Summary The RAF possessed American-made B-29 Superfortress bombers briefly in the early Cold War. The Washington B.1 was not as impressive in RAF service, lacking combat action.
Spare parts, maintenance issues, and the Korean War rendered the Washington B.1 obsolete. When one thinks of heavy bombers of Great Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War and the early Cold War, chances are that person thinks of that island nation's homegrown Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax (both propeller-driven), and the Avro Vulcan and English Electric Canberra (both jet-powered), not the American-made Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
The bomber was fast but rather vulnerable. Learn more about the Avro Lancaster . Moreover.
the famed "special relationship" between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland notwithstanding, you probably wouldn't expect an RAF warbird to bear the name of an American general who'd been a major adversary to the British Crown two centuries prior, namely General George Washington, who had successfully led the American colonists to victory over King George III's Redcoats during the American Revolution. Learn more about the English Electric Canberra . Yet sure enough, almost lost to history is the fact that during a relatively brief period of the early Cold War, the RAF did indeed possess B-29s, and they were indeed officially renamed the Washington B.
1 (obviously not to be confused with the supersonic N.