B-52 part #2

[MOD]

This topic carries on from the earlier B-52 thread which was becoming a bit slow to download, at least on my medieval Broadband connection. Botophuket also playing silly beggars again - like hiding the uploads!!!

I found a few more B-52s and since we now have a SAC/B-52 expert here perhaps he can tell me some more about these captures from the 'Hall and Fairford from the 80s/90s, apart that is one from last year's Friday arrivals at RIAT.

Firstly XM606 is so right when he says that the SIOPs camo looked great. What a pity that the whole MilAv world went low-vis grey.

This is a hot and heavy BUFF leaving Fairford after a TDY in the 90s.


I think this was a takeoff from the Marston Meysey end


A SIOPs camo BUFF leaving after a TDY in the 80s. ( I have the rest of these slides somewhere)


My favourite shot of a BUFF landing, at Fairford.


This was Fairford RIAT 2009. The mighty BUFF arrives on the Friday.


A bit of fun. XM606 might know what this was all about. Brings a whole new meaning to Wing Walking


On some of my earlier landing shots you can see the (as far as I know) unique feature of the B-52s 'bicycle' undercart. It gave this huge jet tremendous manoeuvrability on the ground, as it was fully steerable, but it was also enormously useful when landing in a crosswind.

One of the earlier pics also shows a B-52 taking off from Mildenhall, for its display, in a very nose down attitude. This apparently did give some pilots some concern, and I believe a few accidents. When lightly loaded the a/c can be over throttled on takeoff and there is so much lift coming from the enormous tail planes that the tail rises and often causes the a/c to adopt a nose down attitude. If the pilot then gives it even more power thinking that they are heading nose down for the ground the situation gets worse as the tail lifts even further.

Caveat: All my notes from the 80s and 90s have gone AWOL so take ALL the above comments with a pinch of salt ie don't quote me without checking first...

I still can't get over that 15 ship MITO video from XM606.

[Lucas1860]

I just love the Buffs.

[Jigsaw]

More superbness Ian.
I have seen the "wing walking" one before and quite recently but buggered if I can remember where or what ffs

[XM606]

I'm a little skeptical on the date of the first photo being in the 80s and this is why....

The aircraft is undoubtably an H model B-52, judging by the tail gun (or lack there of) and the engines. Concentrating on the tail you will notice two things, first and foremost the tail gun has been removed, this did not happen until shortly after the first Gulf War. Up until 1992, B-52 crews were made up of six guys: Pilot, Co-Pilot, Electronic Warfare Officer, Navigator, Radar Navigator, and Gunner. In the early 90s following the first Gulf War they removed the Gunners from the crew and the guns from the tail of the B-52. Second, the tail is marked LA which means the aircraft belongs to the 2nd Bomb Wing of Barksdale AFB, Louisana (The modern day HQ of the 8th Air Force.) Being that the 2nd Bomb Wing Operated G model B-52s up until '93-'94, and being that the aircraft is an H model judging by the shape of the fuselage around wear the tail gun sat and the engines, this photo couldn't have been taken before '93-'94.

The second, third, and fourth photos are G Models. The fifth and sixth photos are H Models. My guess on the last photo would be a squadron photo. My dad has one like that I believe.

About that MITO video. So between 1957-1991, Strategic Air Command kept a portion of its bomber force on alert at all times. Usually this portion was 1/3 of the bomber force, but in times of political crisis it could be rapidly increased. Every SAC Bomb Wing contributed to the alert force, and when the 'horn' went off, SAC crews would scramble for their aircraft and await the "Go Code." With the end of the Cold War, President Bush officially stood down the Alert Force in the summer of 1991. They occasionally do these exercises now to prepare crews to stand alert if a crisis ever arose that called for it.

To see an Alert Response in the 1980s watch this video and fast forward to 7:00....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9ANW7ZCZU

To give you some perspective, my father would pull Alert one week a month when his crew would rotate onto Alert Duty. For that week he lived in what was called the "Alert Facility" which was on the flight line next to several armed and fueled bomber and their tankers. During that time he could travel to the shops on base and theatre and visit us at "Visitation Facility" but he could not go home. About once a week they would have a practice Alert Response, sometime more then one, but the thing about Alert Response was you never knew if it was the real thing or not. When the Klaxon, or the "Horn" as they called it went off. The base had one mission, and that was to get those bombers airborne. This effected us civilians as well. Traffic on and off the base would be stopped and the base would go into lock down during an Alert Response, this was a security measure. All traffic on the base roads would pull to the side to ensure the Alert Crews could make a speedy drive to the Alert Pad no matter where they were on base. If a member of the Alert Force did not have a ride, like he accidently got left behind by his crew, he had permission to commandeer any civilan car inorder to respond. My father never had to do that but he knows one or two guys that had to commandeer cars at the base movie theatre to respond once. All in all it was an interesting thing to see as a kid, and even though I was young and didn't trully understand what my father was doing, I knew he must be doing something important judging by the activity.

[Xplumberlives]

Thanks XM, we love this sort of insight!

[Jigsaw]

Agree totally with XPL. This is great.

[MOD]

I'm a little skeptical on the date of the first photo being in the 80s and this is why....

I did warn you about my memory. Thanks for the info though XM.


Ian

[XM606]

I'm a little skeptical on the date of the first photo being in the 80s and this is why....

I did warn you about my memory. Thanks for the info though XM.


Ian

Nah its cool bud, I was just trying to help. Besides I'm horrible when it comes to identifying markings on RAF aircraft, which is why I am here. Its all about learning.