Jump to content

ARC Light B-52D Diorama


Recommended Posts

I'm on the east side.

I remember watching those things go out all day and all night. Except for Christmas and Bob Hope.

scan0272.jpg

scan0260.jpg

scan0249.jpg

scan0246.jpg

scan0220.jpg

A busy time to be sure.

One of the most impressive things I saw was while waiting for a ride after leaving the armory, a flight of three "D" models came in very low level. One leading and one trailing each wing tip. There were a lot of flights doing that as they were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Air Force. At least I thik that was the reason. They never did it again.

Link to post
Share on other sites

WHen those things came out of the reventment area the first would line up on the E.O.R. and go when he was ready. The second one would line up and after a couple seconds start his roll. he third would not even wait until he was completely lined up before he ran his engines up to full and started his takeoff roll. By that time about the only thing you could see was the top of his black tail just above the smoke.

When it cleared enough, the tankers, coming from the other side of the flight line would start their runs.

scan0070.jpg

scan0069.jpg

Notice the aircraft in photo 3&4?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi, All,

 

I finally got around to updating my bomb truck trailer. The first one was just too short to carry a full load of 750lb bombs to the aircraft. The tractor is from the first bomb truck.

 

Below is a picture of the real bomb truck with the long trailer. It has a load of twenty-four 500lb bombs for the pylons, instead of the usual 750lb bombs.

K68KH3.jpg

 

I used the rear wheel assembly from an Academy M35 2.5 ton cargo truck. The rest of the trailer is scratch built.

MUeW6y.jpg

 

Below is a comparison of the length of my original bomb truck trailer and the new, longer version.

HUPAKP.jpg

 

And here is the finished trailer. The tractor is from the first bomb truck.

utKaeO.jpg

 

fMwzL6.jpg

 

Cheers, and thanks for looking!

Russ

Edited by striker8241
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...

 Nice diorama & love the vehicles, stands etc.  The B-52 always seems to have creases down the side.  This is the Duxford one - it landed shortest strip recorded for a B-52 which didn’t help with the condition of its side panels

 

gN3qp3j.jpg

 

And we had a nice bit of coverage of a B-52 at Mildenhall last year when one heading back had a double engine fire and made an emergency landing - as someone said at the time the dreaded 6 engine approach.  So shots of the engine panels open shortly a after landing

 

image.jpg
 

keep up the good work

Link to post
Share on other sites
17 hours ago, Bar Side said:

 Nice diorama & love the vehicles, stands etc.  The B-52 always seems to have creases down the side.  This is the Duxford one - it landed shortest strip recorded for a B-52 which didn’t help with the condition of its side panels

 

And we had a nice bit of coverage of a B-52 at Mildenhall last year when one heading back had a double engine fire and made an emergency landing - as someone said at the time the dreaded 6 engine approach.  So shots of the engine panels open shortly a after landing

 

keep up the good work

 

Thanks, Bar Side!  Yes, those creases are what we call wrinkles (like in my face 😀) and they are common on all B-52s because of the tendency of the tail to waggle a bit. Reinforcement strips were added down both sides of the fuselage and that helped. The creases in the later models are not as deep because they don't have that tall vertical stabilizer and heavy gun turret any more.

 

That landing at Mildenhall must have been white knuckles all the way in with two engines out on the same side 😯.

 

Cheers, and thanks for the info and the compliments!

 

Russ

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

If you want a smile Russ this is the link to the clip of the B-52 arriving at Duxford.  Allegedly the shortest runway a B-52 ever landed on.  It was never going to fly out anyway, and I hear that the impact of the landing added somewhat to the body side creases!

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Very cool, Bar Side! Thank you! 

 

Pretty good for a plane that big and that old... and that ugly lol... and without thrust reversers yet 😀. BTW, I'm very beholding to that pilot, and to Duxford for preserving that bird. I gained a lot of information and measurements from their photos that I used in building my model.

 

Cheers and thanks again, Bar Side!

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Finally getting back to you.  I live just east of the Orlando city limits.

My first working day at U-Tapao we almost had a major accident happen in the bomb dump.  One of our Duce1/2 patrols had been delivering food to the towers there and made the mistake of trying to take a short cut across the grass.  Not a thing to do during monsoon season.  He sank it up to the frame.  I was acting as assistant in a M-706 with a 13 man reaction team when the driver, the real commander received a call and we diverted to the K-9 kennels and transferred into a M-113 that had been parked there in case it might be needed. I ended in the turret with the M-60 because sitting on top was not recommended, especially for a newbie.  We wound up at one of the bunkers controlling an entrance and found no guard present.  I was told to charge the weapon and make sure the rest of the team knew about this as we slowly went through the berms.  Finally we found a guard but he had no idea if anything was wrong.  About that time I saw a couple vehicles approaching behind up.  There was a payloader and a crane who motioned us to follow them.  We ended up at the site where the duce sank and now it had company, a wrecker was also heavily stuck.  While we stood by they sent the crane home and tried to pull the first wrecker out with the second one and only managed in lifting the front of the second wrecker off the ground a couple times and eventually pulled the front bumper off. Next they tried hooking our towing point to the wrecker to see if our 14 1/2 tons could do the job.  I had to lay down on the opened main hatch and keep an eye on the chain in case it showed signs it might snap.  Failing that they had the payloader load up with gravel and run a chain to the wrecker while we moved out of the way.  The payloader was up on the paved road and as he put strain on the chain and was burning rubber the chain broke and sent hm straight toward a flat bed loaded with fused bombs.  We watched as they tried again with the same results and then the commander got out of the area as fast as possible.   

The next day the armored car got stuck in the mud after using its cable to pull one of our jeeps loose.  The motor pool refused to help citing that the only wrecker they had capable of the job would be in the shop waiting for its new bumper, which it lost the precious day because of some stupid cop who got his truck stuck.  They never liked us anyway.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
On 10/6/2015 at 11:52 PM, ikar said:

I'm on the east side.

I remember watching those things go out all day and all night. Except for Christmas and Bob Hope.

scan0272.jpg

scan0260.jpg

scan0249.jpg

scan0246.jpg

scan0220.jpg

A busy time to be sure.

One of the most impressive things I saw was while waiting for a ride after leaving the armory, a flight of three "D" models came in very low level. One leading and one trailing each wing tip. There were a lot of flights doing that as they were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Air Force. At least I thik that was the reason. They never did it again.

I passed thru Guam on the way to Cam Rhon Bay. Must have been forty to fifty B52's, and signs everywhere forbidding cameras. They were all a grey color then. Tobe exact, everything seemed to be grey or O.D. except for the PX. We did get to watch three take off. Used all the runway, and literally drop off the end of the runway and almost hitting the ocean. The photos look like Thailand. They had B52's there for a short while. 

      I'm an I-Corp Rat; class of 68. We had Buffs overhead daily. Out on the border we sometimes had them three or four times a day. Can't remember if that was Rolling Thunder, Arc Light. Linebacker came after I was home drinking beer, and it was over the fence in the north. Never went up that way all that much. I lived in Death Valley, and it was all we knew.

gary

Link to post
Share on other sites

I went to Guam for a short TDY and one day actually walked all the way to the end and looked down.  I had heard that there are more than one B-52 down there.

Those pictures were taken in Thailand in 1971/72.  The B-52 stayed until the end of the war, not exactly a short time.  They would launch missions very hour along with as many tankers as needed for the package.  That made for a lot of noise and smoke.  The only time it was really quite there was during Christmas day, the Bob Hope U.S.O. tour and one time after a attack when they decided to evacuate all aircraft that were still flyable except for our three H-43 copters and the local aircraft assigned there, I guess they weren't considered much of a threat to the enemy.  All our B-52s were the typical "D' models with the black and cammo paint job until we got sent some "G" models for a while.  Not exactly sure when they left but they couildn't carru as many bombs as the "D"s.

Link to post
Share on other sites
17 hours ago, ikar said:

I went to Guam for a short TDY and one day actually walked all the way to the end and looked down.  I had heard that there are more than one B-52 down there.

Those pictures were taken in Thailand in 1971/72.  The B-52 stayed until the end of the war, not exactly a short time.  They would launch missions very hour along with as many tankers as needed for the package.  That made for a lot of noise and smoke.  The only time it was really quite there was during Christmas day, the Bob Hope U.S.O. tour and one time after a attack when they decided to evacuate all aircraft that were still flyable except for our three H-43 copters and the local aircraft assigned there, I guess they weren't considered much of a threat to the enemy.  All our B-52s were the typical "D' models with the black and cammo paint job until we got sent some "G" models for a while.  Not exactly sure when they left but they couildn't carru as many bombs as the "D"s.

I don't know the name of that airbase, but have been there three or four times. Always left and went down to Bankcock.  And of course was escorted back to where I came from.

The B52d was modified with what they call the "big belly mod", the B52's out of the theater didn't have this mod. The reason for 750lb bombs instead of 500lb bombs is really simple. You can't carry a class A load in a B52 using 500lb bombs. Not enough places to hang a bomb. Believe me the 500lb bomb almost always got the job done. Three B52's operate in setup to create a box. It's one half mile wide, by one and one half miles long. Nothing survives inside box. Not even air! 4000 yds away the ground shakes like an earthquake, and at 3000 yards buildings collapse. I've been 2000 yards out down by Kam Duc, and that was all I could stand. Another interesting thing about them is that all you can see is the wings when they are way up there

gary

Link to post
Share on other sites

IO took these shots at U-Tapao in 1971/72.  The "D' models did carry a ton of 500 pound bombs internally and then on their wing pylons 12 750 pounders.  Every day we would get at least one bomb convoy to the base through the East gate where they would go directly up the hill to the bomb receiving area, and you wouldn't believe how many bombs were there each day.  We would have to use a aircraft maint. stand to get a look at  the inside of the trucks to make sure nobody was trying to hide among the pallets.  

Out of each cell we would have at least one bomb that refused to drop.  When returning home they would try to get it loose over the ocean and when that didn't work they had to return home with it.  Each time that happened we would block the roads to the ends of the runway until the danger passed.  The roads where the bomber sat could be blocked for some time.

The "G" models didn't show upon the base until mid 1972, during the Raster invasion.  I don't know if Anderson and maybe Kadena got some or not but we had them until I left in September 1972.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...