On 3/27/2011 8:06 PM, Oren wrote:
On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:30:25 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

Driving northward past Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and coming straight at
us on final southerly approach, a C-130. Unknown if just a cargo carrier,
or a Spooky, but one big fat slow beautiful airplane. My wife saw it first
and quipped, "What the hell is that?" It takes a lot to get her attention.
I just said it was a weapons platform that you would not want looking for
you.

Steve


I spent many years on this base before I quit working for a living. At
one time I had hundreds of convicts working and performing janitorial
duties.

I always say: Hear that? That's the sound of freedom. I've been in
about every hanger on the base at Nellis at one time or another.

Seen many planes there. I teased a rookie from Texas about the B-52
having eight motors. He corrected me right away, calling them engines.

Well golly gee....


Somewhere in my file cabinet at work, I still have the catalog from when
Uncle sold the last bunch of them for scrap, as part of START treaty
compliance. IIRC, no more than 10-15% of the airframes are left- 'G' or
maybe 'H' models I think, but it has been awhile. I saw some of the
ground-level and aerial photos from when they guillotined them- rather
sad. If I was master of the universe, stuff like that would be left
parked in the desert, for people 1000 years from now to marvel and
wonder about.

A few of them will probably still be flying 80 years after production of
the model started. Gotta give Boeing credit for a pre-computer-era
design like that, to still be usable this many decades later.

--
aem sends...