Comment: - - I still remember to this day the memories of this beast of the sky; I was a boy at GFAB, ND and just the shear size was intimidating for a small boy, but the sound still reverberates in my head from their takeoffs and landings
When it comes to guarding these planes this is where robots or autonomous vehicles would be perfect. Have a small tank type machine loaded with ammunition or have those dog type things running around or even hidden and as soon as somebody pops up everybody goes to action thats what we need to do because being on guard watching some thing for 3 to 4 hours is mind numbing , you just lose your ability to Be affective but the machines would do the best job in that area and then let the humans do what they do best
I had the distinct pleasure of flying the original B-52 D (dog) model. They flew like a turd during take off and landing, but OMG were they something to fly once you for to altitude. People never believe me but the wings will flap up and down as much as 10 feet in flight. When ever I turned around in my seat to stretch my legs I would always try and get a look out the back at them. These BUFF are of the H model type with the Turbo fan on the front. The Fan actually produced almost as much power and the entire engine and at 17,000 HP you had a monster on your hands. Our old D models actually had engines made by FORD and had very little of the equipment need to make the engine work mounted to the engine. It was all mounted in the wing. About the only thing on the engine was the fuel control, oil tank and the water injection pump. If you have ever seen any of the old movies with the BUFF'S belching pure black on take off that is because they were in water injection mode. Water that stored on board the wing was shot into the front of the engine to compress the air and you would get 1 hell of a jolt when you hit the water. Usually about 2 seconds into the roll off the hammer head the water injection switch was turned on and you were off to the races/ BUT you only had 62 to 70 seconds of injection and you had better be at your V1 because your rotate was only a couple seconds away and you ARE going to fly and by then it was to late to turnoff the water and coast down you were going period. I tall my grand kids about the BUFF and they look at me like yea right. Of all my memories as an NCO in the Air Force up until I received my Commission and got my wings is still kind of a blur but Flying the buff and the order in which you do things is still clear in my brain 60 years later. Thanks for the video it sure brought back some memories