[Hillarys Gate Cult]

When I got to my first base a B-57 had just crashed on the runway. The Vermont Air National Guard was flying them at the time. Later I saw a B-57 at an open house on static display. Had one of the most odd instructions I've ever seen on any plane. In the open weapons bay they had a metal box built onto the bay door. It had a large rectangular cover with the message that if found, please drop in the nearest mailbox and the Vermont ANG would pay for postage. Raised two questions. How can you put a large metal panel that's 3 times larger than most mailboxes in one? How often did those panels fall off?

[MasterGunner01]

I don't know about the bomb bay, but the B-57 had some very unique features, not the least of which caused problems for the unwary.

Each engine had an impulse starter, a black powder starting cartridge, that allowed the B-57 to start its engines without the use of an APU cart. The problem was the huge amounts of thick smoke generated made it appear the engines were on fire. Crews soon learned to start engines with the canopy closed, even in SEA lest some over zealous crash crew try to put out the fire with foam (with them in the cockpit).

The B-57, like the F-105 Thunderchief, had a rotary bomb bay door. Ordnance was attached to the door itself. In flight, the door would rotate and the bombs were pickled off the bomb bay door. The rotary bomb door eliminated the drag caused buy conventional doors when it came to weapons release. On the F-105, the rotary bomb bay door option was rarely used and the bay was taken up by a long range fuel tank for raids over North Viet Nam.