Round one...

[SmilinSam]

Thanks for the info, my interest is mainly in WW2 vintage aircraft. About the only jet I am up on is the Me262 last built in 1945. I take that back, someone down south built 6 I believe from the ground up in the last year or so. I never saw whether thay had got around to test flying them yet or not. Curious to see how they performed with the General Electric? engines they put on them. I have books on the new stuff, I suppose I should sit down and do some reading someday. Sam

[StinKy]

That B-52 is one impressive sight, even in this "new millenium"!! So many advances have been made in aircraft technology that those old girls are in a way reminicent of the Iowa class battleships in their twilight years---slightly dated but still packing one hell of a punch. The B2's flying out of Missouri absolutely amaze me. Those boys are the epitome of "reach out and touch someone"!! Directly from all of us to you osama bin lousy. Too bad the war dept. wont sell stickers to the general public which we could write some deragatory comment on and have it placed on the outside of a bomb! Figure 50 bucks a pop it'd help finance the operation. I'd buy one...... Dick

[Kent]

Dick, According to CNN the Navy is writing slogans like "This one's is for the World Trade Center" and "Remember the Pentagon?" on their bombs.... That brings up a funny story. I was an Active Duty training officer stationed at Hill AFB and my wife was a AF Reserve C-141 flight engineer based out of McGuire AFB during Desert Shield/Storm. (She has since gotten commissioned, too, and is a maintenance officer.) She, with an all-female flight crew, came to Hill and picked up a load of bombs from the bomb dump there for delivery to the Persian Gulf. I met the airplane, and was kidding them "equal opportunity war", "women's rights" and things like that... When they got the their desert destination and were offloading, they all posed for pictures with a pallet of bombs that they'd written "Bit@#es at War" on each bomb... She still gets a big kick out of that and teasing me about "baby-sitting during a war" while she went off to fight.... I have to tell her that she has the better temperment for it, at least once a month.... Kent

[Kent]

http://simpletractors.com/transfer/images/the_toss.jpg

[BradW]

Kent, Are the KC-135 Stratotanker crews anything like their civilian counterparts..? Do they wear turbans; speak no English; unable to give directions to Afghanistan..? http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/pictures/kc-135.jpg

[Kent]

Herb, I don't think so. In fact several of them are "good ole boys" in the Tennessee Air National Guard wearing Tennessee baseball hats... They're from the 934th Air Refueling Group, at Knoxville TN, where I was once a member while I finished up my bachelors, prior to reentry on active duty... They may be hard for some people to understand when they talk, though, and they may even ask people from the Northern cities to stop and talk slower so they can understand... ;)

[JimV]

Lock and load and let them have it.

[MPH]

They DID ask me to talk slower when I first started going there. I asked him what he meant by, "Check my tar." He replied, "Your right front tar looks a little soft, sir." Being from New Jersey I wasn't familiar with those kind of words. Here they say, "Check your own tire bud. And if you need air it'll cost ya a buck."

[MPH]

Dick, have you seen the 117 picture thats been floating around e-mail for a couple weeks??Got SOME writing on the bottom of the wings but I look at this site as kinda-----family---for the bar room lingo...MPH

[SmilinSam]

Do they still actually build the B-52? Still in use says alot for the airframe of a plane that was on the drawing board in the late 40's.

[Kent]

Sam, The newest ones we have are about 1962 models, I think... some may have been built until 1964. They're certainly older than the people flying 'em, and still mechanically holding up incredibly well for their age. For example, the wings on these flex (bend) 16.5 feet at the tips in flight, compared to sitting on the ground loaded with fuel and armament. The wings look downright "droopy" on the ground -- see below. (This one appears to be an alert bird, with the wings full of fuel.) Wiring is a problem, due to age, and body panels (skin) wrinkles over time due to the stress/flexing, but the airframe itself is holding up well. They have seen major modifications and upgrades over time, though some of the electronics systems are still behind what you can buy today.... [A href='http://www.cnet.navy.mil/naspcola/trawing6/vt86/b52.htm'][img src='http://members.tripod.com/Kimchiman/b52.jpg'][/a]

[SteveP]

This is round 2. Taking away their "Fun Money" was round 1. And that was a smart thing to do!!!!!!! Being retired from the Air Force only a couple of years, I wish I was back in the fray. Steve MSgt USAF (Ret)

[JordB110]

The only B-52's still in service are the last ones built, the "H" series. All others have been been cut up and scrapped or used for parts. The Gov't plans to use them until 2040 or so. Jordan

[StinKy]

Something to the effect "If you can read this your &$(#@)" Yup, I think thats the one, Marty.

[MPH]

Yea, finaly figured out how to drop pics off my e-mail amd the site to the desk top so I can print.em MPH