That is fricken' impressive, I don' care who you are.

God Bless The USA!!

Question...is that the actual skin that is wrinkled or is it some kind of covering for the skin that is wrinkled?? I've seen that for years and never got around to asking the question...

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Question...is that the actual skin that is wrinkled or is it some kind of covering for the skin that is wrinkled?? I've seen that for years and never got around to asking the question...

The wrinkles are pretty much normal skin deformation, there is a similar deformation forward of the horizontal stabilizer.
It was that way back in the 60s. Probably gets some attention during major repairs, but it always comes back.
The wing tips flex 16 feet on the ground,that's a lot of flexing over 60 yrs. I remember when they were new,I guess that makes me an old fart

I was a kid growing up towards the end of the “Cold War”. Back then the Naval Air Station here in Fort Worth was Carswell AFB. We were a good 30 min drive from the base, but I vividly remember hearing the B-52’s engines roaring as they flew nearby. It always gave me a kind of peaceful feeling.

Well, the skin of the SR-71 Blackbird is wrinkled until it gets up to Mach 3 or thereabouts.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Aren't the only ones left the H's. Didn't they replace the quad .50s with a 20mm Vulcan? But even that would be useless.

You are correct, but all the guns are gone now.
B52H

Ha. Go figure. And I Just hired a former 52 crew chief.
Was born when I got out of high school...his joke to me about his service was, “if you clean the tail section real good you mite find a shell casing....” I caught the irony immediately!

I hope we get all our 52s back...

Yeah they are a sight to behold - before they got all the upgrades and smart weapons, they were squirting out 54 x 750# bombs (usually 2 sticks of 27 each) and some JDAM back in the early days of OEF. Fun to spot targets and give them coordinates, then watch the contrails fly around and then the string of bombs fall out.

We lived across the street from Offutt Air Force base in Bellevue, Ne. You got so use to seeing them & hearing them, you didn’t really notice them. Still a beautiful, old bird. I can’t comprehend the damage she brought to the VC or anything in her way.

Some of the photos of the birds in flight look photoshopped to me. There are white lines all around the edges. Either photoshopped, or possibly severely overharpened.

Reading the comments to the article was a nice reminder that America does not have a monopoly on idiotic pacifists.

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
Some of the photos of the birds in flight look photoshopped to me. There are white lines all around the edges. Either photoshopped, or possibly severely overharpened.

KeyLine effect.

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
Some of the photos of the birds in flight look photoshopped to me. There are white lines all around the edges. Either photoshopped, or possibly severely overharpened.

Agree – the unsharp mask was applied with a heavy hand. But I think that improved the dreary-day photos.

I am always reminded of the Merle Haggard song Silver Wings whenever I see these planes.

I use to love watching them come and go from Mather AFB here in Sacramento County. My dad was a Bomber Pilot in WWII. Seeing them fly reminded me they were on point for our nation I have great respect for those military men and women who stand in harms way for you and I.

quote:

Originally posted by cruiser68:
Wonder what the radar cross section is compared to a B2?

Probably like a flying WalMart?

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
Some of the photos of the birds in flight look photoshopped to me.

Overeager photographer trying make things "dramatic" by applying HDR-like effects (opened up the shadows, increased sharpening, applied way too much dehaze and saturation). Even on a heavy overcast day.

Completely ruins the beauty of the amazing B-52 in flight.

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
I know when a lot of people look at those pics, they think of the B-52, I think about those kids at home, the wives, maybe a husband or two, the birthday parties missed, the soccer games missed, the life missed. It is not all glorious.

I have long considered military sacrifice to be a family one. God bless them all.

Blytheville AFB (renamed Eaker AFB before it closed) in northeast Arkansas was a SAC base with B52's / KC135's. When I was a kid we lived in the flightpath of what we figured was one of their low altitude training runs. Rattled every board in the house and they only made that run at night.

Where I work is right under the crosswind leg of the approach to Barksdale, so I get to see them up close on a daily basis. Had a couple of F-35's doing touch and goes a few weeks ago. Very cool to see.