At the time of its first flight, Dec. 17, 1947, the B-47 Stratojet represented a radical departure from traditional design, and it set the design standards for all large jet aircraft until the present time. The six-engine Boeing B-47 was America’s first multi-engine swept-wing jet bomber. Its thin 116-foot wing was extraordinarily flexible and swept back at a 35-degree angle. Eighteen small rocket units in the fuselage provided jet-assisted takeoff (JATO), and parachutes cut its landing speeds. Later models were powered by 5,200-pound-thrust axial-flow jet engines, and top speeds were 600 mph. A total of 2,032 B-47s in all versions were built.