Subdeacon Joe Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smuteye John SASS#24774 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 After the nuclear holocaust, mutant cockroaches will use B-52's in their war for domination with the Twinkies- who will be armed with AK-47's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Into the next century and beyond! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Amazing aircraft, even after all these years. I think the Air Force got it's money's worth with that airframe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Video was shot at Barksdale AFB, LA. Got a tour several years ago. Eighth AF Hdqtrs is there. Can't recall the wing number. Second Heavy Bombardment Wing is at Minot. Be nice when they get the new engines. More power, more efficient, improved electronics. AF says they intend to keep them running through 2050. If they retire them then, I want to be there to see it. I'll be 108 and I intend to be around! (My parents made it to 98, and that was a while back.) Wonder what all those safing pins were for. Possibly ejection seats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Jones, SASS 2263 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Not the best resolution. A run like that is sure to ruin someone's day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Knew about Cartridge Starting from my early days in the Navy. Found it interesting that they started 4 engines simultaneously. I expect them to be started in rapid succession not all at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 Arc Light! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chantry Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 USAF modified the B-52D to the "big belly" configuration which allowed a single B-52D to carry 108 500-lb. bombs, or a mixed load of 64 500-lb. bombs in the bomb bay and 24 750-lb. bombs on underwing pylons. I seem to recall reading somewhere that a 3 place cell of B-52D's doing an Arclight would destroy everything a 1/3 of a mile wide and a mile long and even collapsed tunnels. I also recall reading that the two things the North Vietnamese feared the most were the B-52D Arclights and the Spooky & Spectre gunships. The B-52D's because they couldn't see or hear them release the bombs and gunships because even though they could hear them, they couldn't hit them with small arms and they feared the mini-guns. Combat reports state that no village or hamlet under Spooky protection was ever lost.* *I find it both very funny and very impressive that the C-47 was given the AC= Attack/Cargo designation. It borders on the absurd that a largely obsolescent 30+ year old plane design with a machine gun, basically designed almost 100 years before the Vietnam War, was so effective and so feared by the North Vietnamese. For those of you unfamiliar with "Puff, the Magic Dragon": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_AC-47_Spooky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irish ike, SASS #43615 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 I was an Architect for work at March AFB California. It was a SAC base. When one of these started up and took off the whole base knew it. Great to watch the wings rise and level out as they gain air speed and lift. As I was working there I noticed the B-52's disappeared. I asked one of the officers I was working with what happened. He smirked, sort of laughed and said, 'some genius figured out we were 60 miles to the coast, a prime target for sub based missiles'!This was in 87. ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irish ike, SASS #43615 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 14 minutes ago, Chantry said: 30+ year old plane design with a machine gun They now shoot canon and 20 MM gattling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 You know, if you were on the bottom of that video when they dropped all of those bombs it might just ruin your garden party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Falcon, SASS # 46139 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 I got to fly 3 Arc Light escort missions. I don't know exactly where we went; we followed the bombers. We went way north and were out of all of our TACAN ranges. We were told the standard load was 108 750 pounders. A V of 3 dropping everything at once simultaneously was quite impressive. As Forty alluded, it was necessary to be above the bombers at release. BUT in addition to being above we had to be to the side because as they released all that weight they gained altitude at a hefty rate. Our goal was to be 5000 ft higher with 2 F-4s 2 miles left of the bombers and the other 2 2 miles right of the bombers. Then we followed the bombers south until we came back into TACAN range then we were released and went home. We refueled 3 times as we were at high power settings once we rendezvoused with the bombers. We had to have the plane captains help us out of the seats as our butts and legs were numb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted June 28, 2022 Author Share Posted June 28, 2022 I love the personal history that comes out in threads like this. Now ... We all lament the stories we didn't pay attention to from the Doughboys of WWI and all the untold histories of WWII veterans. Or the stories from them that we don't quite remember. PLEASE write down your memories. Or dictate them into a machine. Find someone who is gathering the personal histories of the men and women who fought in Korea and Viet Nam and get your records into their hands. Heck, self publish a book and send a copy to the LoC. Don't let your history fade away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chantry Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 When they retire the last B-52, after it's last flight they should fly the crew home in a DC-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rip Snorter Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 26 minutes ago, Chantry said: When they retire the last B-52, after it's last flight they should fly the crew home in a DC-3 Nah, a genuine Dakota. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 5 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said: You know, if you were on the bottom of that video when they dropped all of those bombs it might just ruin your garden party. After Iraq invasion into Kuwait, many of the common Iraqi infantry soldiers had their 'garden party' ruined by B-52's bombing their defensive positions. Reports are that many of those Iraqi soldiers that survived had severe mental issues. I can only imagine what they went through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 One of my high school buddies flew BUFFs during Nam. I wonder if he’d recognize the cockpit now or after the current wave of updates. one of the things they did for the SALT treaty was permanently disable some older planes by cutting the wings off. I read where they hauled one of those wingless carcasses to a testing center to use as a platform for testing the new avionics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 7 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said: I read where they hauled one of those wingless carcasses to a testing center to use as a platform for testing the new avionics. After nearly 1,500 miles and a month on the road, the B-52H Stratofortress nicknamed “Damage Inc. II” has arrived in Oklahoma and is ready to start its new mission. B-52H bomber makes its way slowly to Oklahoma City, ready to fulfill mission Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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