B-52 sqn scramble sept 2020
 

Blimey, some of the crews have a heck of a run simply to get to the jets. Enjoy

Definitely lost the edge on Alert Force scramble procedures since the heyday of SAC.

Where are all the Alert Force vans / pick up trucks ?
WTF is with the Security Forces guy controlling access across the red line having a chair - from which he couldn't observe all round properly when seated and he is not holding his rifle ?
I expect they will be getting a visit from the IG !

General Curtis LeMay would not have been impressed with the faff trying to get the blank off here either ! You would have thought they would have had getting the blanks off in high winds down to a tee after 59 years of operation of the B-52H.

I liked the hot start on #3 at 2:12 on that video.

Interesting that they start all 8 at once - no wonder they didn't see the hot start if there are that many gauges leaping into action all at once.

They violently rip off the pitot covers like that all the time? Some guys have no idea that pulling the cover to the tail doesn't work. The harder they pull...

I see one crew sensibly hailed a cab - see 0:58 in RAFEng074to09's video

"Taxi!"

Given the height of the pitot, it appeared to me that the lanyards attached to the pitot are elasticated, the idea being that if you run towards the rear, stretching the lanyard and then releasing it under tension, the cover will fly off the pitot.

I also noticed a considerable number of edits to the video including possibly a startup failure, access panel left open, remedial work needing to be done on an engine, headsets were unplugged, and then appear later plugged into the same aircraft - headless chickens came to mind. It also looked like the cameras were positioned to evaluate crew performance on multiple aircraft during the event. The sequence of aircraft taxing and taking off, (a) into low cloud, then (b) into a clear blue sky. Was the video constructed from several days worth of activity?

But then I have been known to misinterpret chaotic activity in the past. :ooh:

IG

SWO: "That man! On a charge! Slovenly running!"

My thoughts too... even in a scramble situation not sure it is really the best course of action. Any real life input most welcome !

Yup, I'd be curious to know the actual time it took to put all the bird into the air. Still an interesting watch.

I know it is comparing Apples and Pears but I have just come across this on YouTube.


Note how the B52 uses the curvature of the Earth to become airborne and the Vulcan doesn’t!
‘Mass rapids’ are all well and good but standing under a Vulcan doing a rapid start and then spooling up to 90% to cross feed the other three engines is a great way to check for loose fillings.

this one takes some beating

I wonder why so many of the crew vehicles are trucks rather than minibuses. Can you get a B-52 crew in a truck (plus driver)?

Possibly because it's easier to get a patient into a truck than a car......wonder how many casualties those steps they come hurtling down have claimed over the years ?

Full crew is only 5 now that the gunners are gone....

Didn't that Vulcan sound great? Anything in front of it would have been frightened out of the way!

That ground crewman seemed to be a little too close to the engine intakes.
:\

It's obvious from the comments on this thread that most posters either don't already know or haven't seen the various videos on You Tube relating to SAC procedures, or the more recent ones showing B-52H and KC-135R Minimum Interval Take Off (MITO) scramble procedures - so I'll go ahead and find them again.

Only the B-52H remains in service which has a 5-main crew as the there is no tail gunner.

The routine method of starting a B-52H using AGE normally takes about an hour:


For MITO scrambles, crew arrival at the aircraft to take-off can be achieved in about 10 minutes using the he cartridge starting system:

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Disp...20the%20B%2D52.

Declassified SAC films indicate that the normal readiness state of Alert Force aircraft (both bombers and tankers) was RS15 - so that leaves around 5 minutes to get from the Alert Force building to the aircraft.

Alert Force vehicles in the SAC era were dedicated to each crew, self-driven, fitted with flashing lights and sirens, designator signs, and where necessary there were priority routes controlled by traffic lights.

Various videos shows Jeeps (1950s with the B-47), station wagons (estate cars) in the early 1960s, crew cab 5-PAX pick up trucks from the late-1960s, and most recently a mixed bag of unmarked commercial colored Ford Transit minibuses, pick up trucks and minivans with magnetic designator signs.

The main reason for MITO scramble practices now is to maintain the ability to Survival Scramble aircraft in the event of ICBM / SLBM attack. From the mid-1980s, numerous papers have described how the ability to get airborne in time is marginal - particularly in the face of a low trajectory SLBM attack.

These KC-135R crews are pretty sharp:

SAC staged film - 1957 - B-47s on "Reflex Alert" with ground crew at aircraft - aircrew driving out in Jeeps:

SAC film 1968


SAC film 1980

The 1970s era SAC Primary Alerting System explained - a bit more high tech than the UK's "Bomber Box" !


3:48 "If the light stays on, we can call that unit over the grey phone ..." and give them a serious bollocking because they didn't acknowledge quickly enough !

I see in the first video there are a bunch of guys waiting to sell the crews cheap stereos when they return.