Actually, that's a pretty good display of airmanship for a Hollywood movie. Clearly, that part was written by someone who knew a thing or two about real-world flying.
The music you hear here was written specially for B52G emergencies. This music is played in the control tower, on the Airbase PA system, and in the cockpit during times of tension and crisis........but i dont know why.
For those worried about the tailgunner, no he did not have an ejection seat. BUT he could jettison the turret assembly just aft of his windows. he would then manually leap out the rather large gap where the turret used to be. The B-52 manual suggested the old 'cannon ball' postion for exit.
@mightaswellbe Was the tailgunner actually "at" the tail in those days? I thought the guns were remote-operated from the gunner's station beside the rearward-facing EWO. Then again the G-model is my only frame of [mental] reference, seeing as the H birds are completely EW-reliant w/o guns.
@RingSight91 Yes, I know at least thru the 'D' model that the tail gunner rode in the back. When the three B-52s flew around the world back in 1957 one of the tail gunners actually stayed back there the whole trip so he could claim to be the first man to go around the world backwards. He took a sack full of westerns with him to keep him occupied.There was a way to get from the back to the front in flight via a catwalk down the starboard side of the fuselage if you really had to.
the gunner only sat in front in the G and H models. gunner position was eliminated in 1991 when they finally accepted that air to air missiles made the idea obsolete
@Blahblobify The gunners will come back, when the Airborne Laaazzuuuurs get installed on the tails when they realize they can't EW-spoof the missiles anymore lol!
Well....right now the airborne laser platform requires a 747 stacked with equipment and a power generator as big as an office building, by the time they miniaturize it the Buff will surely be out of service. I'n stunned they are still flying, when I was in them in the late 70's we thought the old bird was ready to be replaced.
@Blahblobify Technically you were right, the old birds were ready to be replaced. Problem was, the replacements were an awful bad maintenance nightmare, lol. I have yet to hear of one Bone Crew Chief who spoke fondly of his bird. Then again, I used to hear my BUFF Crew Chief suite-mate b_tch about his aircraft too, usually after another 12-hour shift :-{
Greetings troops, The suits are correct for the time. I remember my Dads's suit, helmet and all. The tubes around the outside would inflate and tighten the fabric while the helmet was pressureized. They aren't wearing the face plates because they are in the pattern for landing and don't need them and they were a real pain.
i have never heard tower instructing a plane to enter on the upwind of a traffic pattern....very odd....you always enter on the downwind or base or a traffic pattern....
At least tail gunner SHOULD have bailed out. He is only moving the center of gravity to the rear and has stupid escape route. Poor propaganda script, they could have got rid of the 'voting' in the movie.
Okay, lets look at this. When this movie was made it was suppose to be around the time the aircraft was rolling out to the units. The tanker was a KC-97, which was the standard tanker of the time. The KC-135 was developed around 1953 and was not available to all units at the time. The suits were the standard high altitude suits of the time. Line chiefs usually did not fly with the aircraft. The gunner was actually in the tail.
Nice tanker. Funny how they designed the landing gear so that both normal AND emergency systems would fail with the loss of one little relay. It's not like relays ever fail or anything....
I didn't think the tail gunner could bail out. Well, I guess I'm thinking of ejecting. In that case, the whole tail would detach, but I guess he could just climb out the door he came in through. I can see now why they put the gear down 50 miles out. Otherwise they couldn't have made this suspenseful scene!
Why would they put the gear down 50 miles out from the base? And those don't look much like real ejection seats to me. But I wouldn't know, I guess. As for the P-suits, what about the faceplates? Aren't those kind of important? Are they supposed to find it and clip it on before they eject, or what? LOL. that flight engineer sure found out where the wiring was pretty damn quick. Why is he the only one without a helmet? I'm guessing he's the hero of the movie? Heros don't NEED helmets. LOL.
Yes, but in the context of the movie, they weren't used for the type of mission the movie was supposed to be portraying. A bit anal I guess, but that's how I see it. ;-)
yes, but they still would have been used anyway. Aircrew for SR-71 flights (no matter if they were for an airshow or other "low-level" work) always wore their pressure suits
They are period suits yes, but not for B-52 crew. The Buff had a pressurized cockpit Also, if they really needed a pressure suit, Carl Malden would have popped.
Even with a pressurized cockpit, flying above 50,000 feet requires a pressure suit. In the event of sudden cabin depressurization, your blood would boil and you would die immediately. B-52 crews DID wear pressure suits like these early on
As kids, bro and I used to watch the 52's fly around Mendota when they'd circle back to Castle..we'd sometimes see the bomb bay doors open and the gear down.
Early B-52's they wore pressure suits if they flew at 50,000+ feet, decompression at that altitude requires them. They still had the pressure suit hook ups at each crew station in 1979 when I was in them but they weren't used because they never fly that high.
Look at the great blue sky in this film! The air quality in the Central Valley has deteriorated so much over the years. Back in the 60's you could see the foothills very clearly every day. These days you are lucky to see them at all due to the pollution!
My understanding is that those early high altitude suits has the hoses along the arms and legs as part of a G-Suit function. Was there any need for G-Suits in a craft that large?
A full pressure suit is a full figure containment of atmospheric pressure, like a space suit, or the SR-71 flight suits. With a partial pressure suit, atmospheric pressure is maintained only inside the helmet, which I believe is the situation here. The purpose of the tubes on the suit might be that they can be pressurized to expand and draw the sleeves tighter during high G maneuvers. I have a Russian ZSH 7 high altitude helmet and its partial pressure suit which resembles these suits.
The cockpit of the B-52 in the movie is accurate. This is a very early B-52B, and in this model you could stand upright and walk from the navigator's table through the galley area and to the hatch that leads to the forward wheel well, just as Karl Malden did in the movie. The B-52G and the B-52H (the only model in service) had a completely different, and much more cramped, interior than the early B model depicted in the movie.
I think my uncle (passed away last year) flew for this movie (either that or, definitely, for the "Strategic Air Command" movie). He did indeed have that very same pressure suit - I remember him putting it on one evening so we could see it. Even though I have crawled around inside of BUFFs, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the cabin.
Early B-52's would fly at altitudes that would require a pressure suit if cabin pressure was lost. In 1980 when I was in them we wore regular flight suits but they still had a hook up for pressure suits at each crew station.
Karl Malden to the rescue....
goodeye03 1 month ago
Actually, that's a pretty good display of airmanship for a Hollywood movie. Clearly, that part was written by someone who knew a thing or two about real-world flying.
aagogin 2 months ago
That's worth amedal and a comission... didn't go so well when Slim Pickens tried to open the bomb door in Dr Strangelove...:))
canals22 2 months ago
Ha ! I'll take 45 min to fire up the KC-97 !!
canals22 2 months ago
It's funny how in the old days, male characters always sounded like radio announcers.
VideoMenu 6 months ago
I always thought those were the coolest looking helmets ever.
rickcain2320 7 months ago
@rickcain2320 Yeah I first saw those helmets in a sci fi film called 12 to the Moon made in 1960.
reticulan5 6 months ago
Very interesting old clip. I can't resist it but, 4 people are clearly Russians.
Sarastro42 7 months ago
what movie is this?
MrCopilot172 7 months ago
Briaguy2000, you should have added......=hopefully in one piece!! ha
rmachayes 9 months ago
Which one was the one that blew up over Little Rock Arkansas?????
pianomanmaestro 10 months ago
I'd tell them I'll see them on the ground
briaguy2000 11 months ago
Comment removed
mightaswellbe 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
The music you hear here was written specially for B52G emergencies. This music is played in the control tower, on the Airbase PA system, and in the cockpit during times of tension and crisis........but i dont know why.
mcwolfus 1 year ago
Comment removed
mcwolfus 1 year ago
For those worried about the tailgunner, no he did not have an ejection seat. BUT he could jettison the turret assembly just aft of his windows. he would then manually leap out the rather large gap where the turret used to be. The B-52 manual suggested the old 'cannon ball' postion for exit.
mightaswellbe 1 year ago
@mightaswellbe Was the tailgunner actually "at" the tail in those days? I thought the guns were remote-operated from the gunner's station beside the rearward-facing EWO. Then again the G-model is my only frame of [mental] reference, seeing as the H birds are completely EW-reliant w/o guns.
RingSight91 1 year ago
@RingSight91 Yes, I know at least thru the 'D' model that the tail gunner rode in the back. When the three B-52s flew around the world back in 1957 one of the tail gunners actually stayed back there the whole trip so he could claim to be the first man to go around the world backwards. He took a sack full of westerns with him to keep him occupied.There was a way to get from the back to the front in flight via a catwalk down the starboard side of the fuselage if you really had to.
mightaswellbe 1 year ago
@RingSight91
the gunner only sat in front in the G and H models. gunner position was eliminated in 1991 when they finally accepted that air to air missiles made the idea obsolete
Blahblobify 8 months ago
@Blahblobify The gunners will come back, when the Airborne Laaazzuuuurs get installed on the tails when they realize they can't EW-spoof the missiles anymore lol!
RingSight91 4 months ago
@RingSight91
Well....right now the airborne laser platform requires a 747 stacked with equipment and a power generator as big as an office building, by the time they miniaturize it the Buff will surely be out of service. I'n stunned they are still flying, when I was in them in the late 70's we thought the old bird was ready to be replaced.
Blahblobify 4 months ago
@Blahblobify Technically you were right, the old birds were ready to be replaced. Problem was, the replacements were an awful bad maintenance nightmare, lol. I have yet to hear of one Bone Crew Chief who spoke fondly of his bird. Then again, I used to hear my BUFF Crew Chief suite-mate b_tch about his aircraft too, usually after another 12-hour shift :-{
RingSight91 4 months ago
Greetings troops, The suits are correct for the time. I remember my Dads's suit, helmet and all. The tubes around the outside would inflate and tighten the fabric while the helmet was pressureized. They aren't wearing the face plates because they are in the pattern for landing and don't need them and they were a real pain.
mightaswellbe 1 year ago
i have never heard tower instructing a plane to enter on the upwind of a traffic pattern....very odd....you always enter on the downwind or base or a traffic pattern....
prex8390 1 year ago
Can somebody find this film in DVD??
Please help...
uboot1967 1 year ago
At least tail gunner SHOULD have bailed out. He is only moving the center of gravity to the rear and has stupid escape route. Poor propaganda script, they could have got rid of the 'voting' in the movie.
krbosak 1 year ago
Well slap me and call me a whore! It's Carl Mulden.
TowTruckJoe1 1 year ago
"We're in trouble." *cue dramatic music*
cybersquire 1 year ago
The AF still has full tankers standing by, 53 years later.
79RCB 1 year ago
what movie was this?
tcharmon74 1 year ago
those helmets look sooooooo stupid...i would REFUSE to wear one.
jjjazzycraig 1 year ago
@jjjazzycraig : Well you can suffocate at high altitude then I'll keep mine on when the cabin looses pressurization.
spencnaz 1 year ago
Do you think you'll ever post the whole movie?
58bond 1 year ago
@58bond Try looking now.
towringer 1 year ago
Post the whole movie, please. Why just the clips?
58bond 1 year ago
Such killer helmets!
alfredoeduardo1974 1 year ago
the chief fixing the landing gear kinda reminds me on Ron Paul.
grooveclubhouse 2 years ago
Okay, lets look at this. When this movie was made it was suppose to be around the time the aircraft was rolling out to the units. The tanker was a KC-97, which was the standard tanker of the time. The KC-135 was developed around 1953 and was not available to all units at the time. The suits were the standard high altitude suits of the time. Line chiefs usually did not fly with the aircraft. The gunner was actually in the tail.
Digit654 2 years ago
Nice tanker. Funny how they designed the landing gear so that both normal AND emergency systems would fail with the loss of one little relay. It's not like relays ever fail or anything....
I didn't think the tail gunner could bail out. Well, I guess I'm thinking of ejecting. In that case, the whole tail would detach, but I guess he could just climb out the door he came in through. I can see now why they put the gear down 50 miles out. Otherwise they couldn't have made this suspenseful scene!
justforever96 2 years ago
Why would they put the gear down 50 miles out from the base? And those don't look much like real ejection seats to me. But I wouldn't know, I guess. As for the P-suits, what about the faceplates? Aren't those kind of important? Are they supposed to find it and clip it on before they eject, or what? LOL. that flight engineer sure found out where the wiring was pretty damn quick. Why is he the only one without a helmet? I'm guessing he's the hero of the movie? Heros don't NEED helmets. LOL.
justforever96 2 years ago
I won't begin to say how much is wrong with this video...
BQZip01 2 years ago
start with those silly pressure suits
IC2720 2 years ago
Actually, the pressure suits are accurate for the timeframe. RB-52B models (and earlier variants) used pressure suits.
BQZip01 2 years ago
Yes, but in the context of the movie, they weren't used for the type of mission the movie was supposed to be portraying. A bit anal I guess, but that's how I see it. ;-)
IC2720 2 years ago
yes, but they still would have been used anyway. Aircrew for SR-71 flights (no matter if they were for an airshow or other "low-level" work) always wore their pressure suits
BQZip01 2 years ago
They are period suits yes, but not for B-52 crew. The Buff had a pressurized cockpit Also, if they really needed a pressure suit, Carl Malden would have popped.
IC2720 2 years ago
Even with a pressurized cockpit, flying above 50,000 feet requires a pressure suit. In the event of sudden cabin depressurization, your blood would boil and you would die immediately. B-52 crews DID wear pressure suits like these early on
BQZip01 2 years ago
I totally agree with you on the suits. However, it's the time and place they put them in the movie is what is wrong.
IC2720 2 years ago
As kids, bro and I used to watch the 52's fly around Mendota when they'd circle back to Castle..we'd sometimes see the bomb bay doors open and the gear down.
fernfeyes 2 years ago
Thats kind of morbid being ole Karl is dead as a doornail.
tryithere 2 years ago
Karl Malden ... Don't leave base without him!
TalksWithDirt 2 years ago
what's with the space suits?
HuasoPodrido 2 years ago
Early B-52's they wore pressure suits if they flew at 50,000+ feet, decompression at that altitude requires them. They still had the pressure suit hook ups at each crew station in 1979 when I was in them but they weren't used because they never fly that high.
TheJomogogo 2 years ago
a film with engineers in Amazing
reetville 2 years ago
There's no way they could have climbed that high on ~30 minutes of fuel after aborting an approach.
mpwelk 2 years ago
Karl Malden was such a great actor, he will be missed. And long live the B-52 Stratofortress.
TopThrillDan 2 years ago
Good scene. Would've been better without the fucktardish music, though.
mpgingdl 2 years ago
Too stupid
panictactics 2 years ago
Karl Malden is the true hero of this movie. Rest in Peace. You will never be forgotten here in Merced.
JDEPCOR 2 years ago 2
Look at the great blue sky in this film! The air quality in the Central Valley has deteriorated so much over the years. Back in the 60's you could see the foothills very clearly every day. These days you are lucky to see them at all due to the pollution!
JDEPCOR 2 years ago
anyone "want" to bail out? lol... What movie is thi?, thought I had seen them all, music is laughable.. nice flying Efrem.. Love the KC-97's..
amazing, newest variations are being flown by grandsons of original pilots of BUFF..
irish89055 2 years ago
This is Bombers B-52 from 1957. By the way, RIP Sgt. Brennan. Actor Karl Malden passed away at age 97 today.
towringer 2 years ago
@irish89055 I would have been the guy who volunteered to bail out first!
davidrodgersNJ 1 year ago
The old Castle AFB KMER is a fun place to fly into. Big-ass runway and a great museum.
geeoff5 2 years ago
My understanding is that those early high altitude suits has the hoses along the arms and legs as part of a G-Suit function. Was there any need for G-Suits in a craft that large?
satweavers 2 years ago
Not a G-suit, a pressure suit.
barflewk 2 years ago
A full pressure suit is a full figure containment of atmospheric pressure, like a space suit, or the SR-71 flight suits. With a partial pressure suit, atmospheric pressure is maintained only inside the helmet, which I believe is the situation here. The purpose of the tubes on the suit might be that they can be pressurized to expand and draw the sleeves tighter during high G maneuvers. I have a Russian ZSH 7 high altitude helmet and its partial pressure suit which resembles these suits.
satweavers 2 years ago
I was an E-5 Crew Chief on a the fat f'er. We had to crawl almost everywhere. This model may have had a larger pit, but I doubt this "movie version".
stellarblue51 3 years ago
The cockpit of the B-52 in the movie is accurate. This is a very early B-52B, and in this model you could stand upright and walk from the navigator's table through the galley area and to the hatch that leads to the forward wheel well, just as Karl Malden did in the movie. The B-52G and the B-52H (the only model in service) had a completely different, and much more cramped, interior than the early B model depicted in the movie.
gkpgerg 3 years ago
I think my uncle (passed away last year) flew for this movie (either that or, definitely, for the "Strategic Air Command" movie). He did indeed have that very same pressure suit - I remember him putting it on one evening so we could see it. Even though I have crawled around inside of BUFFs, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the cabin.
webmartians 3 years ago
Why the heck are they wearing pressure suits?
BoOiMaOi 3 years ago
Early B-52's would fly at altitudes that would require a pressure suit if cabin pressure was lost. In 1980 when I was in them we wore regular flight suits but they still had a hook up for pressure suits at each crew station.
barflewk 2 years ago
the cockpit is full of baloney. its not that roomy...good thing they couldve gotten away with that in the 50s :P
cali22boi 3 years ago
@cali22boi LOL, and they were still that "roomy" in the 80s for "By Dawn's Early Light" ;D
RingSight91 1 year ago