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B-52

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by Bob Parks, Jun 11, 2008.

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  1. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    #1 Bob Parks, Jun 11, 2008
    Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting a retired B-52 instructor pilot who was much younger than I . He has snow white hair and obviously can move a bit quicker but he was very interested when I mentioned that I worked on the XB-52, YB-52, and B-52A. We had some things to chat about and he is putting a video together that will be published on a thing called Welcome to myetrek.com!. It celebrates the legacy of those whose hair is whiter or thinner than his. It bothers me that this man flew an airplane that I helped to build in 1950-1953 and he is long retired and I'm long retired and that damn airplane goes on and on.
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  2. saw1998

    saw1998 F1 Veteran

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    #2 saw1998, Sep 20, 2008
    I believe that I read that they are planning to keep it active until 2038, with avionics upgrades of course. My flight instructor at Embry-Riddle was a retired, full-bird colonel from SAC. Man, was that guy demanding, but a great pilot and instructor. In retrospect, I wish I had gone into the Air Force. I would be retired in another 8 years (30 years in), instead I chose medicine/law. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20.
     
  3. 1ual777

    1ual777 F1 Rookie

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    #3 1ual777, Sep 23, 2008
    With today's technology and fighting a war with drones, this bird could be around alot longer than that. Of course that means the plane will have flown 80 years?
     
  4. cbstd

    cbstd Formula Junior

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    #4 cbstd, Sep 26, 2008
    All those "G" and "H" models that spent the cold war on stand by did not put on many hours, so the frames are relatively fresh.

    Scott
     
  5. Crawler

    Crawler F1 Veteran

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    #5 Crawler, Sep 26, 2008
    A while back, I read somewhere that the Air Force was experimenting with a four turbofan engine conversion, maybe a PW4077 or GE90-77B. It would seem to make sense, if they're planning to keep the BUFs active for another 20-30 years.
     
  6. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    #6 Bob Parks, Sep 26, 2008
    To hang those big fans in place of the J-57's would increase the power, lower the specific fuel consumption, and modernize the power plants but I would imagine that an extensive redesign of the strut and wing structure would be necessary to address the different weights, moments, flutter, and maybe aerodynamics due to changes in air flow around the engines. This isn't a simple engine change.
     
  7. Crawler

    Crawler F1 Veteran

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    #7 Crawler, Sep 27, 2008
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  8. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    #8 Bob Parks, Sep 27, 2008
    I'm digging back into my old head and seem to remember that the power pack assembly on a 777 with the PW4078 and strut weighed around 22,500 pounds. That is considerably more than the JT9D installation which was 8 feet in diameter. The inside fan case diameter on the 777 engines is 13 feet that will force some ground clearance considerations. I have a drawing that I'll try to post later.
     
  9. snj5

    snj5 F1 World Champ

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    #9 snj5, Sep 27, 2008
    To me one of the wild things about a Buff was you turn the wheel trucks at an angle to land in a high crosswind, essentially landing in a crab. The C-5 does that as well. That would be pretty gutsy to set her down a few degrees in a crab in a crosswind!
     
  10. rob lay

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    #10 rob lay, Sep 30, 2008
    Grew up with the B-52, our small town in ’83-85 was within a low level flight path. Weekly B-52’s and other jets would fly over less than 1000’. Everyone knew the gov number to get windows paid for. :) See if I can find any old 110 pics.
     
  11. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    #11 Bob Parks, Sep 30, 2008
    Rob, you triggered another memory from long ago. In 1942 when our little town in Florida became a bustling airbase with airforce all over the place we were sitting down to dinner in our little cottage on the beach when a thundering sound shook all of us into shock. I ran outside in time to see a flight of B-17's in finger five formation coming over at less than 500 feet heading out into the Gulf. My poor mom said, " What was that!"
    I said, " B-17's, mom." She said, " They must be lost if they are flying that low." The next day we discovered six broken windows in our little house. Steel sashes and that much vibration didn't work very well. We didn't have a gov number then. For three more years we had to " put up " with P-39's, P-40's, and P-51's. The B-17's were moved to Tampa but every day it was an air show with all the equipment that was based at all the air bases in Florida flying over and down our beach at Siesta Key. P-47's, B-26's, B-24's, and B29's mixed up with a few SBD's, FC2's, F4U's, and F6F's. It was a kid's paradise. Lots of crashes around that made it interesting. When I worked at Sarasota airport during summer vacations from college I had to dig up wreckage from crashes of P-40's and P-51's on the airport when I was mowing the grass between runways. I found one that was extensive and after removing the metal we found a parachute tied in a bundle . Inside were the broken up bones of a pilot who, what was left of him, was buried on the spot.
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  12. davidgoerndt

    davidgoerndt Formula 3

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    #12 davidgoerndt, Oct 1, 2008
    Reading about the B-52 brings back memories. Shortly after the Cuban missle crisis our Boy Scout troup made a day trip to the Grand Forks Air Force Base to check out the planes. As luck would have it, we decided to do this in the middle of winter in North Dakota. We were escorted all over the base to check out the planes and other things they had. The B-52 was the most impressive of the lot with the wing tips nearly within reach. We could go inside, however, so we got to look at the plane from the outside. We did get inside a tanker (KC-135 if my memory serves), crowded is what I remember. Not much room to move around. We did get inside a restricted hanger where several missles were stored. I wish I could remember what they were (some had small wings if that helps anyone). We were supposed to get a ride in the tanker but flight operations were cancelled do to the blizzard that just happened to hit, instead we got to listen to fighter pilots recount the Cuban missle crisis. I don't recommend touring an Air Force base in ND in the winter! -20F with 30-40 mph winds (you can see why no one was flying that day!!)
     
  13. Bob Parks

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    #13 Bob Parks, Oct 1, 2008
    The interesting thing about watching a loaded B-52 take off is the outer wing that starts to fly long before the rest of the airplane levitates. The tip travel can move through an arc from the lower most point to the upper that measures some 37 feet.
     
  14. Argento839

    Argento839 F1 Veteran

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    #14 Argento839, Oct 1, 2008
    I lived down in Tucson for many years of my life and have seen so many B52s get scrapped in the boneyard. I'm surprised that there are that many left. They haven't made any for almost 50 years... Does anyone know how many are left?

    BTW, Russia has extended the service life of the Bear bomber to about the same time.
     
  15. Kds

    Kds F1 World Champ

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    #15 Kds, Oct 3, 2008
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    Those missiles would be either Hound Dog AGM's (the predecessor to today's cruise missile) or Quail ecm decoys........there's about 85-90 or so BUFF's flying around.....all "H" models.
     
  16. Arvin Grajau

    Arvin Grajau Seven Time F1 World Champ

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    #16 Arvin Grajau, Nov 2, 2008
    I was down in Tuscan/Arizon when the 1st Gulf war was about to happen.
    You knew something was going down by the share volumne of aircraft.
     
  17. 2NA

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    #17 2NA, Nov 2, 2008
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  18. 1ual777

    1ual777 F1 Rookie

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    #18 1ual777, Nov 2, 2008
    Back in the mid-70's I went to school at UC Riverside. There was a hill that seperated March AFB and the school. It was a SAC base and the planes would be on the flight deck ready to go at a moments notice. They would stage alerts and you would hear them rumbled down the runway and take off at an extreme bank as they tried to avoid the town then headed west. Not to mention in the land of earthquakes, the gound would shake from all those planes trying to get to V2. 35 years later I can still hear the sounds of the BUF's as they strained to get airborne. But my most vivid memory is of that long wing banked at 500 feet, with all that black jet exhaust pouring out the plane as the gained altitude. Then 10-20 minutes after they began the alert, it would be dead quite.
     
  19. darth550

    darth550 Six Time F1 World Champ
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    #19 darth550, Nov 2, 2008
    I remember watching the B-52 land and take off at the air shows in Van Nuys growing up every year. They seemed to use that whole runway front to back and side to side!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz1hdChCPoU

    It was always the highlight of the show!
     
  20. rob lay

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    #20 rob lay, Nov 2, 2008
    great short field performance!
     
  21. Rifledriver

    Rifledriver Three Time F1 World Champ

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    #21 Rifledriver, Nov 3, 2008
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  22. 2NA

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    #22 2NA, Nov 3, 2008
    Cool shot, not really sure why it would be so close to the water.
     
  23. SonomaRik

    SonomaRik F1 Veteran

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    #23 SonomaRik, Nov 3, 2008
    not unusual for a US aircraft to fly low and close to a Carrier. Even Russian Bears flew within a few hundred feet for a lookie see on us ships, always buffered away by Tomcats or whatever...I think you can even search youtube for real, close Tomcats etc. flying eyelevel to flight deck at top speed.

    rik

    BTW, since that is the Ranger, I'd suspect before mid-90's as it was decommissioned near that date.
     
  24. Bob Parks

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    #24 Bob Parks, Nov 3, 2008
    The story that I got was a B-52 returning from a mission contacted the carrier a ways out and told them to keep an eye astern for the Buff to make a pass. The Navy looked aft and after a long while they contacted the B-52 and said that they still couldn't raise them. The B-52 called back and told them to look low and there they were making a pass at or below deck level. Look at the angle of the B-52 fuselage relative to horizon and you can see how the wing, that has 7.5 deg. angle of incidence at the root, is flying almost level and the fuselage is nose down. I saw Tex Johnston make a really low level pass on Boeing Field and we couldn't believe how steep the nose down attitude of the fuselage was.
     
  25. 2NA

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    #25 2NA, Nov 3, 2008
    Seems like a lot of "nose down" for "level flight".
     
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