tunnel testing had shown that the drag from the engine installation of the Model 424 was too high, so Boeing's entry was a revised design, the Model 432, with the four engines buried in the forward fuselage.

The USAAF awarded study contracts to all four companies, requiring that North American and Convair concentrate on four-engined designs (to become B-45 and XB-46), while Boeing and Martin were to build six-engined aircraft (the B-47 and XB-48). The powerplant was to be General Electric's new TG-180 turbojet engine.
SOURCE: Wikipedia

Is it possible that Barnes Wallis had knowledge of these programs. Each of the 4 projects had a design bomb load in excess of 20'000LB.

I had been thinking in terms of an aircraft carrier capable aircraft, similar in size to the Mosquito (which continued to be used for the post war Highball trials). Certainly a 12000lbs bomb load would require a much larger aircraft. There was an aircraft out there that was being planned, but what?.

In Leo Lane's 1945 diary have come across an entry for 6th January concerning Col Hagen USAAF (in the UK in connection with Highball and Invader aircraft) "All moving U.S.A. has jet with bomb bay now flying in prototype." So Ian's post no 52 re a US jet looks to be correct.

John wrote:

In Leo Lane's 1945 diary have come across an entry for 6th January concerning Col Hagen USAAF (in the UK in connection with Highball and Invader aircraft) "All moving U.S.A. has jet with bomb bay now flying in prototype." So Ian's post no 52 re a US jet looks to be correct.

Barnes Wallis Bombs, by Stephen Flowers makes reference to A26 Invader trials in Dec 1944. The A26 is a twin propeller aircraft with an internal bomb load of 4000 lb. One aircraft was modified at Weybridge (Foxwarren) and subsequently lost in an accident in the USA early 1945.

If the prototype jet was flying early 1945 it could well be a modified version of the B29, the Boeing 424.

From wiki

The B-47 arose from an informal 1943 requirement for a jet-powered reconnaissance bomber, drawn up by the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) to prompt manufacturers to start research into jet bombers. Boeing was among several companies that responded to this request; its initial design, the Model 424, was basically a scaled-down version of the piston-engined B-29 Superfortress equipped with four jet engines.[3]

In 1944 this initial concept evolved into a formal request-for-proposal to design a new bomber with a maximum speed of 550 mph (890 km/h), a cruise speed of 450 mph (720 km/h), a range of 3,500 mi (5,600 km) and a service ceiling of 45,000 ft (13,700 m).[4] In December 1944, North American Aviation, the Convair Corp., Boeing and the Glenn Martin Company submitted proposals for the new long-range jet bomber. Wind tunnel testing had shown that the drag from the engine installation of the Model 424 was too high, so Boeing's entry was a revised design, the Model 432, with the four engines buried in the forward fuselage.[5]

The USAAF awarded study contracts to all four companies, requiring that North American and Convair concentrate on four-engined designs (to become B-45 and XB-46), while Boeing and Martin were to build six-engined aircraft (the B-47 and XB-48). The powerplant was to be General Electric's new TG-180 turbojet engine.[5]




But the TG 180 first flew in a Republic Thunderjet in 1946. I noted the TG 180 was under development in parallel with a centrifugal compressor engine, the J33 and J31, both of which were running in 1943.

Is it possible Col Hagen and Barnes Wallis were discussing some experimental aircraft, possibly a B29 fitted with J31 or J33 engines?

No mention in Leo Lane's 1944 diary of 20 Sqn or RAF Gravesend. He was in the Loch Striven area that week with trials involving HMS Malaya and 618 Sqn. Including removing fuses from the Highball that penetrated the bow of the ship and blowing it up on land using '10 @ 14 ozs of Guncotton".

Agree they would have used separate code words i.e. Baseball for the naval shipboard version, Speedee for the USAAF version and Tammany Hall for the Avenger version.

A copy of a Top Secret memo from Leo Lane's papers concerning post war Highball trials at Wainfleet. It all reads rather quaint now about "meeting up in the Market Square" etc!