Perhaps you can teach an "Old Dog" new tricks...
Posted on 09/06/2009 9:33:49 AM PDT by em2vn
For the third time in the last decade, the U.S. Air Force is looking at using commercial aircraft as bombers. This time around, it's mainly a matter of cost, with the next generation heavy bomber likely to cost over a billion dollars each, and only carry 30 tons of bombs or missiles. The idea of militarizing 747s first started gaining traction three decades ago, as cruise missiles showed up and many air force analysts did the math and realized that it would be a lot cheaper to launch these missiles from a militarized Boeing 747. The freighter version of the latest 747model, the 747-8F, can carry 140 tons of cargo. After militarizing the aircraft, you would still be able to carry about a hundred tons of missiles and bombs.
The excuse was the 747 was mistaken for a RC-135.
Damn, that’s funny...I’m STILL laughing, thanks!
Regards,
Hey now... so I am wrong... no need to be an ass about it eh?
It was "mistaken" for an RC-135.
Perhaps you can teach an "Old Dog" new tricks...
One Sukhoi, Su-15, downed KAL 007 with two K-8 air-to-air missiles.
If you're going to publicly flaunt your ignorance, grow some thicker skin.
Again.. I was wrong.. no reason to be a jerk now is there?
Quite a few people corrected my view without being a smarmy git.
Looks like a B-47 to me?
Its fictional, from Dale Brown the technothriller author. Its a converted B52 with carbon composite wings, V-tail, streamlined nose,more powerful engines and can actually dogfight and perform high G maneuvers and has a reduced radar signature, still a BUFF but now wearing a party dress, read the books!
If America needed to use 747s as an air platform it would be because other countries did the same, the Germans designed all of their passenger aircraft to serve a military role, and the Russians, well lets just say they design passenger aircraft that do military work.
Thanks, the 4 engines thru me off and the wings on the B-47 are swept back more. I always thought of it as a baby B-52. Have you seen the V-tail F-15? Now that’s a pretty bird.
Next thing you know some hot shot bean counter would decide
it needed folding wings for carrier duty, and don’t forget
an arresting hook, a big one.
Ground borne lasers are even promising for use against ANY flying object.
“Next thing you know some hot shot bean counter would decide
it needed folding wings for carrier duty, and don’t forget
an arresting hook, a big one.”
LOL, You owe me a new keyboard!
Let’s make it VSTOL while we are at it as well as Sub -Orbital capable. And then we can make a presidential version with all the emprovments tossed in.
I stand corrected but the 135 is a 707 which makes it even worse because the 135 doesn’t have the rise above the cockpit and the fuselage is even narrower than the 141
Really, really simple. Read what I wrote. The sightings I recounted happened in the EARLY 1990's, specifically between July of 1992 and April of 1993. As far as being able to see the tail gunner window, I was on a mountain top looking down into a valley as they passed by below me. This is clearly stated in my post. The aircraft I saw weren't flying in formation or flying at 400 knots. They flew one after the other and the speeds were more like 200-250 knots by my estimation. Although I couldn't qualify for military service due to a minor heart arrhythmia, I have been a private pilot for more than 30 years with over 9000 hours logged. I know exactly what I saw, over and over. I practically lived at the switching center during this time as we were bringing up cell sites in the 18 county system we were building. I saw these fly-by's a couple of times a week for over nine months that I was there, both day and night. So, I'm sorry you disagree or you aren't aware that it was happening, but you are just plain wrong. It did indeed happen and I know exactly what I saw.
Funny that you should say this didn't happen, though. I own a grass strip now in SE Tennessee. Over the past seven years my strip has been buzzed repeatedly by biz jets with military markings. I believe they are Saberliners, gray and white in color with military type numbers on them. At least a dozen times over the past seven years I've been buzzed by as many as seven C-130's from the Tennessee Air National Guard out of Nashville. Most recently, this happened last Friday morning at precisely 10:12AM CDT. I wrote the time down, along with the number of aircraft, their direction of flight and the fact that they were TN ANG. Field elevation at my strip is 700' msl and these guys were flying well below the escarpment of the nearby Cumberland Plateau, about 2 miles away. The escarpment is about 2000' msl on average. This puts them less than 1000' agl and closer to 500' agl.
We've also had F-16's blasting up and down the valley on occasion, usually once or twice a year. On one occasion two F-16's flew directly over me as I was towing out a glider. It was a very near miss. Scared the bejesus out of me and the guy on the string. This must have also gotten their attention because I've not seen the F-16's in the valley since this happened and I fly, on average 3-4 times a week during our soaring season.
There is no military route anywhere near this valley and the charts are clearly marked to show both glider and hang glider activity in the area. The local ATC at Chattanooga (KCHA), which provides radar service nearby is also aware of both the military and glider activity in the area. I called the ANG at Nashville on Friday, where the C-130's are based, gave them the information I had and reminded them that we have a fair amount of glider activity going into and out of my strip, and A LOT of hang glider activity in the valley. Sailplanes and hang gliders are nearly invisible until your are right on top of them. It's a recipe for disaster. I don't fancy being run over and I'm sure the military pilots would prefer to not have a midair. It's not at all uncommon to see 30-40 hang gliders in the air here in the valley on a good soaring day. The TN ANG response was the same as yours. I was told "We don't fly formations like you describe" and "We don't fly low level missions in your area".
So, I call BS on your BS. I did indeed see B-52's flying low level near Pikeville, KY, between 1992 and 1993 in the manner I described and I also have seen numerous military aircraft flying low level in the vicinity of my field, as recently as last Friday, even though they aren't "supposed" to be there. Just because you aren't aware of something doesn't mean it didn't happen. Thank you for your service, just the same, though.
Funny, I don’t recall you being there. Oh, wait, you weren’t. It is ever so nice to be “enlightened” by someone who thinks they know everything, though......
I still call BS: The B-52s with tail-gunner compartments (the D/E/F models), and thus, tail-gunner windows, were retired in the early 1980s.
You may well have been located along training route IR-400, (I think that was the one that went through Kentucky/Tennessee), but the details you report are mistaken or plain wrong. Indicated airspeed for a B-52G/H at low level is between 400 and 450 knots Indicated Air Speed: 200-250 knots at low level is approach speed, and can only be maintained with the flaperons down. I’m willing to cut you some slack on the speed estimation, merely because it’s TOUGH to properly estimate the speed of a large aircraft, it’s the same reason that a C-5 on climbout from a takeoff looks as if it SHOULD be falling out of the sky . . .
As for your more recent observations, I have no idea: I got out in 1989, and in any case, am only really familiar with the routes and speeds of B-52s, T-43s, and T-37s, as they are what I flew. . .
If you do a google image search on 747 gunship you’ll see an image someone ‘gin’d up of an “AC-25 Banshee” bristling with guns.
I remember that the Soviet response to the last time we suggested using 747s as offensive weapons systems.
They said that since they wouldn’t be able to tell the military ones from the civilian ones, they would *all* be targeted.
Other than that, I think it’s a good idea. We just have to win in a hurry.
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