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Joined: Jun 2001
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jun 2001
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Wouldn't know a B-52 if I saw it at that kind of altitude. Saw a lot of them at about 300 feet (or less) to a couple thousand feet altitude growing up as a boy in Stanton, ND (on the big bend in the Missouri River, if you want to look it up on a map). Fuggers would raid Pierre or Omaha or Wichita Falls or someplace south of us, out of Minot, 100 miles north of me. Flying "Nap"... I think this was before the robotics- those boys were white-knuckling it! Early 60's, anyway. Yeah, I know it was against the rules. Some one should have told those jet-jockeys..... I always figured the Russians were in deep doo-doo if they started anything... Just north of town was a classmate's ranch/farm, which occupied a big bend in the Missouri River, maybe 1,000 or so feet (maybe noteve that much) above mean high river tide... (Part of the Missouri River Escarpment) The Buffers would have to gain altitude to clear the bluff... then they'd drop back down into the river valley. for them, it was aquickup and down motion. One November, a couple buddies and I went to the Krieger place to ask permission to deer hunt. Forrest (my classmate Pam's dad), granted permission with, "Hold on a minute, boys - I'll go with you". (We killed two bucks, too - farmers have a pretty good idea of who is living where on their land.....) Forrest went out to the nearest haystack for his .30-06. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the report that one of Minot's B-52's had turned up with a bullet hole in it a week or so before.... (It took us a couple days to make the connection....) but then, those NoDak farmers are a funny lot anyway- no accounting for their idiosycroncies (sp?) concerning gun storage and the like....  Those BUFs did tend to spook the Krieger cows, tho, when passing 100 feet overhead, appearing suddenly- almost magically, over the bluff's edge.... I was there once myself when one did. It left a lasting impression, not least of all on my underwear.... You don't hear the BUFs coming.... but that may have been Pam's fault.... I have to admit - I momentarily mistook that B-52 for Forrest. Thank God it was only a nuke-carrying end-of-the-world Air Force training mission! There's a bit of back-wash off those things... I'd pretty much forgotten that incident until this thread. Thank you! Forrest may have missed a marketing opportunity there.....tho I don't know how much market there would have been for " Organic B-52 Curdled Cow's Milk" We were all pretty sure some of them, at least, (the planes) were carrying nukes at the time... the cows mostly weren't carrying anything extra after one of those incidents....
Last edited by las; 08/12/10.
The only true cost of having a dog is its death.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Apr 2004
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yeah seeing those B52s flying at Tree Top level at a high rate of speed was a site to behold.. sure made a lot of people soil their underwear...
I know they caused my bladder to leak a time or two...
and as you said, you never hear them until they are right on top of you...
and at a 100 feet above your head, that is a BIG aircraft...
Loved those big things.. tears me up to see all the ones destroyed for the Russian Satellites to see after they signed those SALT agreements in the 80s...
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Call Lee 24 - he'll know . I heard he was flying one of them. You're half right. He was flying both of them...one with a remote control that he invented. And a third covered with an invisible stealth paint he designed?
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain--that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist." --Lysander Spooner, 1867
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Joined: Oct 2006
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2006
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yeah seeing those B52s flying at Tree Top level at a high rate of speed was a site to behold.. sure made a lot of people soil their underwear...
I know they caused my bladder to leak a time or two...
and as you said, you never hear them until they are right on top of you...
and at a 100 feet above your head, that is a BIG aircraft...
Loved those big things.. tears me up to see all the ones destroyed for the Russian Satellites to see after they signed those SALT agreements in the 80s... Back in the early 80's my dad and I would travel to the Green River Wyoming area-we would see B52s at low level almost every trip out there. The best one I can remember was when we were fishing Flaming Gorge resevoir and a BUFF thundered right over us. Simply amazing!
"For joy of knowing what may not be known we take the golden road to Samarkand."
James Elroy Flecker
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Joined: Oct 2004
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2004
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Call Lee 24 - he'll know . I heard he was flying one of them. You're half right. He was flying both of them...one with a remote control that he invented. And a third covered with an invisible stealth paint he designed? Shhhh! That one is top secret. Now he'll have to kill you.
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
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Posts: 2,154
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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When I have time, I like to stop close to the runway in Bossier City, LA to watch the Big Boys come in. They are a majestic plane.
My biggest fear is when I die my wife will sell my guns for what I told her they cost....
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Joined: May 2003
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 31,316 Likes: 21 |
Whatever they were, they were below 50,000. Above that altitude, you have to wear a pressure suit (think space suit).
The Buff was and is an amazing plane, but the newest one still flying is older than anybody on the crew aboard it. No matter how well built, you just can't maintain an aircraft well enough to withstand the rigors of flight that long. Despite claims that they'll still be flying 50 years from now, I seriously doubt it. Like the SR-71, they'll simply get too expensive to maintain - if they aren't already.
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
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Campfire Tracker
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I see and hear B-52s almost every single day. I am about 60 miles from Barksdale and lots of times their glide paths go right over my house or they will be gaining altitude going over on the way out. They are usually at fairly low altitude.
The thing about a B-52 is that they don't sound like any other aircraft that you commonly hear. The engines make a deeper rumbling roar than your standard jetliner. I'm not sure if it is the engines themselves or just the fact that there are eight of them instead or two to four. But, anyway all I have to do now is hear one and I know what it is. Sometimes I don't see them, but if I hear them, even when they are at high altitude, I know it is a B-52.
Last edited by Cossatotjoe; 08/12/10.
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... Like the SR-71, they'll simply get too expensive to maintain - if they aren't already.
Dad did time in B-58's. They figured out awfully quickly that those were too expensive to maintain. Really cool, but expensive. FC
"Every day is a holiday, and every meal is a banquet."
- Mrs. FC
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Joined: Oct 2003
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No matter how well built, you just can't maintain an aircraft well enough to withstand the rigors of flight that long. The designers of the DC-3 would like a word with you. Well, they would if any of them were still alive.
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Campfire Tracker
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Grew up in Grand Forks. Remember as a kid the rows and rows of 52's at the base along the highway.
Big impressive birds.
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Joined: Dec 2002
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2002
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Spend a winter sweeping the snow off and de-icing one. It will cure your love affair with the big POS... 
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Wouldn't know a B-52 if I saw it at that kind of altitude. Saw a lot of them at about 300 feet (or less) to a couple thousand feet altitude growing up as a boy in Stanton, ND (on the big bend in the Missouri River, if you want to look it up on a map). Fuggers would raid Pierre or Omaha or Wichita Falls or someplace south of us, out of Minot, 100 miles north of me. Flying "Nap"... I think this was before the robotics- those boys were white-knuckling it! Early 60's, anyway. Yeah, I know it was against the rules. Some one should have told those jet-jockeys..... I always figured the Russians were in deep doo-doo if they started anything... Just north of town was a classmate's ranch/farm, which occupied a big bend in the Missouri River, maybe 1,000 or so feet (maybe noteve that much) above mean high river tide... (Part of the Missouri River Escarpment) The Buffers would have to gain altitude to clear the bluff... then they'd drop back down into the river valley. for them, it was aquickup and down motion. One November, a couple buddies and I went to the Krieger place to ask permission to deer hunt. Forrest (my classmate Pam's dad), granted permission with, "Hold on a minute, boys - I'll go with you". (We killed two bucks, too - farmers have a pretty good idea of who is living where on their land.....) Forrest went out to the nearest haystack for his .30-06. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the report that one of Minot's B-52's had turned up with a bullet hole in it a week or so before.... (It took us a couple days to make the connection....) but then, those NoDak farmers are a funny lot anyway- no accounting for their idiosycroncies (sp?) concerning gun storage and the like.... Those BUFs did tend to spook the Krieger cows, tho, when passing 100 feet overhead, appearing suddenly- almost magically, over the bluff's edge.... I was there once myself when one did. It left a lasting impression, not least of all on my underwear.... You don't hear the BUFs coming.... but that may have been Pam's fault.... I have to admit - I momentarily mistook that B-52 for Forrest. Thank God it was only a nuke-carrying end-of-the-world Air Force training mission! There's a bit of back-wash off those things... I'd pretty much forgotten that incident until this thread. Thank you! Forrest may have missed a marketing opportunity there.....tho I don't know how much market there would have been for " Organic B-52 Curdled Cow's Milk" We were all pretty sure some of them, at least, (the planes) were carrying nukes at the time... the cows mostly weren't carrying anything extra after one of those incidents.... There used to be a Radar Bomb Scoring Site just North of the city of Bismarck. It was mostly used to score bomb hits of Nuclear Weapons but was used a lot for low level runs with Conventional weapons, Iron Bombs during the Vietnam Conflict. We got caught with our pants down in Vietnam and had to convert the Buff to carry conventional weapons. And boy could it carry a bunch of bombs. At this time we were dancing with the Russians and almost all our missions were thinking totally Nuclear. Every SAC, Strategic Air Command base had a B-52 in the air 24/7 as a stand against the Russians. It was called Operation Chrome Dome. I have to agree with Barry Goldwaters analogy of the Vietnam War, "Nuke it and turn it into a Glass Parking Lot". That place was not worth 58 thousand plus American lives. So far we have lost less troops in the Afghan/Iraqi wars than we lost at Pearl Harbor. I agree with Mr. Goldwater; when you fight an enemy, bomb the hell out of them and when all the enemy are standing on the ground waving a White Flag. send in the ground troops for "mop up operations" help the survivors set up a government and get the hell out". Oh, by the way, one of the F-106's from the Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot took a plunge into Lake Sakakawea during an In-flight Emergency. The only crash the base ever experienced. I was stationed in Minot off and on since 1960. If not the best, one of the best bases in the Air Force. Sorry we can't offer White Sandy beaches and lovely year around temperatures, but we have great people and great hunting and fishing. AND the State has an 800 million dollar surplus. Stick that in your nose. Best wishes, Bill Vietnam Veteran Life Member NRA Life Member JFPO DAV USAF 1958-1985
PLEASE EXCUSE CAPS. I AM HANDICAPPED AND ONLY HAVE ONE USABLE HAND FOR TYPING, THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
"THE" THREAD KILLER #3
It's ok....I've started up my meds again........They'll take effect in about a week. ( In honor of Staci M. 2006)
NRA LIFE MEMBER - 1965
JPFO- LIFE MEMBER
HANDLOADS ARE LIKE UNDERWEAR.....BE CAREFUL WHO YOU SWAP WITH.
HAPPY TRAILS, BILL
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Joined: Jun 2005
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Campfire Outfitter
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"AND the State has an 800 million dollar surplus. Stick that in your nose."
Don't let Obama find out. he'll find a way to take it from you.
Speaking of the B-58, We had one declare a Broken Arrow while I was stationed at Nellis AFB. I saw the plane land and they hustled (no pun intended) it to the most remote part of the field and immdeiately cover it with a huge tarp. I was working graveyard shift about a week later when it took off right at dawn. What a sight that was, four engine on full afterburners and damn near a vertical climeb to get out of sight fast I imagine.
There's a bunch of them stored at the airlpne graveyard here in Tucson. you used to be able to see them when you drove past on one road but now they have a big opaque fence so that thrill is gone. You just cannot imagine the billions of dollars sitting out there rotting in the desert sun.
We do have the Pima Air Museum though and I think they just might have a B-58 on dispaly now. At least they show one when they do one of their rare ads on TV. I'm gonna run out and see for myself once it cools down. The Pima Air Museum is one of the top ten aircraft museums in the U.S., in sixth place as I recall. You like BUFF's, we got about 6 of them. Maybe more. It's been a couple of years sice I went there. You can see them as you drive down the road. It's a cool museum if you like airplanes but take my word on this, go in the late fall, winter or early spring or you'll fry. Open tarmac ain't no fun when it 110 in the shade and there ain't no shade.
Paul B.
Our forefathers did not politely protest the British.They did not vote them out of office, nor did they impeach the king,march on the capitol or ask permission for their rights. ----------------They just shot them.
MOLON LABE
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They have a B-58 at the Texas Air Museum in Galveston. It really isn't on display as that Hurricane Ike flooded the museum and they haven't got lots of their stuff back in top notch condition yet. But, it is back there and you can still see it pretty well, you just can't get it that close.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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In the early 90's I was driving past the air base near Abilene, Tx, on my way to my deer lease, when a pair of B1's were doing touch and go's during the middle of the day. It was a beautiful sight, and I started to stop at the end of the runway to take pictures. I considered that there were probably nukes on the base, and I had two rifles in the truck. Reluctantly, I decided it would have been unwise to stop there, even if it was a public highway. Doubtless I woulda had a minute before some very humorless types would have arrived. Not stopping was probably a real good decision...
"...the designer of the .270 Ingwe cartridge!..."
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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We used to have a few B1's stationed at Mountain Home, Idaho(just down I84 from me) and they used to do touch and go's right over my business.
Pretty cool stuff-I happen to think the B1 is one of the best looking aircraft ever built.
"For joy of knowing what may not be known we take the golden road to Samarkand."
James Elroy Flecker
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,192
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Posts: 12,192 |
My cousins husband was involved in testing the B-58. He taked of some high speed, low level runs.
When I was a kid I used to see the B-36s setting up to land at Carswell. Was interesting to hear those six prop engines going in and out of sync.
Strange sound.
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Campfire Tracker
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Folically_Challenged I thought the B-58 Hustler was a neat
looking a/c. What was so bad about it. Speaking of B-52's
I did quite a few interceptor runs against them while LeMay
was the Big Gun at SAC. When Commanders change they wouldn' let us go against them. RCAF in northern Canada. Cheers NC
don't judge until you have walked a mile in other persons' moccasins'
SUM QUOD SUM........HOMINEM TE ESSE MEMENTO
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Folically_Challenged I thought the B-58 Hustler was a neat
looking a/c. What was so bad about it. ...
Here's a quick ditty from Wikipedia: It had a much smaller weapons load and more limited range than the B-52 Stratofortress. The B-58 had been extremely expensive to acquire (in 1959 it was reported that each B-58A cost more than its weight in gold). Through FY 1961, the total cost of the B-58 program was $3 billion.[19] It was a complex aircraft that required considerable maintenance, much of which required specialized equipment and ground personnel. The B-58 cost three times as much to operate as the B-52.[20] This included special maintenance issues with the nose landing gear that retracted in a complicated fashion to avoid the center payload. It had an unfavorably high accident rate: 26 B-58 aircraft were lost in accidents, 22.4% of total production. It was very difficult to safely recover from the loss of an engine at supersonic cruise due to differential thrust. SAC had been dubious about the type from the beginning, although its crews eventually became enthusiastic about the aircraft; its performance and design were appreciated, although it was never easy to fly.Here's a good starting point for info: Lt. Col. (Ret.) BJ Brown's B-58 Page FC
"Every day is a holiday, and every meal is a banquet."
- Mrs. FC
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