And I note in the pic that there are a pair of what appears to be Su-24 supersonic attack aircraft in the background. Might those be for sale as well? Enquiring minds wanna know!
As a late Cold War kid (b.1965),to me the Bear is an icon, nostalgic if not actually threatening these days. Google "bear bomber escort" images to get a sense of how frickin' long this thing has been a threat and irritant- Bears being escorted past sensitive boundaries by anything from F-106 Delta Darts and P-3 Orions (I know- that must have really scared the Bear) to an F-22 Raptor. That skinny-marink bomber has had a hell of a run as the B-52's ne'er do well rival. -Ken
Might be just a little awkward to get that shipped out of Ukraine right now. I wonder where it is sitting. If it is in Crimea it would be very difficult to get to. On the other hand, if it was near Kiev, the Antonov factory might be a source of technical assistance for a price.
I also wonder about the current life expectancy of whoever was going to try to sell it.
The real problem is that you have to buy three of them. One to fly and two for parts to keep #1 flying. That and that noisy slow old bitch burns about 10000GAL. of jet "A" every time you turn around. But it would be fun---Ray
Going to have to hold off on this one; saving all my money for the Littlefield Collection Auction: http://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/all-lots.cfm?SaleCode=LC14
Oh, I was hoping Bears would go as cheaply as Dragunovs when the Soviet Union collapsed: My dream was to get one and use it for the first stage on an orbital insertion plan for cheap telecom satellites, or subscription GPS or something.
Hey now, my friends and I already came up with this idea! Maybe we need to chip in *together*... this particular Bear was modified to launch cruise missiles - we were planning to load some cheap drones on it and convert them ;) - With some help from Los Alamos we can have stand off nuking!
All for the low, low, price of a few million bucks! And whatever Drones and Nukes are going for these days.
SPARE PARTS ARE NEEDED LOTS OF THEM GOOD TRANSLATIONS OF THE TECH MANUALS AND WHERE WILL YOU STASH THE BEAST WHILST YOU ARE WORKING ON IT ? ALSO FUEL STORAGE TANKS AND A LONG ENOUGH RUNWAY SOVIET PARTS HAVE A REPUTATION FAILING AT A CRITICAL MOMENT CAUSING THE AIRCRAFT TO FALL OUT OF THE SKY LETS DO IT !
I just pulled $40 from the ATM, I can spare at least half of that.
I'm in as Radio Op (or relief for Roberta if she's in). I think I may even know a source of cold war electronics gear, of course it might say Collins on it.. (Collinski?)
Alan J: The B-29 and B-36 used piston engines, not turboprops. AFAIK, the Bear was the only "turboprop nuclear bomber". If I understand the history of the technology, the reason the B-36 _had_ props was that they were still inventing the materials for a turbine that could last at the high temperatures necessary for efficiency. The B36 jet engines were considerably better than the German WWII jets, which could barely reach interception altitude before they had to turn around and go home for fuel, but they were still quite inefficient and could only be used for short bursts of speed.
So Wright put two of their 14-cylinder dual row radial engines onto a common crankshaft to create a 3800 horsepower piston engine with four rows of seven cylinders, each row offset so the engine looked like a corncob. It burned a lot of fuel, but it provided a lot of power, enough to take what was basically a giant winged fuel tank with a few accessories to Moscow. (Getting back was another issue - IIRC, if the B-36 made it's first rendezvous with a tanker somewhere over the Arctic Sea, it would have enough fuel to bomb Moscow and come back to the Arctic Sea and look for the second tanker. If it missed the first tanker, it became a suicide mission, because you really didn't want to learn what the surviving Russians would do to bomber crews who bailed out in their territory after nuking their cities. If the B-36 found the first one, and got into Russia and out without being shot down, maybe the crew's luck was running good enough that there would still be a second tanker, and they wouldn't wind up as part of an ice floe.)
But if you think the B-36 was a cobbled together mess, look up the Super Corsair. That was a hookwinged F4U fighter with one of those monster corncob engines kludged into the nose. That was supposed to give it the speed and climbing rate to meet a kamikaze while it was still a long ways from the ships, but the war ended while they were still trying to work out the problems with that. The regular F4U was a wonderful fighter until you tried to land it, and then the nose blocked your view of where you were landing, and the landing gear was bouncy. The visibility problem was solved by landing in a turn and looking through the notch in the wing, but I think that would take extra piloting skill, especially on a carrier. And bouncing when you were trying to catch the arresting cables could be fatal - they didn't yet have the slant decks where if you missed the cables you'd just fly off the other end of the landing strip and circle around for another try. Instead, you continued straight down the deck towards where the airplanes that had landed before you were parked, behind a barrier solid enough to bring your plane from 60 to 0 in an instant. That didn't leave much of the plane or you, but they had to save the other ones. What made this acceptable was that the F4U was the best fighter we had against a Zero, and if you couldn't beat the Zeros you didn't have to worry about landing.
So they took this plane that was OK for good pilots flying from a land base, but was a little unsafe for carrier landings, made the nose even longer, wrecked the balance with all that weight out in front, and intended it for a role where it _had_ to fly from carriers. Yes, they had some problems!
How many bombs does it come with?
ReplyDeleteI'm in.
ReplyDelete"How many bombs does it come with?"
ReplyDeleteThat could be a problem, but I know people who know people in Los Alamos and Oak Ridge!
RATS! They pulled the listing before I could bid on it!
ReplyDeleteI'm always up for things with wings.
ReplyDeleteAnd I note in the pic that there are a pair of what appears to be Su-24 supersonic attack aircraft in the background. Might those be for sale as well? Enquiring minds wanna know!
Oh, man, I would be SO up for that.
ReplyDelete*checkin' pockets*
For a Bear, I can scrape up $100 or two...
I SAID START #3!
ReplyDeleteWHAT? CAN'T HEAR YOU!
Yeah. They're REALLY loud(although much more so at full power).
As a late Cold War kid (b.1965),to me the Bear is an icon, nostalgic if not actually threatening these days. Google "bear bomber escort" images to get a sense of how frickin' long this thing has been a threat and irritant-
ReplyDeleteBears being escorted past sensitive boundaries by anything from F-106 Delta Darts and P-3 Orions (I know- that must have really scared the Bear) to an F-22 Raptor. That skinny-marink bomber has had a hell of a run as the B-52's ne'er do well rival.
-Ken
Gas, Ordnance or ECM...nobody rides for free.
ReplyDeleteIf we got that, we'd totally have to fly it a bit too close to US airspace and see if we can get an escort.
ReplyDeleteThough, I guess another question is how you can get type-rated on a Bear. I'm pretty sure that particular aircraft requires a type rating.
ReplyDeleteHey, good news, if we donate enough cash to the regime, we can get cheap jet fuel for the turbines on that thing.
ReplyDeleteMight be just a little awkward to get that shipped out of Ukraine right now. I wonder where it is sitting. If it is in Crimea it would be very difficult to get to. On the other hand, if it was near Kiev, the Antonov factory might be a source of technical assistance for a price.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder about the current life expectancy of whoever was going to try to sell it.
The real problem is that you have to buy three of them. One to fly and two for parts to keep #1 flying. That and that noisy slow old bitch burns about 10000GAL. of jet "A" every time you turn around. But it would be fun---Ray
ReplyDeleteGoing to have to hold off on this one; saving all my money for the Littlefield Collection Auction:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/all-lots.cfm?SaleCode=LC14
Only if they through in ear plugs, ear muffs, sound deadening hearing protection, and sound proof the cabin.
ReplyDeleteI hear that the crews are still shaking from the vibration of eight contra-rotating variable pitch props for a minimum of three days after landing.
Heck, for a Tu 95 I might go $40 myself.
ReplyDeleteThat could be a problem, but I know people who know people in Los Alamos and Oak Ridge!
Ahem. Yes, you do.
Well, crap. When I read 'turboprop nuclear bomber' for sale I was hoping for a B-29. Or at least a B-36...Dang it!
ReplyDeleteOh, I was hoping Bears would go as cheaply as Dragunovs when the Soviet Union collapsed: My dream was to get one and use it for the first stage on an orbital insertion plan for cheap telecom satellites, or subscription GPS or something.
ReplyDeleteHey now, my friends and I already came up with this idea! Maybe we need to chip in *together*... this particular Bear was modified to launch cruise missiles - we were planning to load some cheap drones on it and convert them ;) - With some help from Los Alamos we can have stand off nuking!
ReplyDeleteAll for the low, low, price of a few million bucks! And whatever Drones and Nukes are going for these days.
Let me check under the sofa cushions.
ReplyDeleteToo late now, but was Brigid going to fly it back for us?
ReplyDeleteI'm available for crewmember duties.
ReplyDelete- Drifter
SPARE PARTS ARE NEEDED LOTS OF THEM
ReplyDeleteGOOD TRANSLATIONS OF THE TECH MANUALS AND WHERE WILL YOU STASH THE BEAST WHILST YOU ARE WORKING ON IT ?
ALSO FUEL STORAGE TANKS AND A LONG ENOUGH RUNWAY
SOVIET PARTS HAVE A REPUTATION FAILING AT A CRITICAL MOMENT CAUSING THE AIRCRAFT TO FALL OUT OF THE SKY
LETS DO IT !
1200 Gal per hour at 400 MPH, I can think of a lot of things I would rather spend my money on. Ford Rapter, Ed Brown 1911's and ammo.
ReplyDeleteUMMM Lessee,
ReplyDelete3 ones, a five...(checks other pocket)43 cents, some um either dental floss or fishing line, 2 spent 22 brass...
OK I'm in!
I'm in!!
ReplyDeleteI've got a 20 and a jar half full of change.
ReplyDeleteI've been eyeing that old Bear for a few days now myself, so yeah, I've got a jar of PNG toea I can also throw into the kitty.
ReplyDeleteThey were the prime concern of Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM) back in the 60's...
ReplyDeleteWhat could go wrong?[/Clarkson]
ReplyDeleteI just pulled $40 from the ATM, I can spare at least half of that.
I'm in as Radio Op (or relief for Roberta if she's in). I think I may even know a source of cold war electronics gear, of course it might say Collins on it.. (Collinski?)
I got five 500 round boxes of .22LR I can toss in on it. I'd really prefer a B-36 though.
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDelete"I got five 500 round boxes of .22LR I can toss in on it."
It's cool, we can make change. ;)
This reminds me of an ad I saw a while back for a Saab J35 Draken. Asking price was $500k to start the bidding if I remember correctly.
ReplyDeleteFuel's gonna be a bitch ...
ReplyDeleteAlan J: The B-29 and B-36 used piston engines, not turboprops. AFAIK, the Bear was the only "turboprop nuclear bomber". If I understand the history of the technology, the reason the B-36 _had_ props was that they were still inventing the materials for a turbine that could last at the high temperatures necessary for efficiency. The B36 jet engines were considerably better than the German WWII jets, which could barely reach interception altitude before they had to turn around and go home for fuel, but they were still quite inefficient and could only be used for short bursts of speed.
ReplyDeleteSo Wright put two of their 14-cylinder dual row radial engines onto a common crankshaft to create a 3800 horsepower piston engine with four rows of seven cylinders, each row offset so the engine looked like a corncob. It burned a lot of fuel, but it provided a lot of power, enough to take what was basically a giant winged fuel tank with a few accessories to Moscow. (Getting back was another issue - IIRC, if the B-36 made it's first rendezvous with a tanker somewhere over the Arctic Sea, it would have enough fuel to bomb Moscow and come back to the Arctic Sea and look for the second tanker. If it missed the first tanker, it became a suicide mission, because you really didn't want to learn what the surviving Russians would do to bomber crews who bailed out in their territory after nuking their cities. If the B-36 found the first one, and got into Russia and out without being shot down, maybe the crew's luck was running good enough that there would still be a second tanker, and they wouldn't wind up as part of an ice floe.)
But if you think the B-36 was a cobbled together mess, look up the Super Corsair. That was a hookwinged F4U fighter with one of those monster corncob engines kludged into the nose. That was supposed to give it the speed and climbing rate to meet a kamikaze while it was still a long ways from the ships, but the war ended while they were still trying to work out the problems with that. The regular F4U was a wonderful fighter until you tried to land it, and then the nose blocked your view of where you were landing, and the landing gear was bouncy. The visibility problem was solved by landing in a turn and looking through the notch in the wing, but I think that would take extra piloting skill, especially on a carrier. And bouncing when you were trying to catch the arresting cables could be fatal - they didn't yet have the slant decks where if you missed the cables you'd just fly off the other end of the landing strip and circle around for another try. Instead, you continued straight down the deck towards where the airplanes that had landed before you were parked, behind a barrier solid enough to bring your plane from 60 to 0 in an instant. That didn't leave much of the plane or you, but they had to save the other ones. What made this acceptable was that the F4U was the best fighter we had against a Zero, and if you couldn't beat the Zeros you didn't have to worry about landing.
So they took this plane that was OK for good pilots flying from a land base, but was a little unsafe for carrier landings, made the nose even longer, wrecked the balance with all that weight out in front, and intended it for a role where it _had_ to fly from carriers. Yes, they had some problems!