Photon 440, you ex-USAF? I am! Some B-47s had strengthened wings to deliver nukes "over the top" a half loop in a 6 engine bomber. I learned and practiced this maneuver in the Super Sabre: 500KIAS, 500 feet or less, fly OVER the target, 4g pull up, hold the g precisely with a special instrument - bring the needle from 7 to 9 oclock, hold the vertical needle vertical to control bank, then roll as you approached vertical. The 2000lb "shape" was released at a specific pitch attitude, usually a little past vertical, that the pilot set into the gyroscopes on the side of the jet, using a dental mirror. The jet became much nore sprightly with 1 ton gone! Continue the pull to 5 deg below horizon, roll from inverted to right side up...and pray. You are now at about 8000', and every Soviet within 50 miles has you on radar...
The bomb climbed to about 20,000', turned over, went supersonic in the fall until the radar altimeter "rang" in...
We actually practiced this through cloud decks, providing the roll out at the top was in clear air mass.
The bomb climbed to about 20,000', turned over, went supersonic in the fall until the radar altimeter "rang" in...
We actually practiced this through cloud decks, providing the roll out at the top was in clear air mass.
