On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:28:13 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:09:51 -0500, "
wrote:

That's what amazed me about the first B38 wheels. There's a whole rubber
forest in one of those things. ;-)


B-36? (6 engine "pusher")

Yes, the original design had a single *monster* tire per. It was soon
changed. The Wright Pat Air Force Museum has one of them (gear only) in the
corner.

I saw one in the fifties that landed at Bolling Field in DC for Armed
Forces Day. They actually had to link the runway at Bolling with the
Runway at the NAS to get it long enough. They had "paved" about a
quarter mile of the grass with that metal plate with the 3 holes in
it. They also had to take a fence down.
We went up to "overlook" the hill East of Bolling to watch it take
off. Quite a bird.

I was walking around a C-5 at Andrews at another AF day in the 70s.
They also had a B-52, one big ugly sombitch that looks like it means
business.

That's why they call it the "BUFF". ;-)

They also did a demo "mass drop" with the 82d Airborne. These guys
jumped from what looked like a few hundred feet. It was spooky. I sure
wouldn't want to be sitting in a fox hole watching that happen.
It was about 90 seconds after the plane went over that they had run,
screaming at us and mustered in front of the grandstand in full battle
gear. All I can say is the bad guys better know a short prayer.

I don't want to be one of them jumping on the badies, either. They're
"hanging out" in more than one way, until they get down.