Heads Up - "Strategic Air Command" on TV
 

Very short notice but I see the 1955 film "Strategic Air Command" starring James Stewart and June Allyson, in being broadcast on TV tomorrow (Friday 9th February) at 0800 on Sky Cinema Greats.
Visually stunning with air-to-air shots of B-36s, B-47s and B-52s very well worth watching.
WT


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...20Film/SAC.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...irComand17.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r.../SAC-B-473.jpg

Great film for the aircraft alone. Watch out for Jimmy Stewart's mistake. In the film he is supposed to be a B 17 pilot from WW2. In reality he was a B 24 skipper. When he is talking to his wife about the B 36 he says "I thought the B 24 was big, but oh, boy" I guess it was a Freudian slip, and no-one picked it up.

I thought it was one of those that you could find free on youtube, like "By Dawn's early light".

PDR

Maybe he was just supposed to be referencing what he [the character] had previously thought to be the biggest US bomber (regardless of whether he'd actually flown one). The B36 was more than double the span of either B17 or B24 (as well as having nearly 7 times the MTOW) so it would certainly have looked impressive to a former driver of either type!

PDR

or maybe he was comparing the B-36 to the earlier Consolidated/CONVAIR product....


Great flight images. I especially like seeing how much the aft end of the B-36 shook around when undergoing full power run up. A real washing machine experience back aft.

And if your Scottish and voted for independence, the big wall map at the briefing will bring a smile to your face.

I don't have Sky :{

Just looked at the trailer on YouTube and Jimmy Stewart refers to "aeroplanes" (not airplanes). A legacy of his time in the UK?

TTN,

I couldn’t find the complete film on YouTube, but there are lots of segments from it, including this piece about B-47s:


The “independent Scotland” map is featured at the beginning and then some great shots of B-47s. I learnt something new - I had no idea that it had a three man crew.

TTN,

Here's the full movie (no sign up needed).

https://solarmoviex.to/watch/strateg...d.prxz4/7x4946

In the 1950s, entire 45-aircraft wings of B-47s used to be based in the UK - TDY for 90 days from 1953 to 1958 - with 15 aircraft on alert armed with nuclear weapons.

7th Air Division SAC - HQ at South Ruislip then High Wycombe - controlled Fairford, Brize Norton, Greenham Common and Upper Heyford.

From 1958 to 1965, "Reflex Alert" aircraft were deployed from several bases in the USA to the UK for 21-day deployments - 4 bases above + Lakenheath to 1960 and Mildenhall and some minor dispersal bases like Chelveston and Bruntingthorpe.

In addition, ELINT RB-47Es/Hs were operated from Brize Norton then Upper Heyford until December 1965. I used to see them as a kid at UH - usually in a hangar near the public road with the tail sticking out through a specially fitted opening in the hangar doors.

An impressive aircraft when it first came out and built in huge numbers - 2,032 all marks at an average cost of $1.9M ($16.2M in 2016 $ - not bad at all !).

Some interesting Reflex memoirs in the links here including photos of their alert locations and R&R trips in Europe.
https://b-47.com/?page_id=2890

I get phony spyware alerts and install Java popups on that link. :=

I'm sure you can trust it since the TLD is Tonga, right? ;)

sometime in the early 50s,I was riding my bicycle along a quiet country lane 'somewhere in England' when this aeroplane appeared from behind the trees alongside.I thought for a moment that Martians had turned up.very impressive

In about 1977 I saw a Navy EB-47E on the ramp at NAS Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. It was flown by a civilian Boeing Wichita crew as a 'Pandora' plane, used to do jamming in fleet electronic warfare exercises. I climbed up into the cockpit and briefly chatted with the crew. They said the plane would be soon retired and sent to Dyess AFB in Texas as a gate guard.

I seem to remember that VAQ-33 had an Electric Whale, EA-3B, on the ramp at Rosey as well.

The B-47 on display at Dyess appears to be 52-0412 which the Navy supposedly called 24120. It now has SAC markings, I'm pretty sure it said Navy on the side when I saw it in 1977 or so.

I found this online about the Navy EB-47E's:

https://b-47.com/wp-content/uploads/...14.-EB-47E.pdf

As I said, I remember the crew I met as Boeing ICT, but maybe they were McDonnell D folks out of Tulsa. It's been a few years...

Thanks for the links to the full movie chaps. A film about early jets with Jimmy Stewart in it - what's not to like?

Btw - does anyone know what happened to the aircraft that used to be on display (outdoors) at Offutt AFB? I saw my one and only B36 there -amazing.

As child my Aunt and Uncle took me for a ride in their Ford Anglia past Greenham Common and we took a couple of distant pictures of the B47s parked out around the airfield.

I have the film on DVD, purchased it some years ago, great flying scenes.

It must have been 1958 when I was on my Radar Mechanics course at RAF Yatesbury (H2SMk4A). One of the guys on the course, whose mother owned a Ladies Fashion shop in Newbury invited me to stay at the flat above the shop for the weekend (lovely Lady), as I only got to travel back to Edinburgh once in a "blue moon", so spent every weekend on camp. Paul had just bought himself a three wheeler "Messerschmitt" which had tandem seats like the B-47 (the only similarity)! On the Saturday, we decided to drive down to Greenham Common to see & photograph the B-47's there, or so we thought. Once we arrived & got out of the car at the perimeter fencing, jeeps & armed Military Police descended on us from all directions & ordered us to move on! We managed to get a fleeting glimpse of the B-47's & noticed their jet packs on the rear fuselage, but that was all.

It was a B-47E en route to Bruntingthorpe that managed to drop it's 30kt weapon on Mars Bluff, South Caroline 11.3.1958

I assume you mean a B-47 on display, not a B-36.

Here's an aircraft that was transferred to the SAC Museum in 1964, it possibly was displayed outside before the museum was expanded:

https://sacmuseum.org/what-to-see/ai...47e-stratojet/

I never tire of watching that long takeoff scene. I think I'll call it up right now!

If you have Sky Q it is available to download ‘on demand ‘