Seamus Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 (edited) Afternoon all, Thought I'd share some images from a couple of trips up to Fairford in the last week to catch the B-52s on deployment. First, a frustrating afternoon on the 10/09 resulted in just a couple of images of YANKEE41 returning Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0005/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 10/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0005/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 10/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr I had much more luck on the 14/09 with KAGO flight returning after a long mission, plus the bonus arrival of U-2S BLACK01 in mission fit. Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0005/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 14/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0007/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 14/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 61-0034/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 14/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 61-0034/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 14/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0005/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 14/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Lockheed U-2S | 68-10337 | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 14/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr There are a handful more on my Flickr for those interested. Hopefully I'll get another chance or two to get up there later this week before they go home. Thanks for looking, hope they were of interest, Shaun Edited September 16, 2020 by Seamus 17 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Great photos Shaun. I was in a field, glamping near RAF Fairford and saw the B-52s and the U-2S fly above me. Really surprising to see the smoke coming out of the engines on the B-52s. Regards Robert 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seamus Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 Thanks Robert, they're certainly not environmentally friendly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 Even less environmentally friendly when a 3-ship comes back en masse and each does a last minute go-around while they clear the previous aircraft from the runway! That was Monday's experience as the last pair poured on the coals just over the airfield boundary. Impressive though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 My photos are not quite up to your standard, but manage to capture this last Thursday 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonH Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 Wow. great pictures! I notice that the crew open the side windows on the cockpit while taxiing. Any idea why that is? Perhaps it gets a bit ripe in the cockpit after a long mission? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canberraman Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 2 hours ago, DonH said: Wow. great pictures! I notice that the crew open the side windows on the cockpit while taxiing. Any idea why that is? Perhaps it gets a bit ripe in the cockpit after a long mission? You could well be right! I recall a friend telling me that there is a single Elsan type toilet toilet in the cockpit for the benefit of the 4 person crew use. On a particularly long mission this inevitably gets quite well used. More worrying was the story that the toilet contents had completely evaporated after one epic long distance flight and the fumes had been inhaled by the unfortunate crew members! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 3 hours ago, DonH said: Wow. great pictures! I notice that the crew open the side windows on the cockpit while taxiing. Any idea why that is? Perhaps it gets a bit ripe in the cockpit after a long mission? It's common for crews to open the windows so that the ground crew can see that the aircraft is not pressurised. Thus it's safe to open the crew door/s. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 On 9/17/2020 at 3:22 PM, Seamus said: they're certainly not environmentally friendly! Especially when they dump that enormous bombload on somebody! Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 What I find most impressive is how well cared for these old airplanes are. A lot of maintenance pride showing there. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sluffer77 Posted September 26, 2020 Share Posted September 26, 2020 Nice set of captures there Shaun. I popped to Fairford a couple of weeks ago on my way back home from Devon and managed to get 2 of them departing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seamus Posted September 27, 2020 Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 Thanks chaps Made one last trip up to Fairford yesterday morning in the hope I'd catch one or two jets would be heading home. Turned out to be a good decision as five of them departed for Minot. Not a bad haul for a Saturday... Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 61-0034/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0044/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0007/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0056/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0005/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0007/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 61-0034/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-52H Stratofortress | 60-0056/MT | US Air Force | RAF Fairford | 26/09/20 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr As usual, there's more on my Flickr for those interested. Cheers, Shaun 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 Amazing to see these, absolutely brilliant photos. Incredible to think these front line bombers entered service before The Beatles formed and could end up in service for almost 100 years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spruecutter96 Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 Yep, potentially the century-old bomber. Surely there will be no other airframe that will beat this record. Having said that, I remember reading that there are some DC-3 aircraft still being used in South America, with much more modern engines. Chris. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 On 24/09/2020 at 23:30, SAT69 said: What I find most impressive is how well cared for these old airplanes are. A lot of maintenance pride showing there. Thinking that myself. They could pass as almost new. So clean and well maintained. Great photos. Wish I lived a bit closer, would love to visit and see them. Thanks for posting these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 Awesome work Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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