I'll never complain about my gauges again

[Wildhorsesracing]

It could be worse!

 

B-36 Cockpit Gauge Maze

The B-36 was a state of the art airplane in its day. The Air Engineer was responsible for starting, maintaining and shutting down the 6 Radial Engines and 4 Jet Engines required to make it fly and mission completed.  No modern "Fly by Wire" or "Computer controlled Aircraft" involved here.  Just straight old manpower,  brainpower and the guts to get it done.  This is absolutely mind boggling to think about. The 360degree viewing movement by moving your mouse is amazing.

This is a 360 degree panorama of the flight engineer's station on a B-36: Six propeller-driven R-4360s and four J-47 jets to keep an eye on, plus fuel,pressurization, hydraulics, electrical, and other systems.  .
  

http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/media/062/B-36J%20Engineer.html

 

[kerry]

I saw Jimmy Stewart flying this airplane in a movie some time ago.

[Jeff_S]

It would take a year to figure out all those gauges...but it certainly looks cool.

[kerry]

 

Maybe they'll let me borrow it so I can take my multi engine check ride.

[fantom]

That baby was a maintenance nightmare.

 

Lot's of bucks for the cigar chewing Air Force Generals, media fed, bomber war from a gullible Congress and people. It made for good press, nice movies, but was pure bull. Winning a war against an 'enemy' that had little capability and no interest in fighting us. The remnants of an excellent WW II, 8th Air Force mentality, that wasted untold millions though the 50's and 60's, dropped mostly useless tonnage over 'Nam, and getting many of their fliers...my brothers, killed, using decades old tactics during Linebacker in '72.

 

Their proven, but antiquated, WW II strategic focus, plus their deaf ear to field commanders, got too many tactical pilots and infantry killed. Ever wonder why the F-4 didn't have a nose gun for the first ten years. The bomber generals running the Air Force back then claimed peace was their profession, but unfortunately they had no knowledge of how the fight a 1960's/70's war, and they were way to egotistical to admit it.

 

Jimmy Stewart was a great American, but the movie Strategic Air Command was an embarrassment. It did have some great flying scenes as I recall, but the B-36 and B-47 were both very expensive failures.

[flyboy0681]

What a contraption. Were six piston engines and four turbojets really needed?

[1964-M20E]

Make you wonder about a scramble to take off while under attack.

[bonal]

Plenty of designs were failures but in many the mistakes were what improved the overall evolution of aircraft. We learn more from our failures than our successes (hopefully). As for the movie I love the sequence of the B36 going through its taxi to takeoff scene. Great footage and it isn't some stupid computer generated BS. You have to develop through small steps they had to figure every thing out with there brains and slide rules. And it's not like the F22 and F35 aren't without there own problems.

[M016576]

Plenty of designs were failures but in many the mistakes were what improved the overall evolution of aircraft. We learn more from our failures than our successes (hopefully). As for the movie I love the sequence of the B36 going through its taxi to takeoff scene. Great footage and it isn't some stupid computer generated BS. You have to develop through small steps they had to figure every thing out with there brains and slide rules. And it's not like the F22 and F35 aren't without there own problems.

Ooo, ooo, ooo, pick me!

The F-22 OBOGS system is suspect.

The F-35B/C don't have guns- none of the JSF variants helmet is working right, they have the maneuverability of a MiG-21 (that's bad by today's standards), and are vastly underpowered. That's ok though, because each one cost (only) 3 times the price of any of our 4th gen fighters (sense the sarcasm?). John Boyd is rolling over in his grave over the F-35.... Garaunteed!

If you want to see an embarrassing movie about the Air Force, watch Iron Eagle. I don't know what's worse, that that movie was made, or that I could see that actually happening!

[bonal]

The F15 F16 and the A10 plus the amazing B52 still rule and the FA18 seems to be doing the job from the sea. My Nephew was stationed at Langley and while we were there for a visit we watched the Raptors fly every day. I hope they get the bugs worked out cause that thing is really impressive.

A real fun movie to watch is called jet pilot with the man John Wayne. The story is kind of corny but the flying scenes with the F86's are really cool

[kerry]

How can you not like Iron Eagle.  The race scene between the C150 and a dirt bike was priceless.  You don't get much more excitement than that.