Boeing b-52a as delivered. Very good chance its balls 3 as the numbers reflect the order made, and this one is in the boeing's house livery. 001 was xb 002 was yb, and balls 3 was third built. NB-52A Balls 3 launching an x-15. Balls 8 (0008), NB-52b. Retired 2004. Now guards the entrance to Edwards AFB. Pic is showing the wheels going up hauling a northrop m2-f2 or f3 lifting body. next are the missions. Early b-52's wound up as trainers/NASA. The c model was the first to get built in large numbers. D's were the workhorses in Vietnam. They seemed to do better against the Vietnamese air defenses than the other models. As such, they were modified as "Big Bellies". They were changed to increase load to 108 750lbs bombs. Loading one must have taken hours. About 480,000 lbs fully loaded. The profile from below has been making enemies s*** their pants for 70+ years.
Popular Science Monthly January 1918 Come see more ads and other things at https://misforgotten2.tumblr.com/
More Buff stuff.. (Buff is slang for big ugly fat f***. Fighter pilots are cruel in nicknaming) B-52 h resurrected from bone yard, I'd call it balls 7 but instead its ghost rider (prob original nick name the pilot's grandfather gave it). A B-52 caught fire and was written off. This one got hauled out of moth balls and flown with very special precautions to base where it was parked and retrofitted with all the gear off of the burnt one. Flight was VFR with a wide path cleared at low altitude. Once it arrived, it was brought up to speed. We have a treaty with Russia and can only have 85 on hand and active (9 in reserve). In the late 70's salt treaties meant the addition of wing strakelets and the ability for Russian satellites to be able to count and confirm compliance. Strakelets are the little lines sticking up, following wing out to first engine pod. Last photos are the trestle in NM to nuclear harden planes against EMP. Bottom is load test with a pile of terex mining trucks driving onto it. Link to B-52 facts https://www.boldmethod.com/blog/lists/2015/05/18-things-you-never-knew-about-the-b-52-stratofotress.( they don't spell very well on internet top 10 click bait). Landing gear rotates for cross winds. pretty wild video. pilot takes off looking out side window..https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a34590550/b-52-strange-takeoff-crosswind-video/. They really ought to just make another run of them, and keep us in bomb dump trucks for years to come.
How many feet do they need to land one of the 52's?. I think I remember them when I was a kid in the 50's at Olmsted air base, which is now Middletown, Pa.
11,000 ft take off. prob a bit less if empty and lucky. I think most sac bases were 15,000 ft runways. It was and prob still is, protocol to figure you'll be coming back to a smoking crater of a base, and as such the interstates are designed with long reinforced straightaways that would be used to launch a second strike. The planes would launch in minutes and the ground crews would scramble to get the hell out of there (with parts weapons fuel and instrumentation/lights to land them), to alternate landing areas. Most airbases for them are about 48"+ plus of reinforced concrete. There are pics of interstates being used as runways. In the case of the b-52's I don't know if they actually did land them at alt bases. Doing so would give away the alternates. The area would need to be concrete as jet engines melt asphalt, and a common asphalt road wouldn't support the weight. there are some good pics of a-10's using rural roads by mich ang.
Thanks. maybe I don't remember. I think Middletown is about 8000. I do remember jets hitting the sound barrier, was pretty cool.
In 1967, I was at Pease AFB training in the ROTC program. One of the things we got to do is fly in a B52 and each one got time in the co pilots seat for a minute or so. When my turn came, the pilot explained some basics, said it was on autopilot, and left for a quick rest room break. What a thrill, with the open sky in front of me. I couldn't resist pulling up very slightly on the control just to see what it felt like. It only seemed like a small variation in upward movement, but it was evidently felt in the mid/rear section of the aircraft .The other cadets weren't too happy, but the pilot never said a thing. Later into the flight, we got to watch up front being refueled by a KC135. A couple weeks later we flew in a KC135 and watched refueling a B52 from the rear of the plane. Great memories !
I refueled B-52's in the USAF at Barksdale AFB from '78 to '80 - it was amazing to see them takeoff with a full load of fuel, (50k gallons, 300,000 pounds of JP-4) they'd use the entire 10 or 12k runway. I'd be thinking they're never going to get off the ground and finally they'd struggle up into the air way down at the far end. When they come back empty they would sit way up high. Even with a pit-cart it'd take 3 1/2 hours to fill them up.
American model and actress Marva Louis, wife of boxer Joe Louis, Stepping into 1936 Duesenberg Convertible Car.
Ted Horn on the pole, and Walt Brown on the outside at Reading in 1948 . Look at the flimsy fence separating the fans from the speeding cars ! Photo comes from Dick Wallens book Hard Driving Men.
The Jalopy Journal
