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Saturday, April 12, 2014
To Peru by Subaru.
There was a hamfest in Peru today, and I willingly went along with Roomie because to get there you have to drive right past the Grissom Air Museum. On the way back, then, we stop and I go play pickcher takin' with the airplanes...
Looking right into the pair of 20mm cannon in the tail of the B-47. The blister above them is the radome for the gun-laying radar.
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13 comments:
Twin 20 mike-mikes. Just the thing for those aggressive tail-gaters....you also got a mention on Mike Bane's podcast vis a vis the NRA show....
I think the B47 an interesting airframe.
Most of the old Bomb/Navers that worked and rode on them are not real fond of them. Early radar and mechanical bombing computers were a real headache.
I just got back from a ridiculous road trip that took me through Tucson. Ms. Keel, you really need to block out a day or two to burn the next time you're in the southwest. Make sure you get to the museum relatively early in the day; the boneyard tour seems to sell out pretty quickly. Luckily for me, their collection is, to put it mildly, extensive. If you like things like B-36s, B-58s (one of my personal faves. I have a thing for J-79s, probably due to inhaling too much phantom exhaust as a child), or the odd Swiss Hunter, it's worth a half day at least. They've also got a Titan II silo you can visit, if you've got the time, which, sadly, I did not.
I knew an old Air Force Lt. Col.(ret) once whose best story by far was of the time that he flew a B-47 into a thunderstorm and sustained so much damage to the aircraft that it never flew again. Having the canopy torn off in flight in a pitch black storm was quite an experience, he said.
Coincidently, the wife & I visited the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run airport today. Not a lot of aircraft, but the ones they have are nice. They own and fly a B-17 and a B-25 and sell rides on them; we've decided on going as soon as we can schedule it.
Pima County museum in Tucson is quite good, as Matthew mentions.
As I remember, the pilot of a B47 had to roll the plane if ejection was necessary, so the BNs didn't eject down into the tarmac...
Matt
St Paul
Thanks for posting these old plane pix. I love these old bombers.
By the way-- I have noticed an interesting correlation between being a ham radio operator and being a gun person; it appears to be positive, and if anecdotal evidence is any good, larger than a lot of people would think. There's also a nonzero positive correlation between a person being a ham radio operator, a gun owner, and being at least peripherally interested in emergency preparedness and/or survivalism. Maybe it's that ham radio operators were prepared for disasters before 'prepping' were cool.
Pima Museum = thumbs up!
Tam,
if you get there, take a look around the parking lot, first. Every time I've been there, there have been some awesome cars in the visitors lot.
Don't forget a large brim hat and sunscreen! (and a card in your camera)
I think I may have topped Tam on aviation theming this weekend...
While I wouldn't say that the book "Ways to Die in a B-47" would be the longest book ever written, it would make for a longer than normal read.
That was one scary airplane...
Best B-47 story I ever heard told to me by a college professor who was there as an AF maintenance officer.
Curtis Lemay was visiting bases in England and was departing in a B-47. He taxied out to the runway, started engine run up, the throttled down and taxied back, into the hanger the base staff had gathered in for the farewell ceremony, under jet power (NOT the standard procedure).
He climbed out, lit a cigar, said "Fix the damned thing" and then stomped off, leaving the Nav to explain the malfunction.
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