Chances are, if you happen to mention a Tornado in connection with flying machines, people will assume you're talking about the Panavia Tornado, a multi-role ground attack, fighter bomber, interceptor, etc. that first entered service in the 1980s in Europe. (Which shows the idea of a multi-role aircraft predates the F-35). It's now being phased out in favor of the Eurofighter Typhoon, another multi-role aircraft.
See, if you're talking about airplanes, names and numbers matter if you are trying to keep things straight. Four decades before there was a Panavia Tornado (and while there were Hawker Typhoons) there was the B-45 Tornado - the first U.S. jet powered bomber to enter service. B-17, B-24, B-25, B-29, B-36, B-47, B-52... Sometimes the gaps in those sequence cover more than a few test models or prototypes that didn't quite make the cut. The B-45 was only in service with the Air Force for a few years as a bomber - but it racked up some important firsts.
http://youtu.be/...
More below the Orange Omnilepticon.
Here's the official Boeing web page on the B-45 (Boeing absorbed North American):
The North American Aviation B-45 was one of America's first operational bombers to employ jet propulsion. Designed during 1944 and 1945, the straight-wing Tornado was the first jet bomber in service with the U.S. Air Force and was the first four-jet aircraft to fly in the United States.
Other versions include the longer-range B-45C with wing-tip tanks and the photoreconnaissance version, the RB-45C.
Rated as a light bomber by modern-day standards, it was the first four-jet aircraft to drop an atom bomb and the first to be refueled in midair.
The late 1940s and 1950s were an interesting time in aircraft design. The war had accelerated the development of aviation technology. The appearance of German airplanes equipped with jet engines demonstrated pretty convincingly that these new-fangled engines were game changers. For speed and performance at altitude, they were pretty hard to beat with reciprocating engines and propellors. On the other hand, they were fuel guzzlers, had serious problems with reliability, nobody had a lot of experience with them, or was exactly sure of the best way to build airplanes around them.
The B-45 was part of a program to come up with some jet-powered bombers; at the time (1945), no one was sure how much longer WW 2 would go on. Via John Weeks III (who has some great links about surviving aircraft on the left side of the web page), here's the details:
...Requirements were issued for the so called "Class of 45" bombers. The two short range bombers would be the North American B-45 and the Convair B-46, while the larger long range bombers would be the Boeing B-47 and the Martin B-48.
Three of the four members of the class of 45 would be conventional straight wing aircraft, while the B-47 would use captured German test data. This gave the B-47 a huge advantage. Like the B-47, the B-48 would be a six-engine heavy bomber. But hampered by the straight wing and an engine configuration that did not operate they way it was predicated based on wind tunnel testing, the B-48 dropped out of the race fairly quickly. The USAAF knew that the future was the B-47, but it would be several years before the B-47 was available. Meanwhile, the B-45 was quickly outclassing the B-46 in testing, so the B-46 was dropped, and the B-45 was put into production as a critical stop-gap until the B-47 was ready.
The end of the war caused a lot of scaling back; while the B-45 had performed well enough in initial evaluations that the Air Force went ahead with production, by 1950 there was questioning whether or not it was really necessary. The Korean War changed matters; B-29s going up against Migs did not fare well. As NATO plans in Europe to contain the Soviet Union involved B-29s... well it was clear that something would be needed until the B-47 was ready to go into production. The B-45 found a role in Europe as a deterrent. As a conventional bomber, they would have needed large numbers to be really effective -
but their ability to carry a nuclear device obviated that problem. Of course, it would have effectively been a one-way mission for the crew, given the range of the Tornado without refueling... They served in that role until 1958.
Planes of the Past has some nice photos of the B-45, as does Military Factory. The B-45C version had some improvements, including wingtip fuel tanks - it was the first multi-engined jet bomber to be refueled in the air. The remaining B-45s in the last order built ended up as RB-45C variant. The bomber version with the glass nose was altered into a reconnaissance version with a solid nose - readily visible in photos. A special squadron of these made clandestine night flights into the Soviet Union - until improving Soviet radar, anti-aircraft, and interceptors made that impractical.
The B-45s were phased out of active service by the end of the 1950s. Although not built in large numbers, or having much in the way of a combat record, the B-45 is nonetheless important as a bridge design, between the propellor-driven tech of the 40's and the dawning of the Jet Age. (This cutaway view at wikipedia gives a real sense of this. While I can't be sure from the pictures, it looks like the tail gunner would have been all alone in his private cabin.)
In-flight refueling would pave the way for the B-47 and the B-52 to extend their reach around the globe. Successfully dropping an atomic bomb from a single aircraft would change bombing strategy; it was no longer necessary to send armadas of bombers over a target to ensure enough would get through to eliminate it.
According to wikipedia, the B-45 has some pop-culture ties:
The War of the Worlds and The Magnetic Monster (both 1953 films) show stock footage of the B-45.
A B-45 can be seen in Strategic Air Command (1955 Jimmy Stewart Movie)
A B-45 also featured prominently in the Buck Danny album Planes Without Pilots by Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Hubinon.
For another taste of the transition era, here's a short clip of Air Force bombers of the 1950s. A parked B-17 is visible at the start as a B-29 comes in for a landing - and the last entry is not what I was expecting. The future isn't what it used to be.
http://youtu.be/...