Strategic Air Command
 

For all you B36 enthusiasts;

according to my TV guide for next week, the film Strategic Air Command is on BBC2 on Monday 24th October from 13:10 to 15:00.

So send the wife and kids out for the afternoon, take the phone off the hook, turn the volume right up and remember what the "aluminum overcast" sounded like at close quarters.

As it's on BBC you won't even be distracted by any adverts, either.

GG

(Yes, I do mean aluminum, it's an american aircraft and it's their name for it!)

Cheers GG! I shall endeavour to record it. Many Moons back, B 36s were based here at Fairford and although well beore my time, I have often wondered what it mut have been like to live here back in the 50s. Apparently, one cre bailed out of a 36 over the airfield at Fairford (Kempsford corner) and whilst they floated to earth, the A/C buggered off to make its own equally ungraceful landing at Lacock in Wiltshire.

Heady times... but I still think LeMay was a loony.

Conan

IMHO it's the best aviation film ever made and its got Jimmy Stewert in it!.

Rgds Dr I

Some B36 info...
 

Here is some info on the B36:

http://www.cowtown.net/proweb/b36net/

Jimmy STEWART is in it also Dr!;)

This web site has the sound of a B-36!!!

http://www.air-and-space.com/b-36%20variants.htm

It was taken from the first scenes of the film, at the base ball ground.

Play it LOUD!!!!!

rgds Dr I

So that'll be your new ringtone then will it??

Go on, you know you want to!:ok:

If any of you are ever in the neighborhood of Omaha or Lincoln, Nebraska, there's a very nice B-36 at the SAC Museum located just north of I-80 about half way between said cities.

I'd seen them before as a child, from a distance, but never before was close enough to touch one. My God, that is a huge airplane.

http://www.strategicairandspace.com/general/general.htm


There's also a darn nice golf course about 4 miles south too.....

In January 1952 a B36 landed short of Boscombe Down at night following a snowfall.

www.7bwb-36assn.org/salisburyUK.htm

I was at Pima (Tucson) last week, and the "Carswell" B-36 is now in pieces round the back. Ask nicely and they'll let you poke around it. Restoration (to static :D ) is estimated at 2-3 years.

For completeness, surviving B-36s.

Conan
The one which cruised around after the crew had departed managed to come to earth in THREE counties!! It, apparently crashed on the boundaries of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. My brother was one of the many RAF tasked with crash-guarding the remains.
In those days they were frequent visitors to the UK - "four burning, six turning" and their instantly recognisable engine noise indicated their passage even above cloud.

The B-36 crashed in woods near Lacock. There are still bits there, including half-buried engine parts!

Anyone else watching "Strategic Air Command" at the moment?

Shakespeare it ain't, but the flying sequences are terriffic.

I took a neighbour of mine flying last week and he was telling me that he was RAF fire crew at Boscombe Down when the B36 crash landed near Old Sarum in 1952. He says that they were not allowed near the wreckage. USAF crews came in quickly to secure it.

Crap movie, apart from the airyplanes. Totally miscast, wayyyyyy too old, him and his wife. (And, yes, I just finished watching it, which proves what a sad bar steward I am...)


Much, much better was "A Gathering of Eagles" with Rock Hudson, the remake of "Twelve O'Clock High".

(Although, one has too wonder if he took any of the rest of the cast for a bit of personal one-on-one stick time....)

Way back in the early 50's, we lived near Bovingdon, so there were always different types of 'aeroplanes' going over.
One day (I was about 4 years old) I heard a 'plane, looked up and saw this aircraft with 6 propellors on the back of the wings. I ran indoors and told my elder brother (he would have been about 7 so would have known everything).
He hit me, telling me no such 'plane existed!
NB: I wouldn't think it landed at Bovingdon, but it was heading that way about 3 miles away.)

Not sure about that one as it is not in the B36 Peacemakers website list of mishaps. An aircraft did land short of Boscombe Airfield Jan 1952 but was recovered and flew back to the states. See Post#9. The Amesbury Salisbury road can be seen behind the aircraft.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...36Boscombe.jpg

Lemay was no looney. He was a dead serious tough guy who was a major reason why the Japanese Empire was defeated without the loss of hundreds of thousands more Americans, Brits, and Aussies. After the war he turned a demoralized ramshackle strategic air force into the world's most powerful.
In large part because of the ground-work that he laid, the Soviet Empire disintegrated and re-emerged as a fledgling democracy.

Some people think Bomber Harris was a nut too, which he was most definately not.

"Strategic Air Command" was ok, but was way too propoganda-like for my tastes. Also, Jimmy Stewart was getting a little long in the tooth to be believable playing a major league pitcher. "A Gathering of Eagles" was a great movie and showed a much more realistic view of life in a strategic bomber wing. Still can't get over the imagery of Rock being a homo.

It's my understanding that it is only because Kennedy kept him on a tight leash that the Cuba crisis didn't turn into the end of the world.

Sad coincidence: June Allyson, Jimmy Stewart's co-star, has died this past week. :sad: