Davis Monthan 1980

[Jeff]

13 Orions 1 Connie and a stonking 202 F4s !!



29 B52 and an assorted number of other frames including I believe a couple of YC-14 or YC-15s

[davebasing]

Jeff - surely not 1980 as there were no Orions there then and the few Phantoms then were all Navy/Marines?

[Jeff]

Dave if anyone would know you would, any ideas on year mate? Anf are they YC14/15 top left in second pic ?

[graham]

Great shots

[davebasing]

Jeff - Yes the picture does show a YC15 (nearest) and YC14, both on AMARC's celebrity row. Two of each were built and all 4 were at one time in DM. Both YC14s arrived in DM on 1 April 1980. 73-1873 went to the adjacent Pima Museum in 1981 while 73-1874 is the one shown on celebrity row at DM. Of the YC15s 63-1875 & 73-1876 arrived on 29 & 30 August 1979. 72-1876 (which was at Mildenhall in 1976) is the one on celb' row while 73-1875 (Mildenhall 1977) went to the Pima Museum in 1981, was returned to AMARC in 1997 for restoration to flying status, leaving to become N15YC with Boeing for trials with the C17 programme.

The aircraft, the back end of which is on the left of your shot ahead of the Orions, looks to be a C2 Greyhound (3 fins) rather than an E2 Hawkeye (4 fins). If so then the shot must be after the first one arrived in the store on 10 November 1986. Hard to tell but it looks as if the Phantoms are all Air Force variants rather than the Navy ones which began arriving earlier. If so then the total number of USAF F4s did not reach 200 until April 1989 (over 1000 Air Force ones went through in the end plus some 300 odd Navy examples). I'll dig out my aerial shots to compare and report back, but my initial guess is that the shot probably dates from 1990 or possibly not long thereafter.

Were both photos taken the same trip (got any more which might help tie it down more closely)?

[Jeff]

Not sure if taken at same time as I didnt take them ::)but I would take a punt on them being the same time... it also looks like my constellation id is rubbish to...lol...that will teach me to assume three tails equals Connie...

[davebasing]

While I'm digging out my old DM aerial shots, here are the YC14 & 15 at Mildenhall in 1977

[Jeff]

Nice shots, which model was it that was returned to
Flight after being mothballed for the C17 program ?

[Jeff]

Actually its prob this one come to Think Of it

[davebasing]

Hi Jeff - Having looked at my shots I still think yours were taken in 1990 or just thereafter (As I only tend to go on average every 3 years its difficult to be more precise). I was there in 1980 on a whole day tour around the store. In the background of my shot of one of the many Connies which were there you can see the 4 YC14s & 15s. That was almost the last year to see the B47 & B58 amongst other goodies including South Vietnamese C47s & helos which had escaped at the end of the war. There were some 3,500 aircraft in the store that day plus several hundred in the contractors yards surrounding the base. I caught up with the same Hustler 28 years later at the museum in Galveston, Texas. Just a few from that year....

[Jeff]

Wow thanks dave, stunning shots and great info

[graham]

Always reckoned the B58 as one of the best looking aircraft ever made, along with the Victor

[zz]

Great photos guys.
Still only been to Monthan once- in 1991. Been intending to go back ever since but not got back there yet.
Saw something like 400 F.4s which has always been my favourite aircraft!

Really must return soon!

[Jeff]

some more have surfaced

[zz]

Excellent !
That's how I remember it in 91- hundred of F.4s and dozens of B.52s!

[bluemoon]

I still have a Boeing YC-14 sales brochure in the attic, from ATC daytrip to Farnborough 76. Long but brilliant day out.

[graham]

One of the iconic jet bombers of the 50s/60s was the B-47. Have they all gone to meet their makers or are there any left anywhere?

[Deleted]

Survivors
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Boeing_B-47_Stratojets
Halcyon Days
www.amarcexperience.com/AMARCDB.asp?SessionId=51617202&Type=3&Include=3&SortOrder=1&Code=B047

[graham]

Many thanks TARNISH for those superb links. Were all 2000 odd frames used solely by American Armed Forces or were some exported do you know?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using proboards

[Deleted]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B-47_units_of_the_United_States_Air_Force
Just US Units 

But they `Lost` One 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_B-47_disappearance

Who or Where It Ended Up .......

[davebasing]

Hi Graham. Been away for 3 weeks in the Galapagos. Thanks for jogging memories of the Stratojet. The venerable B47 was once a very common sight in the UK during the cold war and up to 1965 at (what were then) SAC bases such as Lakenheath, Brize Norton, Upper Heyford and Greenham Common. Up to 45 (and later 60) B47s at a time rotated for 60-90 day periods through each of the SAC bases and in those days a circular day trip could, if you were lucky, end with some 100 B47s in the book. At any time a number of these were on 15 minute alert. In addition, before being replaced by the RC135s there was a permanent detachment of RB47Hs/ERB47Hs which were based at Mildenhall before moving to Brize and later to Heyford where the last one was seemingly noted in 1967. Even that was not the end of the old girl in the UK as in 1968 I graphed the WB47 below visiting the easternmost pan at Heyford. There were obviously B47 losses in the UK, including at Lakenheath and Heyford (where for example 52-0023 came down fatally a mile or so short of the runway in February 1954 having arrived there some 8 weeks earlier). They were also regulars at US Armed Forces day shows at other USAF bases in the UK, including the one below that I graphed in grainy black & white days at the Wethersfield show way back in May 1962.

As Tarnish points out a number are still preserved in the US, many of which I have graphed over the years, most recently the example below at Castle, California a couple of years ago. I photographed the NB47E below at Pueblo, Colorado in 1983. The sole NB47E, it uniquely also carries a civil reg (N1045Y) which it used for its final flight from the store at MASDC to the museum at Pueblo in July 1979, having previously been used by the US Navy to test the TF34 engine for the S3 Viking, when it received the NB designation.

[graham]

Many thanks Dave for all the info and the superb photos, one of my favourite planes albeit I have to confess to never having seen one.