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Post by graham on Nov 9, 2018 10:20:01 GMT
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Post by chrisb on Nov 9, 2018 11:35:33 GMT
I would have liked to have seen one of these slipping into Brize in the fifties, I bet they made a wonderful sound. An example undershot Boscome Down and ended up in a field a mile or so short of the runway during a snow storm. One wonders how they got it out as it was still very much in tact after the event.
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Post by graham on Nov 9, 2018 11:54:32 GMT
A great sequence from a superb film Chris, they really must have been comparable in size to the B-52.
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Post by graham on Nov 9, 2018 12:03:12 GMT
Just looked on Google and the two were almost the same in length at 49m , but the B-36 wingspan was 70m against the 56m of the B-52
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Post by rh226 on Nov 9, 2018 12:49:03 GMT
I would have liked to have seen one of these slipping into Brize in the fifties, I bet they made a wonderful sound. An example undershot Boscome Down and ended up in a field a mile or so short of the runway during a snow storm. One wonders how they got it out as it was still very much in tact after the event.
www.a-e-g.org.uk/convairs-mighty-b-36.html
"In January 1952 Jim Connor flew his B-36 from Carswell AFB in Texas towards Boscombe Down for his first visit to England. A Wiltshire snowstorm hid the airfield and the bomber circled for some two hours. At last the crew were relieved to see the recently installed obstruction light on the spire of Salisbury Cathedral and then, a short distance away, the runway lights of the airfield. They started their approach.
However, what they saw was a funnel of lights which led to the runway. They were part of the wartime Drem system that was still in use at Boscombe Down. The B-36 crew had experience solely of American airfield lighting in which only the runway was outlined in lights. They were therefore unfamiliar with and confused by lead-in lights.
The Boscombe Down controller said ‘You are two miles from touchdown, on centre line’. The pilot responded ‘I’ve landed’ and, after a slight pause, ‘My, isn’t your field rough’.
The B-36 had touched down in a field, ploughed through a fence, demolished a haystack and a shepherd’s hut, crossed a couple of ditches and the Amesbury-Salisbury road and ended 400 yards short of the airfield boundary fence.
The VHF/DF operator in his little hut near the end of the runway rang the tower to say there was an aeroplane outside his hut. He was told ‘We haven’t time to talk to you now. We’re waiting for a very important aircraft’. Meanwhile, the B-36 shut down all but one of the engines which was kept running to provide electrical power. A crew member shone a torch on the spinning blades to prevent anyone walking into it. A Boscombe Down staff member was driving home after a night out in Salisbury and stopped his car. He politely told a crew member ‘If you want the airfield it’s over there’ and drove off.
Despite the embarrassment, some redeeming features emerged. It was a cold night and the ground was frozen hard and it had easily taken the weight of the bomber. The next morning, a bulldozer borrowed from the construction workers who were building the airfield at Greenham Common scraped off the thin topsoil revealing the hard chalk beneath. The B-36 was towed through a gap opened up in the perimeter fence. Boscombe Down engineers made a new bolt to substitute the broken one in the port undercarriage and the propeller damaged by the shepherd’s hut was replaced.
Before the exercise, General Curtis LeMay had told the pilots that if anyone damaged their aircraft they could walk east until their caps floated and then carry on walking. As it was, the B-36 was safely flown home within two days. Jim Connor, apparently demoted from Colonel to Lieutenant in a phone call by LeMay himself, rode as a passenger with the gunners in the back."
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Post by chrisb on Nov 9, 2018 13:51:48 GMT
Thanks for the departure explanation, clearly the B36 had a very strong airframe.
A photo of the aircraft in the field featured on the cover of an early addition of Aviation News when it was in newspaper format.
An amazing tale with a very luck outcome.
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Post by graham on Nov 9, 2018 18:03:30 GMT
A great piece of old newsreel
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Post by graham on Nov 9, 2018 18:10:54 GMT
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Post by rh226 on Nov 9, 2018 18:54:46 GMT
The video related to the six B-36Ds that deployed to Lakenheath 16-21 January 1951.
Serials were 49-2650, 49-2657, 49-2658, 44-92034 and two others from 7BW and 11BW at Carswell AFB, Tx (what is now NAS JRB Fort Worth). This last aircraft was originally built as a B-36B (just the "6 turning") and was subsequently modified by adding the "4 burning" to make it into a D model.
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Post by davebasing on Nov 9, 2018 22:47:39 GMT
The video related to the six B-36Ds that deployed to Lakenheath 16-21 January 1951. Serials were 49-2650, 49-2657, 49-2658, 44-92034 and two others from 7BW and 11BW at Carswell AFB, Tx (what is now NAS JRB Fort Worth). This last aircraft was originally built as a B-36B (just the "6 turning") and was subsequently modified by adding the "4 burning" to make it into a D model. One of the two other aircraft was 49-2652 from the 7th Bomb Group of the 7th Bomb Wing. The 7th and 11th Bomb Groups both being part of the 7th Bomb Wing at Carswell. |
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Post by dave on Nov 10, 2018 10:23:38 GMT
hi,
Apart from the take off in this movie, I always remember the flying sequence's on the 1 take off-one landing flight to Alaska, with the sun setting and the contrails of the "6 turning 4 burning", beautiful... the music was good too.
regards,
dave...
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Post by graham on Nov 10, 2018 12:48:28 GMT
While we're in the mood then, another great clip from SAC this time featuring the B-47
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Post by rh226 on Nov 10, 2018 18:23:42 GMT
The video related to the six B-36Ds that deployed to Lakenheath 16-21 January 1951. Serials were 49-2650, 49-2657, 49-2658, 44-92034 and two others from 7BW and 11BW at Carswell AFB, Tx (what is now NAS JRB Fort Worth). This last aircraft was originally built as a B-36B (just the "6 turning") and was subsequently modified by adding the "4 burning" to make it into a D model. One of the two other aircraft was 49-2652 from the 7th Bomb Group of the 7th Bomb Wing. The 7th and 11th Bomb Groups both being part of the 7th Bomb Wing at Carswell. Of course - you're right, Dave.
Too much thinking in the modern hierarchy terminology. LOL
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