When I became a first lieutenant aircraft commander in the B-47 Strato-Jet, the most beautiful airplane ever built, I had many lessons to be learned. As to emergency situations, our instructors always advised us to maintain control of the airplane and then handle the emergency.
I, however, had another type of control to learn. In the Strategic Air Command (SAC), in order to maintain a combat-ready crew, we had multiple training requirements that needed to be accomplished every training quarter. Through inexperience I allowed several items to come due on the last night of the training quarter. So we were scheduled for a maximum-weight takeoff followed by a night heavy-weight midair refueling. This was accomplished in flight by taking on 30,000 pounds of JP-4 fuel. This was fairly routine and not a problem by itself. I might add that midair refueling was looked upon as an indication of pilot proficiency, if the pilot could complete a refueling without disconnect.
