Heads Up - "Strategic Air Command" on TV
 

I see the 1955 film "Strategic Air Command" starring James Stewart and June Allyson, in being broadcast on TV this Friday 30th June (11.00 to 13.15) on Film 4. (Virgin Channel 428).
Visually stunning with air-to-air shots of B-36s, B-47s and B-52s - one of my favourite aviation films and very well worth watching if only for its the sheer visual impact; the colour, clouds, and air-to-air photography is stunning. I was blown away by the shots of the B-36's contrailing into the sunset with all ten engines running.

As a bonus it’s something to see a flight deck that has no computer, digital display, or high tech flight control system.

Air-to-air sequences later in the film after “Dutch” Holland (James Stewart) converts to B-47’s are equally spectacular.

The dreamy music / love theme used to accompany the aerial sequences is “The World is Mine” by long established Hollywood composer Victor Young (one of his last compositions – he died in 1956, a year after the film’s release).
WT


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

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...irComand19.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...AirComand9.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...tEngineer2.jpg

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

I can remember it when I was a kid - the horror of replacing B-36's with the B-47 & that short lived monstrosity the B-52 has lived with me ever since

*goes off to set it to record*

:ok:

One of the first films I recorded to VHS from BSB's 'The Movie Channel' back in 1990, then transferred to DVD 14 years later!

I see that there's a widescreen NTSC Region 1 DVD version available on Amazon....but quite pricey!

I believe there is a Freudian slip in the film. Stewart is supposedly a B-17 pilot who has been recalled to duty. Having seen the B-36, he comments to his wife "I thought the B-24 was big, but this.." I suspect he was meant to say B-17, but in the generated excitement he slips into reality; he was a B-24 driver in WWII. I guess no-one picked it up. If I'm wrong, blame many years since I last saw it. Also off to set the recorder.

I presume you meant to say the B-58….

Fantastic film
The B-36 had a fairly short service life .e.g Jimmy Stewart's B-36 '5734' (51-5734) was accepted by USAF in November 1952 but sent for scrapping in 1958.
Convair flew a swept wing solely jet powered version - the B-60 - but its thick wing and low powered engines meant it was no competition to the B-52.
There was also a cargo/passenger developed the XC-99 designed to carry 100,000lb of cargo or 400 equipped troops. The USAF ordered just one,

The B-36 was deployed to the UK where one came to grief running out of fuel in transit to Fairford. The crew abandoned the aircraft which crashed in Wiltshire.
Thankfully all of the crew survived and there were no injuries on the ground.

An excellent book on the plane is Magnesium Overcast by Dennis R Jenkins - published over here by Midland Publishing..

There are many things I'd say about or call the B-58, but monstrosity wouldn't be one of them ("deathtrap" would be appropriate - the accident rate was horrid). In fact I always thought the B-58 was a rather good looking aircraft.
If he indeed meant the B-52, I suspect he was being sarcastic.

Somewhat off topic, I saw a program on the B-1 a few days ago (interestingly they never mentioned it's "Bone" nickname). I always thought that - for a big bomber - the B-1 just looks right. Sort of a 'form follows function' beauty, while also looking suitably intimidating.

Much prefer it to a A Gathering of Eagles which I was exposed to as a command behaviours training file. I think it was clear SAC benefited from having an AFRes Colonel and qualified B-47 pilot as the lead actor. Allegedly it led to a 25% uplift in Airforce recruitment.

Herod, at one point Jimmy Stewart was a B-17 instructor at Kirtland before coming to the UK to fly the B-24. I think 'Dutch Holland' was supposed to be an ex B-29 pilot.

My wonderful Mother was an aviation lover who hated flying. Every time she saw contrails she said three words- Strategic Air Command.

Channel 300 or 301 (+1) on Freesat.

Dave
Thanks for the tip.
WT

Bombers B-52 (released in the UK as No Sleep till Dawn)
 

Those B52's, are there any air worthy examples still flying or maybe a good museum example anywhere?

A few undergoing restoration, I believe

It was hard to find a DVD copy of 'A Gathering of Eagles', but I eventually found a Region 4 NTSC version....

Strategic Air Command was the better movie!

Plus about 75 still in active service and about to have new (Rolls Royce) engines to extend their lives.

I wouldn't call a bomber which has been in service for over 50 years as being 'short lived'.

As I recall it landed short of the runway at Boscombe Down.
I saw one near Bovingdon in about 1954 although I doubt if it landed there.

SLXOwft; thanks for that about Stewart and the B17. Learn something every day.

A B.36 also made a very successful landing in a snowstorm short of Boscombe Down, with very little damage, merely ripping off the nose gear doors on a barbed wire fence. A road was built into Boscombe, where it subsequently departed. In 1997, I sat in the B.47 cockpit mock-up for the film at March Air |Force Base in California.

I understand B-24s were what Col Stewart actually flew when serving with 8th Air Force back in the dark days of WW2. Apologies if it already been noted but Harry Morgan, alias Col Sherman Potter of M*A*S*H fame. Harry Morgan also starred alongside James Stewart in the similar vintage Glenn Miller Story.

FB:ok:

I think there was a good serving of irony in the original post. Not only generically "in service", but the current active fleet includes actual airframes procured in 1960. This is similar to its KC-135 stablemate (the original Boeing 717 by the way), and its long standing equivalent, the Tu-95.

By way of comparison, the Royal Air Force's Lancaster PA474 was a sprighty 28 years old when it embarked on its second career as a heritage demonstrator with the BBMF.

X-15 film drama narrated by James Stewart
 

To make the connection back to Strategic Air Command….a film narrated by James Stewart…..X-15 is a 1961 American aviation drama film that presents a fictionalized account of the X-15researchrocket aircraft program, the test pilots who flew the aircraft, and the associated NASA community that supported the program. X-15 starred David McLean, Charles Bronson, James Gregory and Mary Tyler Moore (in her first feature film role).

See the film for free on Youtube:


Not a SAC film but a film showing the ‘hot’ new USAF planes circa 1956……..Toward the Unknown, originally called Flight Test Center and titled Brink of Hell in its UK release, is a 1956 American war film about the dawn of supersonic flight filmed on location at Edwards Air Force Base. Starring William Holden, Lloyd Nolan and Virginia Leith, the film features the screen debut of James Garner.
If you google this film can be watched but it is from a Russian video website -- so I have not entered the details.

Irony is clearly lost on some on here ;)

............................. IIRC they couldn't believe the "new" bombers would be anything like as good as the old ones , and, as a child, I felt for them............. :(

Chevron. As well as the Boscombe down forced landing, there was a crash in Wiltshire. I also saw one whilst spectating at Farnborough, away to the west, climbing very slowly but with a very distinctive noise.

Indeed so - my brother was called out as crash guard for the remnants . The 'arrival point' was very close to, if not on , the borders of three counties. The crew had all baled out, with no casualties, as I recall.

B36
 

I pity the guys who had to change the spark plugs on that. If I have this right, 6 engines each with 28 cylinders each with 2 spark plugs = 336. Up a ladder, in Alaska!

Whilst I knew about the Boscombe Down undershoot, I've never heard of the Fairford bailout before.

Must've been out of Greenham Common.

I just went to that South American rainforest site to check out what the DVD goes for. It says that "Strategic Air Command" is currently available on Prime - no charge! :ok:
I'll have to check it out tonight...

Sadly not free on the UK distributary of said river. Rental SD £2.49 HD £3.49 purchase £5.99.

The B-47 seems to have been a handful to take off and land, of 9 destroyed in the UK all but two were in close proximity to the runway. For example 1 May 55 at Fairford one crashed on take-off due to pilot error (all crew safe). The ASN page has an embeded 'U tube' video of a training film based on the incident from 2.10ish there is a short clip of the wing and no1 engine striking the runway

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/60607

6 Aug 54 Fairford - crashed on take off
2 Aug 55 Upper Heyford - damaged on landing - written off due to further damage on recovery
16 May 56 Off Lands End - abandoned due to engine fire
28 Jul 56 Lakenheath - landing accident (the nuclear incident)
28 Feb 58 Greenham Common - parked a/c written off after a drop tank, one of a pair jettisoned by another B-47 in difficulty on take off, struck the ground close by
5 Feb 63 Greenham Common - crashed landing in snow due to asymmetric thrust when one engine failed to spool up
26 May 64 Upper Heyford - crashed on landing (also destroying another parked B-47)

As I heard it:

The B-36 which landed short of Boscombe was flown by Col Jim Connor on his first trip to the UK. Confused by the lighting he could see through a snowstorm, he was rather surprised to be told that he was 2 miles from touchdown after he'd landed....

When he finally made it to ops, he was told that there was a phone call for a Lieutenant Connor. "Hello, this is Colonel Connor", he answered. "Nope - I'm General Curtis LeMay - and you are now a Lieutenant!".

A couple of days later Lieutenant Connor flew back to the US as a passenger....

Chevron. I knew about the Boscombe down incident, but was unaware of the Wiltshire crash until I read this thread. Climbing out of Fairford makes sense. Many thanks.

I actually heard and then saw A B-36 Northbound at high altitude over my hometown in Quebec when I was quite young…
There is a good biography of Gen. Stewart’s Military service.
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea...Bomber%20Pilot

Re the B36 at Boscombe Down
They actually touched down on the old High Post Airfield and then trundled down the hill to end up just across the A345 at the Boscombe D perimeter fence,the area where they landed is quite undulating.
From memory...they had flown in from the states...the pilot was not familiar with british approach lights and in bad weather - mistook the 'funnel' lights for the peri track.
I think the ensuing conversation with ATC went something like ... ''your airfield is rough'' with the reply being ''you are not here yet'' !! :)
Boscombe radar was very rudimentary then and only gave range (no height info).
I know that area very well and am astounded they 'got away with it' ...light damage and no injuries.
I would not however have liked to be in the aircraft commanders shoes at the ensuing interview/enquiry!! :)

The famous picture of the B36 just across the A345 with the local bus company double decker in the background.
https://i.imgur.com/M0NE8cg.png

"2042" (44-92042) was repaired and served on until 1956.

Some facts about the B-36 -

Wing span of 230 feet was greater than first flight of the Wright Bros.
Contained 27 miles of wiring.
Could carry 84,000lb weight of bombs - a greater weight than a fully loaded B-24.
A car could circle the globe 18 times on the 30,000+ gallons of fuel in the B-36 wing tanks..

But a bit of a sitting duck in contested air space by the arrival of jet fighters - a cruise speed of 230 mph wasn't much help