B-52 returns to Boeing Field! | FerrariChat

B-52 returns to Boeing Field!

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by Gatorrari, Jun 3, 2018.

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  1. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    Feb 27, 2004
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    Jim Pernikoff
    As I write this, the Museum of Flight's B-52G is being moved onto museum property at Boeing Field in Seattle. They are showing streaming video on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/museumofflight/
     
  2. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Nov 29, 2003
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    To me, it doesn't look like a B-52. The camouflage paint looks like something that a grade school kid would dream up in arithmetic class. It IS AUTHENTIC, Vietnam livery, however. Still a non-B-52 paint job and ugly.
     
  3. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    Jim Pernikoff
    Bob, I figured that you might have been down there to watch it. (I know, it's early on a Sunday morning.) Maybe you'll like the color scheme better when they reassemble the airplane. But where are they going to put it?
     
  4. G. Pepper

    G. Pepper Three Time F1 World Champ
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    George Pepper
    The very early ones still had a tail gunner. I saw one on static display at an AFB somewhere. Probably Randolph or Kelly. Last bomber to have a tail gunner.

    Amazing they're still in service.
     
  5. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    Even the later versions had a tail gunner up to a certain point, the difference being that he rode up front with the rest of the crew and fired the gun (by then, a single gatling gun) remotely.
     
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  6. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    Nov 29, 2003
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    Thanks, Jim. I saw it on Paine Field before it was disassembled and it still doesn't thrill me, but then, I'm a crotchety old man now and I'm set in my ways about some things. I worked on that airplane sixty six years ago on the very first mock up and went through the B-52A making drawings to show the production people how to put it together and I got used to its clean lines and nice proportions. It's going to be parked and reassembled in the Raisbeck Aviation High School parking lot where it will have a shelter built over it.
    Iv'e mentioned it before but I'll say again. The company constructed a firing butt on the southeast side of Boeing Field to test the tail gun. When they fired the cal. 50's and cannon at the same time, the explosive bolts in the tail gunner's capsule fired and the entire thing dropped to the ground, as designed so that the tail gunner could escape from the airplane if it was going down. Then he was supposed to bail out on his own. Can you imagine the placement of a firing butt next to Airport Road now?
     
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