Strategic Air Command Museum (II)

…continuing with part 2 of our visit to the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum near Ashland Nebraska.

There is so much to see at this museum…and these rockets/missiles on display outside the front of the museum are just another example of the variety available for visitors.  It was too cold and windy for me to explore the outdoor exhibits, and I am much more interested in the aircraft, so I just took this one photo of the missiles.

Missiles on exhibit outdoors include: Northrup SM-62 Snark; Convair SM-65 Atlas; Douglas PGN-17A Thor, and; the Chance Vought SLV-1 Blue Scout.  While the first 3 missiles list above were designed to deliver nuclear warheads, the Blue SCOUT wasn’t…

Instead, the Scout (Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system) was a 4-stage solid-fuel rocket capable of launching a 385 lb. satellite into a 500 mile orbit.  It was the USA’s first solid-fuel launch vehicle that was capable of orbiting a satellite.

The Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” is a 4-engine heavy bomber that was developed in the 1930s for the US Army Air Corps.  It eventually became the third most produced bomber in history with 12,731 being built between 1936 and 1945.  The USAAC, later the US Army Air Force, promoted the B-17 as a strategic weapon.  It was fairly fast for its time, it flew high and it had long-range capabilities…and it was equipped with a lot of heavy defensive weapons and armor.  It had a reputation for being tough…with many stories and photos showing evidence of badly damaged Flying Fortresses safely returning to base.

The B-17 dropped more bombs than any other USAAF aircraft during World War II.  Over 640,000 tons (1,280,000,000 pounds) of bombs were dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories.  In addition, the B-17 also saw quite a bit of service in the Pacific theater during the war.

Sixteen countries operated B-17’s as part of their air force following the end of WWII.  A number of these planes were also sold for civilian use…with some even being converted to passenger aircraft.  Most of the remaining Flying Fortresses however, were flown back to the USA and then scrapped.  As of October of last year, only 9 B-17s remain airworthy…although none of these were actually flown in combat.  Many more of these airplanes are either in storage or on display… 

The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a 4-engine transport aircraft used by the US Army Air Forces in WWII and in the Korean War.  It was derived from its popular civilian version, the Douglas DC-4.  Dozens of variants of this aircraft were built…totaling 1,170 planes before production ceased.  This aircraft were one of the primary types of planes that participated in the Berlin Airlift during the Cold War.

A total of 380 of the C-54D variants were built.  At one time or another, C-54s served in 34 country’s air forces as well as the USAs.  Today, 11 C-54s still in the inventory of Buffalo Airways, which is located in Hay River, in Canada’s Northwest Territory.  Buffalo operates out of the Yellowknife Airport.  Website: https://www.buffaloairways.com/.  From looking at the company’s website, it appears that the C-54s have been retired, with some of them being offered for sale… FYI, Buffalo Airways still utilizes the last commercially flying DC-3 or C-47 that participated in the D-Day Invasions.

The only operational C-54 in the USA is owned by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation.  To learn more about this organization, their goals and their aircraft, go to http://www.spiritoffreedom.org/.

The Convair F-102 “Delta Dagger”, aka the “Deuce”, was an interceptor aircraft that was a key part of the USAF’s air defenses in the late 1950s.  Its primary mission was to intercept Soviet strategic bombers during the Cold War.  A total of 1,000 of these planes were built with the F-102A being the primary example although there were a number of versions developed.

The F-102 was the USAF’s first operational supersonic interceptor and delta-wing fighter.  It was retired from service in 1976.  During the Vietnam War, these planes served as escorts for our B-52 bombers over North Vietnam.  President to be, George W. Bush flew an F-102A during his service with the Texas Air National Guard.  At one point, both Greece and Turkey, not exactly friends politically, both had these aircraft in their inventory.

As you will see below, the SAC Museum isn’t all about aircraft per se.  This flight jacket is an example of the varied items offered to enhance visitor’s viewing experience.

 

This particular WW II pilot’s jacket belonged to a B-29 Super Fortress waist gunner named Max Malone.  The plane was based in India and it carried out long range bombing missions on Japanese positions.  Malone flew 20 such missions.  The jacket was donated to the museum by his brother.

These dioramas show the inside of the Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant, aka Air Force Plant 1 while it was producing B-29 Super Fortresses during World War II.  The plant was built by Martin on government land adjacent to US Army Air Corps’ Offutt Field near Bellevue Nebraska.  The location was chosen because it was far from the threat of enemy attack and it was close to a good labor market with a big railroad hub.  For once, the government was ahead of the game.  Construction of 7 buildings for the plant was virtually complete when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered the war.

The plant began producing B-26 Marauder medium bombers in January of 1942...building a total of 1,585 B-26 aircraft in total.  They were coming off the line at a rate of 50 per month!  In 1944, production was switched to the B-29 Super Fortress very heavy bombers.  A total of 531 Super Fortress bombers were produced before the end of WWII.

Two well-known B-29s were built here.  They were the ‘Enola Gay’ and ‘Bockscar’, the planes that dropped the first atomic bombs (and hopefully the last) in a military action, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan.  The pilot of the ‘Enola Gay’, Paul Tibbets personally selected the aircraft from the Martin assembly line.   

Several posters near the dioramas further explain and depict the construction and aircraft assembly efforts at the Glen L. Martin Bomber Plants/Offutt Air Base.  Construction not only included the 1,700,000 sq. ft. aircraft-assembly building but also 6 big hangars and a 2 mile long concrete runway.  The workforce at the plant would top 14,000 with about 40% of them being women.  In April of 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, plant owner Glenn L. Martin and Nebraska’s governor Dwight Griswold toured this amazing part of America’s war effort. 

I believe that that huge assembly building is still standing although I noted an article in 2016 that stated that it is slated to be demolished.  It’s located too close to Offutt Air Base’s main runway so it’s considered a safety hazard.  It does seem to be a sad fate for a building that has been described as “one of the most important works of engineering and architecture in Nebraska and one of the most historically significant World War II era buildings in the USA.

Today Offutt Air Force Base is home to the 55^th Wing, the largest wing of the US Air Force’s Air Combat Command, as well as several other significant associated units.

This of course is a C-47 “Skytrain” or “Dakota”, which was referred to as the “Gooney Bird” in the European theater of operations.  This military transport aircraft was developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner.  It was used extensively by our Allies during WWII for the transportation of troops (including parachutists), cargo and the wounded.  It even was used to pull troop carrying gliders… 

More than 10,000 C-47s were produced in Long Beach and Santa Monica California plus Oklahoma City Oklahoma.  The plant in Oklahoma built 5,354 C-47s in just 30 months!  That’s about 178 aircraft per month… Note: Another 607 DC-3 civilian airliners were also built over the years.

Considering that the first C-47 rolled off the assembly line in December of 1941, it’s remarkable to note that the US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command had them in service through 1966 and the Air Force’s Sixth Special Operations Squadron flew them until 2008!  At least 100 countries have included C-47’s in their Air Force inventories over the years.  El Salvador, Colombia and South Africa still have them in service.  Many DC-3/C-47 aircraft are still in civilian use around the world…

That black aircraft hanging from the ceiling is is a Lockheed U-2, a single-engine jet aircraft designed to operate as an ultra-high altitude reconnaissance plane.  Nicknamed “Dragon Lady” it provides day and night all-weather intelligence gathering.  This aircraft is only 63 feet long with a 102 foot wingspan.  It has a range of over 7,000 miles and it can fly as high as 80,000 feet above sea level.  It isn’t speedy, with a top speed of only 410 mph…but it can loiter over a reconnaissance target of interest for a bit…having a stall-out speed of only 75 mph. (In the second photo, the U-2 is 'flying' over the B-17)

The U-2 first flew in 1955.  The idea was that this plane could fly too high for interceptor aircraft to shoot it down.  During the Cold War, it was flown over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Cuba.  Famously, Gary Powers was shot down in 1960 by a surface to air missile, (he was subsequently captured), while flying a CIA U-2A over the Soviet Union.  Another U-2 was shot down over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

A number of variants of the U-2 have been built over the years with the U-2S being upgraded in 2012.  About 104 U-2 “Dragon Lady” aircraft have been built.  Although it was supposed to be phased out several years ago, the U-2 remains in service.  Its replacements have either been too costly, delayed in development and or deployment or they just haven’t achieved their operational goals.  One big advantage of the U-2 is that it can change surveillance objectives on short notice…something that surveillance satellites can’t do.

For more information about the U-2 and the Gary Powers shoot-down over Russia, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2.  FYI...there is a special exhibit at the Museum regarding Gary Powers and the U-2 'shoot down'.

The McDonnell F-101 “Voodoo” is a supersonic jet fighter that was utilized by both the USAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force.  At its inception, the Voodoo was designed to serve as a long-range bomber escort for SAC, but in the end it was developed as a nuclear-armed fighter-bomber for the Air Force’s Tactical Air Command (TAC) as well as a photo reconnaissance aircraft. 

An F-101A version of the Voodoo set several world speed records for jet powered aircraft including the fastest airspeed in 1957.  The F-101B variant of the Voodoo, (a two-seater vs. a single seat in the F-101A), entered service with the US Air Defense Command in 1959 and with the RCAF in 1961.  The “B” model not only had a second crew member on board but it also had a large radar unit in its nose as well as a new weapons bay that used a rotating door that kept its 4 AIM-4 Falcon missiles or 2 AIR-2 Genie rockets hidden within the airframe until they needed to be fired.

A total of 807 F-101 Voodoos were built with 479 of them being F-101Bs.  The F-101A Voodoos served in their reconnaissance role until 1979, the USAF F-101B’s served with the US Air National Guard until 1982 and the Canadian version was retired in 1984. 

The first photo above shows the B-36 “Peacemaker” from the front while the second photo provides a glimpse of what this aircraft looks like from the rear.  Built by Convair in 1948 and operated by the USAF until 1959, the B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engine airplane ever built.  With a wingspan of 230 feet and 6 radial propeller engines, measuring 162 feet in length and with a maximum take-off weight of 205 tons, (including fuel, weapons and a crew of as many as 15), this is a huge aircraft.  I included a photo of a B-36 from one of the museum’s dioramas just to show the configuration of the airplane.  There is no way I could capture it with my camera in the crowded hangar.

Planning for this bomber began in 1941 when it appeared that Great Britain might succumb to the German war machine.  We knew that the German Air Force was working on plans for a bomber that could reach the USA from Europe.  Later in WWII, further need for a long range bomber became obvious in our effort to win the war against Japan.  The Cold War and the Soviet Union’s development of nuclear weapons made a long-range bomber an absolute necessity…minimally as a deterrent.   

With a range of 10,000 miles without refueling, the “Peacemaker” was our interim answer to the Soviet threat.  The B-36 made its first flight in August of 1946.  A total of 384 were built.  The “Peacemaker” was probably obsolete when it was first produced.  It was piston-powered while our potential enemies had already introduced their first-generation jet fighters.  In an effort to maintain this aircraft as a credible deterrent, 4 GE jet engines were added near the end of each wing…giving the B-36D a total of 10 engines!  The added jet engines greatly improved takeoff and dash speed over the target but in normal cruising flight, they were shut down to conserve fuel.

The “Peacemaker” was the primary nuclear weapons delivery aircraft of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) until it was replaced by the Boeing B-52 “Stratofortress” beginning in 1955.  Only 4 complete B-35 aircraft remain, all of them on exhibit in museums.

Laurie took this photo of David II and me as we perused the collection at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum…

We all thought that this giant 3-story Nextel Partners “American Art Flag” was just beautiful!  This flag was unveiled in February of 2002.  Participants in the unveiling/dedication of this creative US Flag included the mayors of Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska, SAC officials, the Omaha Children’s Museum, the Millard Public Schools and 4 area senior centers. 

I did learn that the flag is made up of drawings by elementary students after the attacks on 9/11/2001.  I’m guessing that they were stitched together by the residents of the senior centers.  The resulting flag is both patriotic and inspirational!

That great American flag shown above hangs on the wall in one of the SAC Museums hangars.  It is right behind this “Tie Towers” sculpture.  This ‘soft’ sculpture which hangs from a steel wire frame, was created in 2002 by Omaha artist Greg Laakso.  It consists of 1,452 neckties, each tie representing a life lost when the north tower of the World Trade Building collapsed after being attacked by terrorists in 2001.  Laakso is a University of Nebraska graduate and soldier who completed 2 tours of duty in Iraq.

In another week or so, I will post one more series of photos and information about the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to help us explore this expansive museum!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave