Can Commercial planes be used as bombers

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Can commercial planes like boeing 737 747 etc be modified to perform a role of a bomber
if yes then how and if no then why not?

 

[Side-Winder]

Can commercial planes like boeing 737 747 etc be modified to perform a role of a bomber
if yes then how and if no then why not?

yeah just load some dudes with lots of hand gernades,in flight break the window glass and throw them down

 

[Alpha1]

Can commercial planes like boeing 737 747 etc be modified to perform a role of a bomber
if yes then how and if no then why not?

That would require heavy modifications apart from new sensors and electronics the structure would have to be modified to form bay doors beneath the plane.
All of it economicaly not feasable .
It is better to have purpose built bombers!

 

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got it...Thanks

 

[Alpha1]

self delete....

 

[niaz]

Fundamental characteristics that distinguish bombers from other weapon systems are their long range and their substantial payload capability. They can deliver large, diverse payloads virtually anywhere in the world in a matter of hours; particularly if the attacks must occur at long range from relatively safe bases.

Question posed here is an old one. Commercial planes are in essence transport planes and Military planners have been devising ways to use transport planes as bombers since WW1. Therefore answer to your question is “Yes”.

However that is not the end of it. Bombers are not drones and you would not like to send a crew to certain death. Therefore some kind survivability aspects such as manoeuvrability, stealth & electronic or gun/missiles self defence systems are essential in a bomber which are normally lacking in a commercial aircraft.

There have been transport planes that have been successfully converted to fighting machines such as C-130 gunship. P-3 Orion is a modified Lockheed Electra aircraft. Very large aircraft such as Boeing 747 would be sitting ducks for the enemy fighters and likely to be shot down much before it reaches the target.

On the other hand Boeing 707 is a development from Boeing 367-80 which itself evolved from the B-52. Therefore, if there was no other option, a medium size commercial aircraft such as Boeing 707 could be converted into a long range nuclear bomber with minor modifications. However it would be a one way ticket for the air crew.

 

[Argus Panoptes]

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On the other hand Boeing 707 is a development from Boeing 367-80 which itself evolved from the B-52. Therefore, if there was no other option, a medium size commercial aircraft such as Boeing 707 could be converted into a long range nuclear bomber with minor modifications. However it would be a one way ticket for the air crew.

The Dash 80, as the 367-80 was commonly known, was a fresh Boeing design, and NOT evolved from the B-52. The 367-80 was the first modern passenger jet that was a commercial success.

 

[untitled]

There was an attempt to convert many WWII bombers to civilian transports (bombers such as the Lancaster)
Not many were successful

 

[EMERCOM]

yes, you can use it for para dropping fuel air bombs,tactical nuclear mines and vdv type forces.

 

[niaz]

The Dash 80, as the 367-80 was commonly known, was a fresh Boeing design, and NOT evolved from the B-52. The 367-80 was the first modern passenger jet that was a commercial success.

Hon Sir,

367-80 may have been a new design but it borrowed heavily from the previous Boeing aircrafts.

During one of my visits to my cousin living in the Fairfax County Virginia , I visited the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Chantilly near the Dulles Airport where Boeing 367 -80 as well as a model of the Stratofortress is on the exhibit.

I noticed similarity between the two aircrafts except that wings on the B-52 are mounted on top of the fuselage whereas the same were mounted low on 367-80. On inquiry, one of the staff advised me that 367-80 design essentially combined the 35-deg swept wings of the 52 with the modified B-29 fuselage albeit with a pronounced dihedral (upward angle from horizontal). This was done to improve stability of the commercial airliner.

 

[Argus Panoptes]

Hon Sir,

367-80 may have been a new design but it borrowed heavily from the previous Boeing aircrafts.

During one of my visits to my cousin living in the Fairfax County Virginia , I visited the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Chantilly near the Dulles Airport where Boeing 367 -80 as well as a model of the Stratofortress is on the exhibit.

I noticed strong similarity between the two aircrafts except that wings on the B-52 are mounted on top of the fuselage whereas the same were mounted low on 367-80. On inquiry, one of the staff advised me that 367-80 design essentially combined the 35-deg swept wings of the 52 with the modified B-29 fuselage albeit with a pronounced dihedral (upward angle from horizontal). This was done to improve stability of the commercial airliner.

This is the actual 367-80, the only one ever built:


NASM-Dulles-8927 by ArgusPanoptes007, on Flickr

The only things common with the B-52 were the pod-mounted engines and the swept wings. The 35-degree wing sweep actually debuted on the earlier B-47, not the B-52. (The B-47 had inner pod-mounts and outer direct mount engines for a total of six, while the B-52 went to all pods with eight engines.) The direct progenitor of the 367 was the KC-97 Stratotanker (itself a development of the B-29 with the addition of a double-bubble fuselage design) mostly for ease of using existing tooling for the top part of the fuselage after the new wing and engine design was incorporated:

Boeing 367-80 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boeing had studied developments of its existing Model 367 (the KC-97 Stratotanker) incorporating swept wings and podded engines; and chose to build the 367-80, which retained little of the KC-97 except the upper fuselage diameter (and the possibility of building some of the fuselage with existing tooling). Although the design was announced publicly as the Model 707 the prototype was referred to within Boeing simply as the "-80", or Dash 80.

The resulting plane was so maneuverable that it once did a full 360 roll as part of its demonstration.