Remember when

Those planes were combat capable!

I’m pretty sure that the B-52s my dad sent to Hanoi, when was the forward combat air controller, are still flying today.

Of course there was pre-production and testing flights, but the official introduction of the B-52 was February 1955, about a month before I was born.

My dad was training as a radar man in Mount Snow Kentucky. They moved him up the chain when they started to network radars.

I still remember those giant Dr. Strangelove radar consoles in the block house where he worked. They all had built-in ashtrays and cigarette lighters, which were missing because people had stolen them for their automobiles.

It never worked in a civilian car because they were made for 24 V.

 

Actually alot of the 52's that were working the Nam war were B-52 C and D models - none of which are still flying today -I think- I may be wrong please feel free to correct me. Most of what is still working today are the H models - again I think this is true may need a "error check"

 

As far as I know, it was used to make the inlet air charge more dense.

 

Basically what i remember...i wasnt on it but we had them close by on our ramp. More air/gas equals more thrust

 

Well you always get more horsepower in a piston engine when the air is dense, so altitude is never your friend in that respect. In every other respect altitude is something you are always conscious to maintain.

Regarding light planes, I have flown a Beechcraft Bonanza, a Bellanca super Decathlon, and a Piper Cherokee. None of them were anywhere close to new but they were all nice & serviceable.

I never became a very good pilot, never got in enough flight hours, and I never solo’d. Back when I was flying my eyesight was just terrible.

Since then I have had eye surgery, and it has improved a lot; but all my buddies in the flying club have gotten old and lost their ticket.

I suppose if I got rid of all my other hobbies, the guns, the motorcycles, the Tacoma, the kit car, the 4 wheel Drive, the fat fender car, the boat, The welders, and all my tools.… Then I could afford to buy a really inexpensive airplane of my very own.

I’d have to pay every month to put it in a hanger, and every year it would need to have inspections and repairs, all of which is very expensive nowadays. The cost of fuel & oil has doubled. Maintenance costs are double all the way around since I was a frequent flyer.

Pffft…..Forget everything I just said.
I would never sell the Tacoma.

 

Hmmmmm…..
Name that gizmo!

 

Well I don’t know anything about the different models. I do remember that they were flying cargo airplanes left over from the Berlin airlift, and they still had coal dust under the floorboards.

They put electric Gatling guns on them and converted them to Spooky flying gunships.

 

It is an insertion/extraction tool for IC chips.
(okay, I cheated and used google lens)

 

$2.00 bought a cup to one of our parties. If you lost your cup, you had to buy another. I remember going to the keg and giving it a lift to see if it was full enough to spend my money, and if it wasn’t too late, everyone pitching in $2 more to make a trip to Beach Road Liquor with one of the over-18 seniors in my van to get another 1/4. Great memories!

 

Hack yes. My high school class had it made. We had a couple parents that weee in law enforcement. A county sheriff and the police chief. They would instruct the officers to make sure we just got home safely. No one got in trouble on kegger nights.

 

How about Matt's beerball parties?

 

Anyone remember 3.2 beer

 

I grew up in Kansas, eighteen and you could legally buy it. That was a ways back.

 

If you can remember 3.2 beer, be grateful you can still remember 3.2 beer.

 

I like your signature.

In appreciation:
https://youtu.be/DEy6EuZp9IY

 

One of his best, really miss John.

 

Listened to it again, always brings a tear.

 

Grain Belt beer. 99 cents a sixer.

 

I have no idea what these are