Sunday, August 13, 2017

What An Awesome Photo

B-52 with lightning backdrop.
Hard to believe a plane first deployed before I was born is still in active service.  If you have never seen one take off, you have missed a lot.  That used to be the only good part of driving to visit relatives in Sacramento.

3 comments:

  1. The Strategic Air Command used to fly airborne alerts, ala Dr. Strangelove. We had bombers airborne twenty-four/seven Then we dropped a nuke in the Mediterranean Sea. After some effort, on the part of the Navy, we recovered our bomb. We SAC switch from airborne alerts to ground alters. The BUFF's(B-52's) sat alerts, armed, fueled, at the ends of the runways ready to be airborne within fifteen minute. The BUFF's were downloaded prior to any training activity, about once a quarter.

    So one reason the BUFF's are still flying is for the bulk of their careers they did not fly much. Flight time is what brings structure fatigue. Still the last BUFF was built in 1962 and long past time for the bird to retire.

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  2. Palomeros: Only one in the water. Three on land.

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  3. The Air Force has lost a bunch of nukes. A few of them have never been found. They are generally not fully assembled when in the air, and some were not even being transported with the core in attendance when lost. So, generally not considered a ticking bomb situation. The Palomeres bombs were completely assembled, IIRC. A couple others were, also.

    Wonder how many the Soviets/Russians have lost?

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