B52 tail gun unit Cal. 50 X 4

[Slick]

While researching Dazzz's Popsey B rocket, this photo fell out of one of the books. It is an unskinned, 4 gun tail turret for the B52. The picture was taken during an Armed Forces Day open house at Blytheville(Eaker) AFB back in the late '70s or early '80s. Blytheville was one of the largest B52 bases in the country, back in the day. Now, it's an industrial park, albeit with an 11,000' runway.

The turret is mounted in a maintenance stand. Sadly, I didn't take a close-up of the "details" board. Anyway, it was a neat display and I'm glad I found the pic.

 

[V40]

Yep, back in the golden days when all-aspect ratio missles weren't around too much and the main threat thought out by SAC at the time was that they'd be intercepted from the 5-7 o'clock positions by MiG-17's, MiG-19's (Chinese J-9s), and MiG-21's - 25's.

BTW, anybody here remember Lt. Viktor Belenko's defection back in the 1970's with a MiG-25 landing in Japan?

 

[BMG50]

These .50cal machine guns i guess were the faster rate fire M3s.

 

[Tony Williams]

Yep, back in the golden days when all-aspect ratio missles weren't around too much and the main threat thought out by SAC at the time was that they'd be intercepted from the 5-7 o'clock positions by MiG-17's, MiG-19's (Chinese J-9s), and MiG-21's - 25's.

Some B52s had a 20mm Vulcan in the tail, but IIRC the quad-50 setup survived in service for longer.

BTW, anybody here remember Lt. Viktor Belenko's defection back in the 1970's with a MiG-25 landing in Japan?

Yep, I remember that. I think it was eventually returned to the USSR - after first having been stripped down, measured, analysed and rebuilt...

 

[Jolly Green]

I remeber seeing guns "back in the Golden Days."
Also loved the camo over black paint jobs on the B-52s. Totally badass.

 

[stecol]

BTW, anybody here remember Lt. Viktor Belenko's defection back in the 1970's with a MiG-25 landing in Japan?

Of course, toward the end of summer 1976, USSR flamed from every hole, pressing the japanese government to get back the aircraft.
The aircraft was moved to a special airport, dismantled and thoroughly analyzed by Japanese and American technical intellicence.
Was returned only a couple of weeks later dismantled in 30 or 40 boxes ....

Very Cold War episode ....

 

[vinnyw]

I always liked watching them land with fighters around,they just lumberd along and the fighters zipped right by.The wing tips droping so much when they landed was cool also.Didn,t the early models have a tail gunner.
Vinny

 

[Tony Williams]

The B52 pilots had some fun with fighters at their service ceiling: their much lower wing loading meant that the huge bomber could easily out-turn the fighters and get on their tail!

 

[beihan62]

Hi Mark,I remeber the defection of the MiG pilot with his aircraft,and the furore from the Russians about the stripdown and examination of the MiG 25,it was in fact only a bit of payback from when the Russians impounded 3 B29s,and over the following two years they reverse engineered them and lo and behold they had the Tu 4 Bull,on reflection the Mig 25 could not have been that good as they were not copied,
Cheers,
Don,

 

[V40]

Don and others, I found this interesting info: http://www.videofact.com/english/defectors2_4en.html


Also, Don back during Vietnam, a MACVSOG Recon Team (Idaho, I think?) was on top of a mountain in Laos when they witnessed below a fury of NVA activity. This was late in the evening after they had put up a defensible RON position and were awakened by a few of the Yards on guard duty. Pitch black, but below there were allot of flashlights and colored lights and truck noises. They, the team, had been sent there to monitor a major highway (9) for a large truck and tank park. Guess they found it big time. Anyhow, soon they heard the moan and deep sounds of a piston engine. It had its wheels down and had two propellers with an engine on each side of the fuselage. It also had landing lights on. As it got close the 1-0 Team Leader saw that it was a C-47 with no markings. It passed so close beneath them that the team could see the faces of the pilot and co-pilot against the lit instrument panels. They were wearing what looked like black fatigue tops. The Yards were getting very upset by this incident and told their interpreter that they needed to get out know. The 1-0 refused because they were on a piece of rock in the bush, very well hidden, and the drop off was approximately 982 ft high. They held the high ground, the NVA below did not. The team took pictures with its Pen-EE camera of that plane and later that of a Mi-8 that had also landed and hour later. Talk about your own "Twilight Episode" and in the middle of nowhere where there was only suppose to be a small truck and tank park. They later found out that the C-47 was on the "Lend-Lease Act" during WWII and the soviets had redesignated it an IL-2.

The "Secret War" in the Vietnam War has to be the most spookiest, unbelievable, and strangist in the world.


By the way, in case you are wondering, the IL-2 airdropped supplies to the NVA that night while making 3 passes and the Mi-8 was also "sterile" and had picked up some of the cargo and took off towards the northeast.

 

[Songun 4.25]

They later found out that the C-47 was on the "Lend-Lease Act" during WWII and the soviets had redesignated it an IL-2.

The Lisunov Li-2 was actually a license-build DC-3 (the license was acquired by USSR in the mid 30's). Some C-47 were deliverd through Lend-Lease, but the ones seen in SEA were most likely Li-2's.

BTW: To all people who think that MiG-25 was not a good aircraft, please take the time to watch these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoPfRd3p9gk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8fNjfAIy_g (skip to 21:55)

 

[beihan62]

Hi Mark,Thanks for the post re.Li 2/C47,as you say it was a realy spooky cloak and dagger time,also a time for new inovations in weapons,cameras,and equipment,take for instance,the C47 Gunships,basicaly a gatling gun/s fitted to a WW2 transport plane which transformed a lumbering transport into a truly deavstating weapon,from what I read/learn there were many such adaptions made to suit the situations as they arose,some of the Russian built Li2/C47s had a top turret fitted with a heavy machine gun for defensive armament,thanks for posting the interview with the Russian pilot who defected,
Hi Songun 4.25,Thanks for posting the films about the MiG 25,it was a phenominal aircraft,let down by its huge appetite for fuel and fairly short range,many similar soviet aircraft suffered from the same shortcomings,the airframes and electronics were innovative but were compromised by the huge engines which consumed vast amounts of fuel in order to reach such tremendous speeds,(mach 3),had these shortcomings been elimenated it may well have been a different story,
Cheers,
Don,

 

[V40]

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/mig25.html

 

[Songun 4.25]

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/mig25.html

I agree, BUT MiG-25 was never designed to intercept the Blackbird. Its main use was to close any air defence gaps within the vast Soviet territory against "normal" threats (B-52, B-58 and nuclear cruise missiles) Comparing a tactical reconnaissance aircraft / interceptor (Mig) with a strategic reconnaissance plane (SR-71) having two totally different doctrines and philosophies of use would be very much like comparing apples and oranges. Besides, Russian sources have never claimed that MiG-25 was designed to cope with A-12 / SR-71.

 

[V40]

Then there was the XB-70 & supersonic B-2 also. Now I am thoroughly confused. With the speeds in which the Hustler and Stratofortress are capable of, a MiG 21PF probably could of been better suited for those needs.(?)

 

[Songun 4.25]

Then there was the XB-70 & supersonic B-2 also. Now I am thoroughly confused. With the speeds in which the Hustler and Stratofortress are capable of, a MiG 21PF probably could of been better suited for those needs.(?)

Maybe you should mind to actually watch the documentaries I posted the links for. It is all said there.

Reference: Wings of the red star: minute 2:41 – 3:03

It was clearly stated, that the B-58 outperformed the MiG-21.

MiG-25 was also designed to deal with the XB-70 bomber. But because the Valkyrie never went operational, we will never know whether MiG-25 would actually be good enough to intercept it successfully.

B-2 belongs to a totally different generation of aircraft. Remember: We are talking here about 1960s technology!


All I want to clarify was that MiG-25 was designed to meet very specific operational requirements within the Soviet Union, so there was no sense by anyone in simply copiing it. Besides, the US already possessed with the F-106 a decent interceptor.

 

[V40]

My fault, I meant the B-1 back then. The Cold War all over again. Nyet!

 

[botcheg]

While researching Dazzz's Popsey B rocket, this photo fell out of one of the books. It is an unskinned, 4 gun tail turret for the B52. The picture was taken during an Armed Forces Day open house at Blytheville(Eaker) AFB back in the late '70s or early '80s. Blytheville was one of the largest B52 bases in the country, back in the day. Now, it's an industrial park, albeit with an 11,000' runway.

The turret is mounted in a maintenance stand. Sadly, I didn't take a close-up of the "details" board. Anyway, it was a neat display and I'm glad I found the pic.

View attachment 72875

About 14 years or so ago, my wife and I were up in the Oakland area for a wedding and next day I got to spend time at the Oakland Aviation Museum. Their "BIG" attraction was a Short Solent Mk. III Flying Boat, but laying around in the yard was one or two of the B52 tail turrets in surplus condition. Looked up the website but there was no mention of them but they may be in storage.
Bill

 

[V40]

Supposedly there were 5 Mig-21 kills achieved by the B-52D's 4x.50cal tail units during Linebacker II. All came from the 307th SW.

 

[Tony Williams]

Both sides overclaimed quite considerably during that conflict, as usual.