B52s over Cambridgeshire ?

[Idle Reverse]

Morning All, did anyone else see a pair of B52s in trail over Cambridgeshire yesterday around mid day ?
They were tracking West to East and looked to perhaps only be up around FL150 - FL 200
There is a possibility they could have been KC135s (with Mildenhall nearby) but the plan view from below definitely looked like B52s. Just curious to know.

[treadigraph]

There are several (6?) at Fairford at the mo. I glance at ADSB occasionally during the day and noticed a couple head out to the North Sea to somewhere off Hook of Holland and then back to Fairford. Wish they'd route over South London, years since I saw a Buff in the air.

[Badger3434]

See 'gloucestershirelive' website (I can't post the URL).

I see them over Banbury most days, east - west direction, ADSB says at about 10/11,000 ft. One had an F15 in close company.

Lovely sights!

[TEEEJ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB5IAE_vtBQ

[Barksdale Boy]

Thanks for that TEEJ. Did my heart good to watch that. It brought back many great memories.

[SASless]

Gosh....there I wuz thinking we had gone from mere banter to full blown warfare!

[RedhillPhil]

Fascinating to see the wing outrigger wheels trundling along the ground whilst the aircraft is taxying but as the aircraft is making it's take-off run the wheels are well clear of the ground as the wings lift.

[Idle Reverse]

Thank you for the video link, Teeej; all good stuff.
And thanks to All for confirming the likelihood that they were indeed BUFFS passing over Cambridgeshire.
This all brings back fond memories of the RAF v SAC Double Top bombing competition days . . not sure if 1980 was the last Vulcans v BUFFs Double Top but I remember that the BUFFs didn’t do too well that year and hence on their planned departure day to the U.S. the BUFF crews were all made to “re-fly the bomb comp route” around the U.K. prior to then climbing out and flying back home to the States. Some form of “detention punishment” from their superiors to indicate their disappointment with the overall BUFF performance that year.
A little unfair I thought as of course there was always a little home team skullduggery in the RAF / SAC bomb comps hence we tended to win over here with Double Top and they always won over there in Barksdale with Giant Voice. Happy Days !

[Barksdale Boy]

IR

Your memory of 1980 Double Top is correct although you forgot to mention that 617 Sqn won every prize but one that year. There was a Double Top in 1981 (trophies shared between 617 and 44), but the last Vulcan GV was 1980.

[The Oberon]

Thanks for that TEEJ. Did my heart good to watch that. It brought back many great memories.

BB, As ex V-force ground crew I was interested in the time taken to "see off" a B52. It took about 1.5 hours from climb in to taxi out on the V force, how long for a Buff?

[Barksdale Boy]

The Oberon

Your crew in to t/o time for a Vulcan is a touch pessimistic. For a standard sortie we would crew in 50 minutes to an hour before getting airborne. As to a B-52, I couldn't tell you.

[The Oberon]

BB. Sorry my mistake, I assumed from your user name and "happy memories" quote that you were ex USAF.

[treadigraph]

There's one west--bound across the North Sea at the moment, on the present track will be overhead Norwich shortly for anybody up that way who'd like a peek - and if your weather is kind!

[M609]

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1892x1259/264c5bee_46e5_44aa_815e_277f1f19443b_88cfff011d0f762f6535cb4 72a31980d162edc70.jpeg
USAF published this of 5 B-52s and 3 RNoAF F-16s this week

[Idle Reverse]

Nice picture M609. I do remember 617 almost doing a clean sweep in 1980, Barksdale Boy, but I can’t remember which one they didn’t get ? Pete Branthwaite’s 617 crew (Pete, Bob German, Al Beadie, OJ Wheeler and Duke Wilson) used an offset technique for their visual bombing and got some excellent / winning scores. They went on to GV80 and came out as the top Vulcan crew (I think 4 crews went each year ?) and were placed 4th overall which, over there, mixing it with the home B52s and FB111s was impressive in itself. Sadly OJ and Duke are no longer with us, RIP.

[Barksdale Boy]

Yes, IR, the only one we didn't win was the nav trophy. Very sad to hear that OJ and Duke are no longer with us. The offset choice for the Kielder target was more complicated than you describe, but maybe you know that.

[cavuman1]

Long ago and far away (in 1962) my family lived on the side of a mountain in West Hartford, Connecticut. Our home's porch overlooked the Connecticut River valley - a spectacular sight, especially in autumn when the entire panorama was ablaze in oranges and reds and yellows of trees stretching their branches and yawning in preparation for their winter's nap. I was thirteen.

Hartford is thirty miles due south of Chicopee, Massachusetts, the home of Westover Air Force Base where a wing (or two?) of B-52H's were based. It is with vivid clarity that I recall the trepidation we felt in October of 1962; the Cuban Missile Crisis! Our home had an actual bomb shelter, stocked to the gills with canned food and supplies, but we all knew that Nikita Khrushchev had East Hartford's Pratt & Whitney on his primary target list. We would be blinded by intense light nanoseconds before we were french fried! - no time to race down to the shelter!

For those few weeks while the world held its breath, the trees didn't seem to mind. They glistened in their long wavelength spectral colors - the ROYG of the rainbow. The air was clear and crisp. Most afternoons, my father and I would sit on the porch and talk and listen and inhale the pure autumn air. Then we would hear "the whine'! 160 TF-33 engines powering twenty Stratofortresses at our eye level, 1,000 feet MSL above their course - the Connecticut River. Five groups of four planes. Fast. Flexing immense muscle. Ready for anything!

My father would put his arm around me and pat my shoulder. He would say: "Son, that's the sound of freedom!" He was right, as usual. I never have understood how that graceful aircraft was labeled with the derogatory moniker Big Ugly Fat F**ker: in flight, the most svelte swan would be hard-pressed to match the BUFF's beauty!
And power....

- Ed

The View From Our Home sans B-52's!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1280x521/hartford_seen_from_heublein_tower_68e8c6b71dbba333baa9253884 777baf86f6ba54.jpg

[dead_pan]

Very impressive departure today, the Buffs skimming just below cloud height on the way back to Barksdale. It appears to have been a very successful deployment - diverse range of sorties flown over various bits of Europe and beyond, plus some range time and possibly one strike in Syria.

[Idle Reverse]

Well the B52s have brought warm memories back this week; great to see them in our skies over here again. The B52 longevity is incredible, bordering on the unbelievable? Perhaps best some of us should look to celebrate its 70th birthday as many of us won’t be around when it eventually rolls into its inevitable 100th !
Rarely the first choice mount for budding new crews but I think it was the words of a USAF Brigadier General (admittedly addressing a large “onside” bomber crew audience) where he reminded the listeners that although fighter pilots might well be first in line for the glory, it was only ever bomber crews that historically won the wars. And of course it could be said that it is still as true today as we see the new generation of single seat, fast jet bomber crews carrying the fight to the bad guys ?

Thank you B52s . . Safe landings All.

[Barksdale Boy]

At a similar "onside" large bomber crew gathering, I well recall a feisty 2 star USAF general saying in reply to the ill-judged remark "I'm a fighter man myself", "Gee, Sir Williamson (sic), I was always taught fighters are fun, bombers are important". Brought the House down.

[Tankertrashnav]

Great memories cavuman1 - thanks for sharing.

[RAFEngO74to09]

B-52 Initial Qualification Training Course 14-02 video - some good views of the inside:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpiKFG5Z7_k

[RAFEngO74to09]

Tour during airshow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoxY9p3PpKM

[RAFEngO74to09]

Great interview with a sqn cdr here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryVUenHM3E