In a conventional war vs WP forces (if such a thing was even possible), then yes, it’s mission was practically suicidal. If the gloves ever came off, a Pershing would take care of the airfield without a doubt.

The last time I went hiking in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, a pair of Bones from Robbins AFB (shows how long ago that was) flew up the valley I was climbing out of. They were moving pretty fast in relatively close formation (for being down in a mountain valley). I was high enough that I was able to look down on them as they blasted through.

It was a sight to see, but not as good as the zoom climb from ~200ft to several thousand ft I saw one do in the late 80’s at Barksdale AFB, LA.

Yeah, I know they’d never go into combat like this (I wouldn’t think anyway) but still. . .

That’s gotta be a PS. 111’s have 2 swivelling pylons inboard and 1 non swivelling pylon outermost on the wing.

And I’ve been a Bone Fan and grew up on SAC bases all over the US and have never seen the Bone with the external hardpoints loaded or even fitted with pylons.

Here’s my contribution:

lightnattic………….got anymore drivel like that??

what you see on that B52 is a perfect example of a diagonal tension stress field. This occurs when the skin panel(denoted as the areas surrounded by both horizontal and diagonal stiffeners) can no longer maintain its shape under an applied load, this can be horizontal, vertical or a combination of both. The panel will buckle to relieve the stress in the structure, and the stress is converted to a load carried along the 45 degree diagonal.

this load is being caused by the weight distribution over that part of the aircraft, in this situation. whilst i am not involved with the stressing of fuselage’s (I am a wing man) I do know that the hoop stresses in the fuselage stiffeners must account for the fuselage acting under pressure.

The skin will not shrink by a great deal at altitude (certainly not enough to tension that amount of slack) but what will happen is that there will be a little additional rigidity due to the pressurised cabin (if indeed the pressurised cabin is sealed via the fuselage skins, which i do not know), and you will get some support from dynamic pressure.

I would suggest that even with the two elements combined this is not enough to support the fuselage and unbuckle the skin (the nose needs to be propped up in order to unbuckle the panels).

Of course they could have used a slightly thicker grade of skin panel, or added more stiffeners (this would have been the lighter solution) as it is, this must be fatigue certified to fly in that condition (we would not design our parts to operate normally in a buckled state, unless there was a specific purpose, but i won’t go into that as its a bit work-sensitive). Certainly, we can let some metallic structure buckle a certain number of times, but you probably wouldnt want to see it if you were a nervous passenger!

coanda

What it the drivel? I’ve spoken to numerous pilots and other crewmembers, Airframe shop airmen, and Boeing engineers about it in the 8 years I lived at Barksdale. I’ve seen BUFFs in flight in person during several Space-A trips and ROTC incentive flights and have seen the the skin in the area of the pic wrinkle and smooth out in flight as the wings flexed going through turbulence.

If what I posted is drivel in your mind, then it’s a well established myth in both USAF and Boeing circles.

I can’t believe FI would show that without confirming the details of the incident. I’ve seen that same video posted several times saying it was a Hawk trainer up in Canada, a 2 seat Jag in England, etc.

That’s wierd… it’s got the short veritcal fins and a round nose radome, not the wide platypus style one.

And it’s top speed can be attained with a full warload for a far longer distance compared to legacy fighters. Very rarely does an F-16 reach it’s top speed of M2 and with a usable weapons load, forget it.