[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The panel was actually a tapered rectangle fitting the form of the weapons bay. My guess was that and the box were some sort of luggage rack or parts carrier. Box was a permanent part of the bay door but it had no visible electronic function.

Between visiting B-57s and our own K-135s both doing cart starts big black clouds of smoke that could be seen for miles were common at Plattsburgh. The FB-111s had the capability for a cart start but they rarely used it. Sometimes the heavy black smoke formed into mushroom clouds, not exactly what anyone wants to see at a nuke bomber base.

[MasterGunner01]

A couple of things about the B-57 bomb bay door. The bomb racks mounted on the door and the whole door was removable. When the B-57 came back from a mission, the empty bomb bay door was removed and a pre-loaded bomb bay door with bombs was installed. This really helped rearming turn times.

During the time the B-57 was being heavily engaged in SEA, there was a plan to mount several GAU-2B/A Mini-guns on the bomb bay door to turn the B-57 into a ground strafer. A prototype was tested but the idea never went anywhere.