This month sees the 50th Anniversary of the introduction into service of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress ( known to its crews as 'BUFF', or Big Ugly Fat Fu....ummmm, Fellow ) An extraordinary aircraft. Imagine if the RAF had still been using the Lancaster in front line service in 1991....
Incredible indeed. But I think the B-52 still has many years to fly… all that budget in the 1950s to build a whole fleet must be squeezed as much as possible. Besides, a gigantic plane which can fly 30.000 km and drop 30 of bombs remains being very useful, specially when Tomahawks keep costing half a million each! Happy B-day B!
The last H model came off the line in 1962 and the H is the only model still in use. Would you want to fly combat in a 43 year old plane ? Some other senior birds in the USAF are the T-37, T-38,KC-135,C-130, C-141,C-5,U-2,and F-15 and F-16. All are 20-30 years old. The Avro Shackleton flew into the early 80's and it is very similar to the Lancaster. Also the De Havilland Comet and Lockheed Electra are still used in anti sub versions in many armed forces today. I think Turkey and Italy have used the F-104 until recent times. Argentina bought some A-4 Skyhawks a few years ago. Mexico still uses the T-33. Just cost too much money to buy a new airplane these days.
The FAM (Mexican Air Force) has P-51s and P-47s still in service. Its main toys are a dozen of F-4s… I think France gave Mexico 10 Mirages some years ago as a compensation after a diplomatic issue, but Mexico had to sold them all: the entire budget for the FAM was not enough to pay for the manteinance of the planes… However, the AM (Mexican Navy) has been purchasing lots of helicopters, Swedish patrol boats and a couple cruisers… what for? I don't know…
Perhaps for 'homeland security', Fried. Saw a show about the B-52, the wings are attached with 4 bolts each. Is'nt the A-10 Thunderbolt getting up there in age??
The B-52 is big, bad, and beautiful. They (Boeing) were told that they had to design a new bomber, to fit a set of requirements, and they drew it up, and even had a small model in just one weekend! Great plane, it serves it's purpose very well. One thing, and probably the only thing I don't like about the buff is lack of ailerons. The plane has spoilers on top of it's wings, which are good enough for most things, but dangerous for flying low and banking hard. About the hog, it is another excellent plane. Low and slow is great for things like cas. The amount of ordanance that plane can sling under it's wings, and still fly, never ceases to amaze me. A little tidbit of news... An amazing, awesome, new high-tech variant of the F-15, the K, has just been released a while ago. You'd think America would be happy right... Wrong. The planes are being built for S Korea only. Oh well, you can't always be happy.
I found this article on leaflet missions the B-52 had to perform in Viet Nam, Yugoslovia, and the Gulf War. This must have been very demoralizing for the crews. http://www.psywarrior.com/B52leaflets.html
Greetings! This is my first post here and i really like the website. During my 10 years in the military I was in the army twice for 3 years apiece and the air force for 4 years, smack dab in the middle of the two army tours, just don't ask me why. During my last two years and a few months i was at Glasgow AFB, Montana which was a SAC base with B-52's and F101 fighters. I got to be fmiliar with the B-52's but never was invited inside one. I also got to see them from a different perspectice as a reserve air cop in the augmentation group during alerts. When I joined the army (again) and went to Vietnam during my last full year of service I found that I was the only ex-airforce guy in my unit. I was in a maintenance compny which was in support of the 1st ID, the "Big Red One". One day we were working and out in the jungle several klicks we heard a tremendous series of explosions moving across the landscape. One of the guys spoke up and said that was by far the latgest artillery barrage we had heard up to that time. I said that it was not artillery but B-52 bombers. Someone said like how would i know and I reminded them that I had been in the airforce for four years. Some one else said than why can't we hear or see them so I told them that they were at 30,000 feet and already gone when we heard the bombs going off. Since i was the only ex-airforce person there they did not know who else to ask. I had never seen a bomb dropped from a B'52 but from my understanding that was about how it went. We got to see Skyraiders bombing and strafing and PUFF, the C-47 converted wuth miniguns into an aerial firepower platform several times. I am looking forward to reading and sharing on this forum. Phil Ca
Welcome to the forums Phil Ca! I am sure you are going to enjoy yourself here. Good to have you aboard. Well, such a crater looks something like this....
Welcome to the forums Phil. I love F-101's. I got to sit in one from the Texas ANG and they are roomy on the inside. The B-52 oddly enough is pretty cramped inside. Did you get to be around the Mohawk while in the Army ? I have always liked them too.
Yes indeed - thanks for joining us, Phil. I believe that 'iron' bombs were released from B-52s in Asia at such height that their speed was supersonic on reaching the ground. Here's another view : - http://www.ranger25.com/HHC%202%2012%20arc_light.htm
The bomb craters as viewed from the air were a bit different than from the ground. When flying by Huey from Phouc Vinh to either Saigon or Binh Hoa we could see those craters stretching for some distance. We unfortunately saw a F-100 crash in a river near our old French fort in November or December of 1965. The pilot ejected but was injured when his parachute also landed him in the river. A helocopter crew lowered a rope ladder to him but I believe he had a broken arm and could not hold onto the ladder. At that time the army and air force had not worked together on rescue of downed airmen. The pilot was lost when he fell back into the water. That was a sad day, especially for me as a former air force member. I had saved my airforce 505 shorts and had brought them with me. I had the only suntan 505 shorts at our camp. I also had blue swimming trunks with a 13th Air Force patch sewn on them and wore them at least twice when bathing in the river. I refused to go again to the river as I figured that we had already attracted too much attention to ourselves there. A few days later a cook from a nearby infantry unit was killed when the truck he was a passenger in was ambushed at tha same ford where we had used the river for bathing. He got off three rounds from his .45 before succumbing to hostile fire. When we first arrived at the old french fort which became our home we saw a RB-57 Recon bomber painted flat black and muted markings on it. It circled our fort and the pilot waved. Some of our guys ahad never seen one before and did not know what it was. I told them it was ours and it was a RB-57 Recon bomber. They wanted to know haw i knew and where did i get my info from. I had to explain that I was ex-airforce and had worked around such airplanes while stationed in the PI at Clark field in 59-61. I began to think that many of our troops did not know much about the world and had not traveled ar from home prior to enlisting or being drafted. Thamks all for the welcome to this forum. I don't mean to talk your ear off so if I bore you please say so.
You're not boring me, I love to hear first hand war stories ! I wish I could have seen the flat black RB-57, a very over looked aircraft both in the USAF and the RAF and RAAF. Keep the stories coming.
Properly known as the English Electric Canberra, One of the few Foreign aircraft manufactured for the USAAF, it was also flown by 2 Sqn RAAF in SVN as a "light bomber" I recently went to Temora in New South Wales and saw a great aerial display from one of the few still flying.
On my second military hitch I joined as a 20 year old airman after three years in the army. I turned 21 while hanging around Amarillo AFB waiting for my tech school to start. At Amarillo we had B-47's making touch and go landings by the hour. I had lived at a former WW2 US Army Air Base for a couple of years and my interest in airplanes grew steadily. When I was finished with my tech school I was sent to Clark Field in the Philippines. There were 11 of us from my class sent there at the same time. Since I was ex army I was drafted as a radio operator during alerts and I was made instructor for all the NCO's. (I quickly foun out that the USAF was still recovering from all those years as an army air force and the changeover was hard for a number of people. this was 1959 hrough 1961 when I was in the PI. We were near Camp O'Donnel where the infamous Bataan "Death March" ended with so many thousands dead of the Filipino and American troops. (Many years later I would have one of the Filipino surivors working for me at the US Mint in SF) At Clark I wangled a job in the Priority Section of the 405th Base Supply Squadron. Our mission waS to take orders for parts, locate them and see that they were delivered at the repair sectiom within 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes according to the Priority 1,2,or 3 asigned. This was based on the need for air defense, etc, i am sure you get the picture. One night I was given an order on Priority 1 so I hustled over to a small explosives storage place and picked up two each 12 gauge blank rounds. I was fairly new and was not sure why the rush for two blank shotgun rounds. when I arrived at he shop on the flight line here was a RB-57 in dark gray paint and mited markings on the tarmac with the pilot getting on board. The mechanic rushed over and signed off on the blank rounds and rushed over to the aircraft where someone installed them and a moment later i heard two distict "BOOMS" and the engines on the RB0-57 roared to life and started a quick taxi towards the active runway and a bout two minutes later the aircraft was off into a dark night. I could only speculate where it was headed, maybe Taiwan, maybe Vietnam, who could tell, the ground crew that serviced the plane probably did not know either. The plane was not one of our goups birds is all I knew. Some time later I had to deliver a "part" to a U2 that was painted dull and was soon off towrads the active runway with a NCO holding one wing tip off the ground from the back of a pickup. As the plane started o move the long wing was picked up by the air and it too was soon lost in a dark night. It went up at a very steep angle probably to keep any curious folk from wondering if they saw what they thought they did in a nearby community. Oh yes I am sure we had some espionage types out there watching. Vietman was not quite ramped up and the "Cold War" was still on for all intents and purposes. I learned that there were things going on that did not necesarily concern me as a "junior birdman", so to speak. I was in Manila on a pass when the news of the shooting down of Francis Gary Powers hit the newspapers. An older Filipino veteran of WW2 stopped me with tears in his eyes and asked f this was possibly true, could the US really have done something like that. I was a naive kid of 221 and had not seen the RB-57 an the U2 yet so I said NO, of course not. Live and learn right???
Really interesting stuff ! Too bad you did'nt get some pictures but I am sure they would have taken the camera away and sent you away too. Out of curiousity what type of aircraft did the Filipino Air Force fly at this time ? I was writting a B-47 pilot a few months ago and he was telling me how underpowered the B-47 was. It was something like 37 to 1 thrust to weight ratio. Over 200 crashed during the cold war due to various reasons.
TA152: The PAF, or Philippine Air Force had some F-86 aircraft and F-100's as well. during a PACAF (Pacific Air Force)program called "Flying Brothers", the renowned test pilot, Bob Hoover flew a PAF , F-100 in a series of intricate moves. He blew out a main tire on takeoff on purpose and upon landing he popped the other one! I woiww have to dg out my PI Scrap Book and look that up. Bob Hoover did something that caused the FAA to revoke his license some years ago, I do not recall the whole story though. In WW2 he was a test pilot and later a combat pilot that was shot down on his 59th mission in a Spitfire of the 52nd Fighter Group. he spent 16 months in Stalag Luft 1. During the Flying Brothers Competition we were treated to all sorts of aerobatics and the Crow Valley gunnery range saw many rounds expended at ground targets. One evening I went to the USO Club called the "Silver Wing" There was a contest in using chopsticks to transfer M&M candies from one paper cup to another. There were at least 6 pilots from the Formosa (Taiwan) Team and several other contestants but the skinny 22 year old airman from Oregon won. (Cest Moi!) :LOL: As for taking photos of the flight line, I never did that even though I could easily have done so with my Minolta 16mm miniture camera. One time as a lark and to tesy some peoples powers of obversation I did the following. I had a flight line pass that allowed me to access most of the sensitive areas on the airfield. One afternoon before leaving for supper and my 12 hour hsift I cut out a B&W picture of Alfred E. Newman from MAD Magazine. I taped it over my photo on my pass and then went to work. It was not noticed by my coworker and when I got a Priority 1 run to the A&E shop I held it out for the AP to see when i entered the airfield. I flashed it to him and withdrew it into the pickup truck window.he had already clearedme to pass and all of a sudden he grans his whistle and signals me to stop. I removed the taped photo and showed him my badge again as he requested. He said, "Didn't I see a photo of you w/o glasses on your pass?" I said, o you mean this one?" and held up the Alfred E.Newman clipping in my right hand so he could not touch it. We had a good laugh and he let me procede. Later in the evening I was called back to deliver another part and the same AP was on duty. This time he was very alert and approached me more cautiously. He asked if I was a OSI agent and I assured him I was not. He said after I had shown him the card before he called his supervisor and was told that he should have detained me. I suggestd that he should have done that at the time and that I had another delivery to make and had to go. I had diposed of the little photo and there was no way it could be found and tied to me A month or so later i was delivering something to a shop near the airfield and the AP sentry pointed his carbine at me and someone else about to enter and made a hurried call on his radio. A few mooents later the rapid reactio team with a double cab Ford pick up with a Browning .30 caliber MG mounted on the top, manned by an AP arrived with a security supervisor. We were all told to raemain where we were until something was straightened out. It seems that the officer that signed our security passes had transferred stateside and our passes were now considered invalid! Nice of them to let us know in such a timely manner.
