Almost as Old as I Am, but in Better Shape.

I have one as my desktop pic. Awesome piece of machinery. It's like a flying freight train.

For a second, I thought you were talking about yourself, and thought, 'Oh, this is going to be a fun weekend'.

When we go to the beach in the fall, I get to see them flying. Every time I see one, I wonder, how in the hell can that monstrosity possibly be in the sky?

I love the beach....................massive transport helicopters traverse the coastline all day too.

You have to get up close to really appreciate the size of the B-52....They are awesome, and surprisingly huge...I remember the first time I saw one at an airshow, I walked up from behind and the tail section had to be 5 stories high, I was awestruck....The wings were so long they had separate landing gear on the ends.....

Awesome pics SE. I was in the Navy, and work on Military bases regularly. Love those planes.

I love watching the end of a 747 wing lift a foot or so as the plane is heading down the runway for take-off, and thinking there is a main wing-spar there that two men can lift. I hate to think how far a B52 wing flexes, and what holds that wing together.

Can the B52 take the kind of beating the B17 was capable of, or does it fly too high to get involved with fighters and flak?

Well the additional landing gear on the end of the wings is what keeps the wings from dragging on the ground, so as you can imagine there is quite a bit of travel....I've read they can travel 22' up and 10' down for an incredible 32' of flex...Here's a video of one landing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSIGd6COFb8&feature=related

Performance * Maximum speed: 560 knots (650 mph, 1,000 km/h) * Combat radius: 4,480 mi (3,890 nm, 7,210 km) * Ferry range: 11,000 mi (8,099 nm, 15,000 km) * Service ceiling: 55,773 ft (17,000 m) * Rate of climb: 6270 ft/min[9] (m/s) * Wing loading: 30 lb/ft² (150 kg/m) * Thrust/weight: 0.51 * Lift-to-drag ratio: 21.5 (estimated)

Bombing patterns....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGLgZ8htLI4&feature=related

on the swept wing of the B-52

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swept_wing

Thanks for the links, the first one was of an aircraft I had a good look at, at Duxford many years ago.....It was interesting to see it landing there, that must be early 80`s video or so I would guess....

The B52 was outside at the time when I eventually saw it and no Concorde or SR71 either.....I guess it was early 90's when I was last there, I must go again!!

Memories. The children were small.....now one has her own child!!

Hi Andy, you must visit Duxford again some time, it has got better and better over the last few years.

Spencer.

I can well believe you, I also looked it up on the web, right up my street!!!

That BUFF in the "B-52 landing at Duxford" in '83 was a B-52D with SouthEast Asia (SEA) camo from the Viet Nam War still on it! Wild!!!!!!

Nice video....

Always wanted to go to the Duxford airshow! When's the next one scheduled for???

I did read all of it, but the whole story in itself could be made into a movie.

Now if we could only outfit those giant wings with solar panels................................

Ah yes the B-52 lite...

http://www.gizmag.com/solar-impulse-solar-aircraft/11982/

This is pretty cool...hover bike

http://www.gizmag.com/hoverbike/18813/

I love the sound of those old piston engines. In the airshow season we see a fair few Spitfires going over and sometimes the memorial flight, Spitfire, Huricane and Lancaster.
Del

We have our own educational channel here at the old folks home. I did a piece that I haven't seen yet, on being a boy, in London, during WW2. The biggest goosepimple/goosebump raisers were the sirens, warning and all clear, and and the V1 pulse motor. The other planes followed closely behind. The eeriness of hearing near and distant alarms really digs in.

The sirens, warning and all clear. There is a great shot of St. Paul's through the smoke at about 3:20 in.

the V1 buzzbomb.

Hi Andy, I live not too far from Lowestoft, and every august we have an air show with Lancasters, Spitfires, Mustangs and many more, and it is just fabulous to hear the Spitfire engines (Merlin XX) as they roar overhead, quite unmistakable!

Spencer.

I once had an office on a certain US Airbase that sent 52's up every day. The office was so close to the runway that everything shook when they took off! I had to request a new office! My residence at the time was directly in line with the flight path from the runway...I have some awesome pictures of the underside of a 52 as it was approaching for a landing, I was laying on my lawn at the time...it was pretty close!

Lets see them here!!

Ah, the venerable Big Ugly Fat F*cker (BUFF), one of my favorites! I once lived about 60 miles east of Griffiss AFB (a SAC base in Rome NY, no closed due to BRAC), home of the 416th Bomb Wing, that had B-52G and H's. I was always a pleasure to stop off the NYS Thruway and drive into the base to use the PX and Commissary....and to watch the BUFFs launch and recover all day long. Never missed an Commander's Day Open House/Airshow either since the around 1980!

The ALUMINUM OVERCAST!!!! hehehehehe TRUE TRUE TRUE!

Here's some pics of a former Griffiss AFB B-52G that is now a Gate Guard (western gate of the base), taken about 3 years ago:

Notice the 4 x .50 cal. machine guns? That's how you can tell it's a "G" model. The "H" had a 20mm Vulcan cannon for defensive weaponry.

Here's a pic of the Air Launched Cruise Missile (ACLM) that replaced the Short Range Attack Missiles (SRAM) in the USAF in the early 80's. This one sits next to the BUFF at Griffiss and has no warhead (inert). BTW, the 416th BW @ Griffiss AFB was the first operational SAC unit to deploy the ACLM, I think back in '82 and '83. Lots of protests over that by the peacefreaks back then....

Enjoy the pics! I have around a 100 or so of just this particular BUFF!

Nothing beats a BUFF for dropping ordinance on a target from Angels 60.....108 x 750# gravity dumb bombs. I witness numerous ARC LIGHT strikes by BUFFs against Iraqi troops some 20 miles distance night and day during Operation Desert Storm. Quite a bit of fireworks that's ingrained in my gray matter for the rest of my life. Impressive and deadly.....and the air shuttered and the ground shook even from that distance. Once the ground war started it was no wonder that we had some many Iraqi POWs because they were so shell-shocked because of the ARC LIGHT strikes by the BUFFS....about 2/3's of their Army personnel were either killed or deserted due to those strikes. Now that's what is called loss of unit cohesion and fighting ability.

Next time you run into a BUFF driver or crewman at an airshow offer to buy that guy or gal a beer and thank them for their service! I know I do, because those guys undoubtedly saved my sorry arse!

Oh I forgot to include the pic below. The aircraft's name was "Mohawk Valley". Notice the Desert Storm Bombing Sorties in the upper left hand corner!!!!

Courtesy of the Capt.....

Got loads of other mil aircraft pics I can share. Any one out there love A-10's and FB-111A SACVARKS (from the 380th BW, Plattsburgh AFB)?????

Yup it was Griffiss that I was at in '69. :-)

Well, I just learned somehting.....I didn't know GAFB had a gate guardian, and I've been past there many times to visit family but have not been around the base in recent years.

My brother was stationed at Griffiss from about 1971 onward. And get this...he was a NAVY SeaBee reporting to the Philadelphia Naval Base Command but assigned to Griffiss to help build the base hospital. It was on a visit there I got to see a B-52 take off under full warload, from close range. Awesome to a recent arospace engineering grad!

My brother eventually wound up working for the Air Force Communications Command at Rome Air Development Center until his retirement late last year. So I when I drive in to see him I go near the base on Rte 46 but maybe that's the East Gate or somehting? I think I would have noticed a gate guardian the size of the B-52.

On another subject, is the B-52 as strong as a B-17? Hard to say, given the B-17's legendary reputation for taking battle damage that would have downed any other aircraft of the day and still get home. There is a classic photo of a B-17 that was rammed by a German fighter and it looks like only a few longitudinal spars are holding the tail on. But it flew home and landed without collapsing. Not sure a B-52 could do that.

I have been close up to B-17s often since I became a member of the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, which puts on a World War Two Weekend yearly. It is the largest show of it's kind in the world. I 've met many vets who flew the B-17, including Col. Robert Morgan of Memphis Belle fame. He was quite a character.

I also bought a ride in the National Warplane Museum's B-17 one year. It was a real treat even though there was not a lot of original equipment in the plane. The "Yankee Lady" that also comes to the show every year is practically original except for some navigation equipment required by current regs allowing it to fly passengers.

Sadly, Griffiss is no more, the National Warplane Museum folded due to too much debt, and even the Philadelphia Naval Yard was closed a few years ago. However, the battleship New Jersey is docked permanenetly on the Delaware Riverfront. It's fascinating to take the tour.

Yup, that B-52G at Griffiss is located at the Western Gate, the one nearest to the City of Rome. You won't see it if you enter from the Eastern Gate off NYS Rte 46, but you can wander around the old base until you find it.....just head down the main drag (forgot it's name) until you reach the hangers to the left and west of the old control tower, then hang a left and drive about 1/2 mile west (forgot the name of that street too).

Yeah know what, I almost took a job (a Facilities Engineer position) at the Rome Development Center a few months ago, but the Mrs. Moosie didn't want to relocate, even though the starting salary was $126K + Federal Bennies! I'm still knocking my head against the wall for not taking the Fed's offer!

Ahhh, you're an old Warbird fan, eh? How do you like the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum? Is it anything like the old and defunct NWM? I was a longtime member of the NWM (22 years) and on the Airshow Planning Committee for several years until the museum folded. It was a HUGE mistake moving it from Geneseo down to Elmira....costly, and the museum lost most of their volunteer base. I was opposed to the move from the moment it was conceived...still am. What a waste! IMO, the Board members ought to be sitting in prison right now...fiscal mismanagement all the way while in Elmira. If anything, they shuld have kept the shows and the NWM based at Batavia NY, which probaly had the best of the best showings due to the fact the runway was paved and attracted lots more Warbirds and jets.

Anyhow, I've been wanting to get down to the Mid-Atlantic's yearly airshow for some time now!!!! Is the show as good as the NWM's "Wings of Eagles" Airshow once were? And can you get as close and amongst the aircraft like NWM's shows? Any jets show up? please fill me in on anything you want to tell me about the museum and it's show!

I've been up in the NWM's B-17G "Fuddy Duddy" several times and loved it!!! I still have old 8mm videotapes of those flights. I should have them converted to digital for salvation sake. IMO, I think the B-17 would be tougher than a BUFF...it was SOOOOO OVERBUILT! LOL

Say, are you going to the 2012 Great New England Airshow being held at Westover AFRB (Chicopee MA)? The show is scheduled for Aug. 4-5 I believe.

Ah, that explains it. My brother lives outside the city up off Rte 46 so he always drove in by the East Gate. If I go up there when the weather is decent I'll make it a point to go find the West Gate and have a look.

The MAAM is located at Reading, PA's municipal airport (originally called Carl Spaatz Field), in an old hangar that was used to prepare B-24s for their ferry flights to England. Later on it was a Pennsylvania Air National Guard base with P-47s based there. MAAM acquired it in 1980 and has a lot of its inventory on display. Three centerpiece aircraft are "Briefing Time", a restored B-25J that saw 124 combat missions, a restored and airworthy TBM Avenger, and the P-61 that's still undergoing renovations to make it airworthy. When it's finally finished, it will be the only flyable P-61 in the world. As it is, it is one of ony four remaining P-61's since CAF crashed and destroyed theirs some years ago. I enjoyed being a volunteer there.....I was a tour guide for awhile, and volunteered every year for WW II Weekend until a couple or years ago when I was out of work (thank you GW Bush) for an extended period. I may go back to see the show for a day this year, especially since I believe "FiFi" is coming back for a visit.

The show has had some rare aircraft over the years. One year there were 3 B-17s and five B-25s (got photos somewhere) and another year when I was still doing regular volunteer work they let me on the ramp the week before the show and I got up close to "FiFi" with nobody around. "Yankee Lady" was also parked at the edge of the tarmac and I got some shots of her from underneath Fifi's wing, and vice versa. But true to it's name it is more oriented toward piston-engined aircraft. No jets, but there are always fighters, bombers and training aircraft in abundant evidence. One year we had one of the only two Avro Lancasters still flying. Except for Yankee Lady, you can walk right up to the aircraft and there are always volunteers around to answer questions and tell you about the history of the particular aircraft. I think you will enjoy the show if you come. BTW, who needs jets when you can listen to the glorious sound of a P & W radial engine? Nothing in the world sounds like that. Okay, okay, maybe a Wright R-2600 comes close.

The only reason you don't get to walk up to Yankee Lady anymore is that Yankee Air Museum sells flights all weekend long, and they rarely have any problem filling up all the flights. I think they are up to $450 a pop, so I haven't gone up again. I heard a rumor that CAF will sell flights in FiFi for $1500 a head. If money was no object, I'd do it.

It's such a shame about NWM, because right when I started volunteering in 1999, I went to their Wings of Eagles show. I was mightily impressed with the facility, their organized approach to the show and the volunteers, and their collection of aircraft. But letting it be threatened because of financial mis-management is a crying shame. I understand NY State tried to help them when they wanted to sell "Fuddy Duddy" but that still wasn't enough. I heard that part of the debt sitution is that their new hangar/offices/museum building cost over $2MM to build and they simply could not service the debt.

Hey, if you do decide to go to WW II Weekend, let me know and maybe we can meet up there.

pdef, if you use one of the satellite map services Online like Google, Mapquest etc. you can see the Griffiss AFB BUFF and how to find the gate......use the "Birdseye" view.

I almost went to the MAAM show last year, but a family wedding interceded unfortunately.

MAAM has a P-61 King Cobra under restoration?! Wowsers! I know for a fact that former Astronaut and Eastern Airlines CEO Frank Borman owns a P-61 that's in mint condition and it is flyable. You could eat off of it, it's that clean (or was). He won awards with that Cobra for for Top Warbird at the Oshkosh (EAA) Airshow earlier that year. He flew it to our last NWM airshow before it really collapsed. He also had his F-86 flown in by another pilot. I was sitting next to Frank at our Airshow Reception bar (since I was a Airshow Planning Comm. Member) for a few hours talking to him. That man is AMAZING! And he's full of stories....lots of stories! Likes his Scotch too. Me too! hehehehe

Is the P-61 that MAAM owns a former Soviet Union aircraft that's been recovered?

I tend to like both the old Warbirds and the jets. For the 1998 Wings of Eagles show I was instrumental in bringing in (due to my connections...) 2 Panavia RAF Tornados + 2 German Luftwaffe Tornados down from Cold Lake CAB that were there for low level training. That was a coup! Ditto with bringing in Frank Borman's F-86 that year as well!

Back in '89(?) at the NWM when it was in Geneseo NY, we had the largest collection of B-17's since WWII.....7 of them showed up, along with a B-24J, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Lancaster, and bunch of B-25 Mitchells, our A-26 Invader, plus 12 P-51 mustangs...just for starters. We had over 125 aircraft that weekend. Those were the good old days! Even the 174th TFW "Boys from Syracuse" with their 5-ship formation of F-16's did a few passes (I was instrumental in that DOD request for them since my former college roomie was a command pilot with them).

Do you live down near Reading? If so, you lucky dog!

Sorry about you losing your job. What was your career?

Took a look at the MAAM website via the URL link that you provided. The Airshow you're talking about is the WWII Airshow weekend coming up on June 1-3, correct? No, I can't make it that weekend 'cause I'm flying down to San Antonio for my son's USAF Basic Military Training Graduation (at Lackland AFB) on June 6th. Between the airfare, hotel room for 4 nights, the rental car, gas, eats, tolls, and the Newark Airport parking fees it's going to be a very expensive week! I least afford this trip especially right after incorporating my new consulting engineering firm with the state of NY....big $$$ laid out for the attorney and the NYS Education Dept and State Dept of State fees! Well. at least I'm now incorporated as a Professional Corporation (s-corp) now!!!

If you can make the trip up to Mass., check out the Great New England Airshow on Aug. 4-5. There won't be any Thunderbirds or Blue Angels this year, so the crowds will be less. I'll be hanging with some of my buddies and a few new friends from Facebook that re world renown Mil aircraft photogs (one is from Canada and another one from Missouri). Lots of USAF, USN jets + warbirds and lots of NATO aircraft usually show up for the show. It's a very good one!

I have a great love for that CAF B-29 FiFi! That's one amazing bomber! Beautiful, just like their B-17G "Sentimental Journey"!!!!!

Hey, whatever happened to Fuddy Duddy? Who owns it now? I heard that some museum in MI now owns it? the one in Kalamazoo I think, which also owns a AD-1H Skyraider (in SEA camo)????? OR, did the Collins Foundation acquire her? I do love that plane (a labor of love) doing volunteer mechanical work on her for many many hours...

Glad to have run into another Wardbird nut here! Ya on Facebook? If so, PM me!

Yup, I'm on facebook, so I'll look for your profile. Are you there as CaptMoosie?

I think we're mixing up aircraft....the P-61 was the Northrop Black Widow nightfighter, not the King Cobra, which was a Bell aircraft designated P-63. Our P-61 was recovered from Mt. Cyclops in New Guinea near Hollandia Field where it crashed on a (ahem) proficiency flight in January of 1945. The real story is somewhat different and racier (he says with a wink).

There are only three other P-61s known to exist....one at Wright-Patterson as a static display and one at the Smithsonian, also a static display. Neither aircraft is slated for return to flyable condition. There is one more in China that is a gate guardian to an aeronautical institute, but it is now in extemely poor condition and the Chinese government has resisted all effort to acquire the aircraft for restoration. It was seized by Communist forces right at the end of the war, along with two other planes which have long since been scrapped. MAAM's P-61 will be the most thoroughly restored plane of all....the two museum planes are not restored internally....and the only one still flyable.

MAAM is doing a ground-up retoration and we are trying to get as close to original as possible. Because the tooling is long gone, and the drawings are deliberately vague (for security purposes) we have to reverse engineer much of the airplane. But we do have most of the original equipment from the recovery, or have been able to scrounge replacements to original specs. We even have the original cannon, radar and cockpit fittings, even the original engines and props. The only change from wartime specs will be whatever modern navigation and communication equipment that will be required for flight-worthy status.

I heard about that legendary show at NWM with all the bombers in attendance. Had I been there, I wouold have thought I died and went to heaven. I have been in love with B-17s since I was small boy building plastic models. I still have three unassembled kits I intend to make a formation flight with, when I get the time to do a proper job an hang them in the proper space. And of course my all-time favorite movie is Twelve O'Clock High, which I first saw in the 1950's. A few years ago I even read the original novel by Sy Bartlett and Beirnie Lay.

I live about 40 miles from Reading so it's no problem for me to volunteer and still drive home at night. In other years I used to take off Friday afternoon so I could volunteer and be there to watch the fly-ins. This year I plan to spend a good portion of Saturday at the show. FiFi is scheduled to fly the demonstration show during the day, and with luck I can get within about 100 feet as they crank up those Wright R-3350s.

In 2008 I was working as a senior mechanical engineer for BE & K Engineers. But their major clients, DuPont and Sunoco both did major cutbacks so that by 2nd quarter of 2009, BE & K had let go about 70% of its workforce. Now I am working for a smaller consulting firm as an independent contractor, so I'd be interested in talking about what it would take to establish myself as a consulting firm with associates.

See ya on FB!

Hey pdef!

Sorry, you're right! I screwed the pooch regarding the mix-up with the Northrop P-61 Black Widow and the Bell P-63 King Cobra!!!! My bad! What was I thinking!!???? DUH!!!!

I've seen the one P-61 at the Air Force Museum in Dayton twice now, and yes it's so gutted it makes you want to cry.

So, where did MAAM find this particular Black Widow? And when are they planning on finishing the restoration and obtaining an Airworthiness Certificate for it?

Kewl that you're a plastic model builder from way back too! I've been building them since I was around 6 Y.O., but took a 25 year hiatus from building models right after high school because of US Army & subsequent Reserves service, college, marriage, house and then kids. I took it up again sparingly in 2000 during my divorce. My current wife doesn't mind me tinkering with plastic. I also belong to IMPS-USA since 2000.

For the NWM airshows, I always liked to be there on Arrival Day (Friday) as the crowds are very thin and it's possible to photograph the a/c without a sea of heads and bodies....+ the food vendors lower the prices too! hehehehe

I emailed you and signed it with my real name and email addie. You can find me on FB using it, not "CaptMoosie".

Cya later!

You may be interested in this:

http://www.guidelinepublications.co.uk/index.php?CATEGORY=2&SUB=1

3403 May 2012 Scale Aircraft Modelling

Forgot to mention...

Mid-Atlantic Air Museum has an excellent webite www.maam.org. You can see the lineup of aircraft and more for WW II Weekend, as well as detailed histories of the museum's aircraft. Many, many pictures of the P-61 recovery and restoration are available and now that the wings and tail booms are assembled, it looks more and more like a real airplane. Great links to other sites, too!