ROCAF RB-49 Operational History

Note: The following is a post I wrote for the newsgroup rec.models.scale back in March 1996.  (If you don’t know what a newsgroup is, I don’t blame you.)  The whole thing was meant to be a joke, although it had fooled quite a few people.  Lately, Google revived the newsgroups.  I was surprised to find those immature posts I wrote when I was a graduate student in the US.

G.R. Broman’s story on B49 variants is essentially correct. However, he missed an important chapter: The secret operations of RB-49F over China flown by ROCAF pilots. As an ROCAF enthusiast, I am happy to reveal this untold history. The following story is based on reported aircraft sightings in newpapers, my interviews with the pilots, and my own research on ROC government files. As ROCAF never admitted such operations, my story might contain some errors.

In 1961, six RB-49F were secretly transported to Taiwan by sea. They were based at Taoyuan AB, serving along with the famous U-2. Like the U-2, these RB-49F were also operated by CIA, but pilots were chosen from ROCAF. Prior to the shipment of RB-49, 12 ROCAF pilots had been secretly sent to Edwards AFB for training. Ten of them returned to Taiwan in 1961 while the other two were recruited by USAF due to their excellent skills. It was rumored that the RB-49 shot down over Russia was co-piloted by one of the two.

The unit that operated RB-49F was nicknamed “Black Bat.” (FYI, the unit flying U-2 was called “Black Cat.”) Its mission is to fly over China’s nuclear test sites and take photographs. Reports that U-2 were responsible for these missions were created by CIA to fool Chinese and Russians. In fact, U-2 were only used as decoy since they had larger RCS than RB-49F. A typical mission involved an RB-49F and a U-2. After reaching the target area, the U-2 would fly circles to attract the attention from Chinese SAM radars, while RB-49F conducted its recon mission. Although several U-2s were shot down, none of RB-49Fs flown by ROCAF was ever lost. The ten pilots all received the “Blue-sky-and-white-sun” medal, the highest honor a Taiwanese could get. A photo showing these pilots with then President Chiang Kai-Shek was released to the press by accident. Later the Ministry of National Defense claimed that these pilots were from the Black Cat squadron. However, the pilots in this photo were wearing a bat-shaped pin on their chests. All RB-49Fs were withdrawn to USA in either 1969 or 1970. All pilots were also flown to USA and granted US citizenship. They are all protected by the Witness Protection Program.

RB-49F based in Taiwan wore overall light gray with a black “shadow” of a fullsize U-2 painted on both sides. It is said that Squadron/Signal has obtained a photo of ROCAF RB-49F and this photo will be included in the future “B-49 in Action.” However, as I called them to verify it, CIA cut my phone connection and two agents came to my apartment warning me to keep my butt off. So this is all I know about RB-49 in Taiwan.