I've been away: Duxford 3

[Charl]

One last bucket to be listed, and it lives in the American Air Museum at the far end of the site.

But, on the way you have to pass by all those single-Merlin-powered marvels.
I asked M$ AI to string some of the many shoot-from-the-hip pics together

https://youtu.be/TczbOBDfIvc

Time ran short, and anyway these are meant to be heard and seen in the sky!
Luckily, I have a Flight Simulator…



Years ago, I very nearly took an epic rail journey by rail on The Ghan between Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin. Why?
Because in Darwin resides a Boeing B-52G.
Somehow one could not convince others of the value of the trip, so it never happened.
But it became an ambition to see one of these giant machines of war, in the metal.
SO.

The American Air Museum at Duxford was designed by Norman Foster, with structural work by Ove Arup.
These are the best of the British best, and they did a very good job, opening in 1997.

It stands as a memorial to the 30,000 members of the US Army Air Forces who died while flying from Britain during the Second World War.
It is home to the largest collection of American military aircraft on public display outside the United States.



In describing the building, Foster stated:
‘The curved-torus roof form is generated in part by the largest aircraft in the collection, the mighty B-52 bomber.
Spanning 90m, the roof shell is made of two layers of concrete that can support a point load of up to 12 tonnes, with the central space looking on to the active runway.
The collection and the architecture together are a celebration of flight.’

In there is a B-52D, which at 84 tonnes, was not about to be suspended from the ceiling.
Quite the pedigree:
“American strategic bomber military aircraft, built by Boeing Airplane Company in 1957 and used by Strategic Air Command (SAC), United States Air Force (USAF) on over 200 missions from 1957-1983.
Completed 14,000 flying hours during its service including flying 24 hour nuclear alert missions from 1957-1966 and periodic duties in South East Asia during the Vietnam War from 1966-1978, including flights on Operation Arc Light close air support missions, on strategic operations against North Vietnam, Operation Linebacker (May -December 1972) and Operation Linebacker II (December 1972).”


The B-52 is absolutely enormous, and indeed fills the entire building.
The wing is as big a a 747's, but because everything is pencil-thin it seems to go on forever.
It was actually flown into Duxford, only proviso being a momentary closure of the motorway!

Here’s another world-famous-in-NZFF to-scale doodle, bottom right is the aircraft disposition on the floorplan:



B-52/SR71/B-29/B-17

And just look at the size of the Blackbird, as big as a B-29! I’ve seen the one in San Diego, but it stands alone on a plinth and you don’t get that impression of size.



The B-29 was a massive step up from the Flying Fortress.
First impression was how mean that low stance looked.



And the BUFF… difficult to photograph this thing, the other side simply vanishes into the distance



My Bucket is Listed. my cup runneth over.
Thank you for your forbearance, my debrief I know amounts to Forum abuse.

I’ll hand off to the Kwik AI again for a last fast look around.

https://youtu.be/DDujlsrRDns

[emfrat]

Charl, thank you for yet another great post. Did you know that the 'old' Ghan is said to be the only train ever to arrive precisely 4 months late? Flooding in Cooper Creek had washed out the line ahead and behind, and all they could do was draw the fire and wait for the fettlers to catch up. People were evacuated on horseback. Eventually the track maintenance folk restored the line, the train was restarted and arrived in the Alice exactly to time - but 4 months late.
The new line is slightly less flood-prone.

[chopper_nut]

Very interesting. That building wasn't even there the last time I was at Duxford. Interestingly, that F4 is the only survivor from the batch of F4Js that the RAF operated.

[Charl]

Well... I guess it still qualifies as an AMERICAN aircraft, sort of.

Thanks Mike - I did not know about the Ghan's punctuality, maybe going to the UK was a better plan after all

[chopper_nut]

Absolutely is a US aircraft because all of the F4J(UK)s were pulled out of storage, refurbished and had F4S avionics. They were pretty unique but all had served with the US first.

EDIT: Actually, the aircraft pictured at Duxford is one of TWO surviving F4J(UK)s. This one, ZE359, obviously being externally restored to represent itself in an earlier life. The other ZE360 is under the care of the British Phantom Aviation Group (BPAG)

Cockpit sections of several other F4J(UK)s still exist.

[Splitpin]

Charl, as Mike and others have said ...thank you for this effort.
The amount of information provided is stunning...I love details.
Beautiful photography and graphics , its the complete package. The information about the American hanger was great, architecture being another thing in my eclectic collection of interests.
Loving your work Sir .....part 4 ?

[Charl]

Cheers Marty, I did spend time admiring Foster's building, and you can verbalise at length the inputs and influences on the design.
As to Part 4?
Well you know this is my trip personal debrief I am dumping, and we've now seen the largely aeronautical/military side of it, which is already a stretch for our flightsim forum!
There were other bucket list things, I will admit:
Did you know that standing astride the Greenwich Prime Meridian**, your phone's GPS will not read 0 deg LONG



**which by the way was moved several times, depending on where the Chief Astronomer of the day had his telescope!
The navigators apparently revolted in the end.