B52s

[Battis]

I'm not on Facebook but this article is pretty good. My son just got back after an 8 month deployment (he's in a few of these photos).
It's amazing that people have no idea what we're doing in the fight against Isis.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/379th-air-expeditionary-wing/the-buff-passes-bomber-torch-after-two-years-pummeling-isis-taliban-targets/10155261765990880/

[osteodoc08]

Good article. I doubt any of the new air frames will have the longevity and well deserved reputation of some of our finest including the B-52 and A-10. So many new airframes have had incredible teething problems. Hope the Bone can compete and outcless the B-52 for our warriors’ sake.

[Texas by God]

I used to stop what I was doing to watch those beautiful monsters fly around Fort Worth, Texas.
Last year I saw one near San Diego, California- they don't come around Carswell anymore.

[historicfirearms]

The B52 had it's share of teething problems. Structural problems caused a few deadly crashes. Just this morning I looked at the memorial for the lads that died in one crashed into Little traverse bay in lake Michigan. http://articles.petoskeynews.com/2009-10-05/lake-michigan_24016911

[Loudenboomer]

I was in the back seat of an F4 Phantom one time and met a BUFF (B52) head on at about 1400 MPH closing speed. You wouldn't believe how fast that BUFF went from a speck on the horizon to Huge then Gone! :)

[TXGunNut]

Pretty cool. My shooting buddy flew B52's a few lifetimes ago. One he flew is visible from I25 at the Air Force Academy. He pointed it out to me last summer on the way through.

[Battis]

He told me that when they dropped everything they had on a mission, and came back empty, it was called "going Winchester."
Within a week or so after returning, he and his crew members were skiing in Montana. They were pretty sick of the sand.

[Echo]

And remember - those H-model Buff's went into production in 1962, making them older than some of the crew's Dad's!

[OeldeWolf]

My father was stationed on the Naval Comm station on Guam, during Nam. We watched the B52's circle the island to be fueled. I also got to see a fully loaded one take off. The runway ended at a cliff that dropped straight to the ocean. It was amazing to see what it took to get those bombers off the ground.

[OTShooter]

The BUFF is an awesome machine. The most amazing thing to see is when a B-52 lands in a cross wind. The dual, centerline landing gear system allows the wheel systems to turn quite a lot. It’s like watching the plane flying at an angle to the runway, but the wheels sticking to the pavement and going straight. Amazing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tyc9Imjaqs

[woodbutcher]

:grin: God bless the BUFFs and their crews.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Lloyd Smale]

I miss them. Grew up in a town 5 miles from a SAC base. Used to see them every day flying over at about twice tree top height. Ill never forget when we first moved there. dad had a civil service job on the base. they main gate road into the base went right across the path of them taking off. They were so big and close you could see heat waves out around your car. It about would make the hair on your head stand up with that big bugger with its wide open motors flying 50 feet about you. Even more impressive is when the fully loaded tankers took off. That actually shook the ground. When I got out of the service I went back there and lived about 3 miles from the base. When those tankers flew over low theyd shake things off the shelf in my house! Sad day when they closed that base. It used to look like a manicured golf course out there. today its a run down low income meth making slum.

[Rick Hodges]

I miss them. Grew up in a town 5 miles from a SAC base. Used to see them every day flying over at about twice tree top height. Ill never forget when we first moved there. dad had a civil service job on the base. they main gate road into the base went right across the path of them taking off. They were so big and close you could see heat waves out around your car. It about would make the hair on your head stand up with that big bugger with its wide open motors flying 50 feet about you. Even more impressive is when the fully loaded tankers took off. That actually shook the ground. When I got out of the service I went back there and lived about 3 miles from the base. When those tankers flew over low theyd shake things off the shelf in my house! Sad day when they closed that base. It used to look like a manicured golf course out there. today its a run down low income meth making slum.

Beautiful birds.....a few years ago deer hunting, two of those birds flew by at treetop level....they still run training missions across the UP.....The guy at the side window behind the cockpit waved.

I waved back, one awe struck peon standing on a fire break trail wearing a blaze orange vest. Not the shiny polished aluminum birds I remembered from my youth, but a dark dull blue/gray with all sorts of bulges and fairings along the fuselage. It just looked lethal.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Im a dyed in the wool plane-nut, have been from birth and my favorite plane of them all is the Mighty Buff! A small diecast D-model sits on my desk, a D-model silhouette hangs above it and the back of my toolbox has a large decal of an H-model. I can't get enough of the Buff! Ive had the pleasure of working with a number of 52 crew dogs and others that are good friends of mine. Most worked on the Buff fleet in Southeast Asia at places like U-Tapao and Anderson. They loved the machine as much as any, its an incredible plane!

[Loudenboomer]

B52 = BUFF = Big Ugly Fat Fellow. Every one I knew had a more colorful word for fellow! :)


B1B = Flame throwing ground shaking contraption. On take off too! :)

[Mytmousemalibu]

The B1B used to be stationed here at McConnell AFB years ago. I miss the Bone making the ground quake and flying overhead with 40' of blue candles x4 lighting up the night behind them! Twice in my life I was boomed by the Bone! Both times at McConnell's open house airshow, the B1B came by to make a high speed pass, burners lit, wings swept, and no more than 200ft AGL, on the deck!
As the Bone approached show left at high speed, whisps of a sonic shock cone began to appear and closer in yet a full shock cone envelop the empennage, and the Bone streaking to show center in dead silence! Being that close to the bomber, as it passed right even, a terrific, thunderous clap of sound broke over the area followed by the thunder of 4 GE F-101's doing their job! I swear you could feel the air compression and an invisible wake slap you from head to toe! It certainly could be nothing other than a supersonic boom. Being in transonic flight won't produce a boom. Lots of variables in the atmospheric conditions affect the speed of sound and that day the stars aligned and the Bone delivered!

[472x1B/A]

Wow! Just had a flash back. It's April 29th, 1973, left Travis AFB at about 6:30 pm. Arrived at U-Tapao RTNAF ( Royal Thai Navel Air Field ) at 5:45 am. the same day. Stepped off the stairs of that stretch DC-8, and that burnt JP-4 smell was THERE. 8 hours later was at work, after all in processing was finished, for my 14 months PCS. Every morning starting at 6 am sharp 3 Buffs / 2 KC-135s ; 3 Buffs / 2 KC-135s on & on & on, till the smoke was so heavy the pilots couldn't see the strip. There would be Buffs and KCs lined up for a mile to take off, everyday. This would o on till about 11:00am. Then around 4:00 - 4:30 pm. we would start receiving the rotation flights. This would take till about 10:00 or 11:00pm. Second and third shifts would fuel, load more bombs, and do maintenance, repack drag chutes, then it would start all over the next day. Well over 1,000,000 gallons of JP-4 each 24 hours! If I remember correctly it dropped to around 950,000 a day by June of 1974.
I worked in the refueling shop 10 hrs. a day Mon.-Sat. and for 5 hrs. on Sun.. Every other month we would switch from morning to afternoon. We did 2 fuel filter changes a day plus the rest of the work on the trucks. There was 27 R-5s, 4 R-4s, 2 R-2s, 37 hose carts and 6 pan-to-graphs to pump fuel. And I would do it all over again in a heart beat. Thank you all for my flash back.

[Lloyd Smale]

ya I still see them occasionaly doing bomb practice runs over the lake but its once a year or so now not every 3 hours.
Beautiful birds.....a few years ago deer hunting, two of those birds flew by at treetop level....they still run training missions across the UP.....The guy at the side window behind the cockpit waved.

I waved back, one awe struck peon standing on a fire break trail wearing a blaze orange vest. Not the shiny polished aluminum birds I remembered from my youth, but a dark dull blue/gray with all sorts of bulges and fairings along the fuselage. It just looked lethal.

[Lloyd Smale]

the air shows are something I really miss. I remember one day back in high school days my buddys and I were in my impala convertible coming back from swimming and a blackbird flew over us. We had never even heard of it at the time and it scared the snot out of us (fact wed gone though a couple boxes of beer that afternoon didn't help) . We didn't know if it was some foreign plain attacking the base or a UFO. It was flying real low and it made sounds unlike any other jet wed ever heard and you could see heat waves coming off it. Now that was the coolest jet ever made by any country! the air show was the following weekend it it was coming to the base to let the public see it. My old man worked at the boiler plant on base and we used to take lawn chairs up on the roof and watch the show from there. Best seats on the base.
The B1B used to be stationed here at McDonnell AFB years ago. I miss the Bone making the ground quake and flying overhead with 40' of blue candles x4 lighting up the night behind them! Twice in my life I was boomed by the Bone! Both times at McConnell's open house airshow, the B1B came by to make a high speed pass, burners lit, wings swept, and no more than 200ft AGL, on the deck!
As the Bone approached show left at high speed, whisps of a sonic shock cone began to appear and closer in yet a full shock cone envelop the empennage, and the Bone streaking to show center in dead silence! Being that close to the bomber, as it passed right even, a terrific, thunderous clap of sound broke over the area followed by the thunder of 4 GE F-101's doing their job! I swear you could feel the air compression and an invisible wake slap you from head to toe! It certainly could be nothing other than a supersonic boom. Being in transonic flight won't produce a boom. Lots of variables in the atmospheric conditions affect the speed of sound and that day the stars aligned and the Bone delivered!

[Mytmousemalibu]

We are finally set to return to an open house airshow this year at McConnell, 2018 after a 6yr hiatus. Our base had been doin upgrades to receive the new tanker and we haven't had a show in a long time! You can bet I'll be there!

[10-x]

One thing one will never forget is being about 2 miles from an ARC light strike, mine was mid 1972 out of Long Binh and An Loc.