Posted on 12/16/2008 6:59:43 AM PST by pabianice
December 16, 2008: The B-52 is upgrading its nuclear window shades. The original ones, which depended on ropes and pulleys to put sunshades over the inside of cockpit windows after a nuclear weapon was dropped (to prevent too much heat and light from the detonation from getting in), never worked well, and have long since fallen into disuse. Instead, crews bought the same kind of thermal shades used automobile windshields, and used those just to keep the aircraft cool while parked in sunny climes.
But now the U.S. Air Force is getting serious about B-52 use in nuclear warfare, and part of that preparation includes new thermal curtains for the half century old bomber. The new, seven shade set, costs $2,500, and is normally kept in a storage bag. Twice a year, there will be a drill, in which the thermal curtains will be taken out and deployed. The rest of the time, the crew will use new, cheaper, sun shades (costing about $300 a set) for just keeping the interior cooler when the sun (another nuclear explosion, actually) is bright, hot and shining through the 13 windows on the aircraft.
The new shades and thermal curtains will be issued to aircraft next year.
Oh how I miss Slim Pickens
The world’s best movie EVER!
Read Major Kong's lips when he says "Vegas". He actually said "Dallas", but President Kennedy was assassinated between the filming and the release. They decided that Dallas wouldn't be an appropriate place to have a good time so Vegas was dubbed in.
But it was changed and dubbed over in the movie to Vegas after Kennedy was shot.
pabiancice said: “Why now?”
This has to be the “nuclear umbrella” that Obambi said his administration would use to protect Israel.
I just want to hear this in the Zed’s confident, reassuring voice:
http://supak.com/store/videos/sounds/kubrick/you-cant-fight-here.wav
So, it’s curtains for the B-52
Window shades are cheap. But OCP gets rich on the maintenance fees . . . |
One of my favorite parts of the entire movie. Slim Pickens is the man.
Don’t ya know, the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.
Yes they were. In the 1957 a B-52 dropped a test thermonuclear bomb in the Pacific.
At $2500, that has to be the deal of the century. Somebody at the Pentagon is actually making sense.
Favorite line in movie, in the war room
General: Try one of these Jamaican cigars, ambassador, they’re pretty good.
Ambassador de Sadesky: Thank you, no. I do not support the work of imperialist stooges.
General: Oh, only Commie stooges, ay?
God I miss the Cold War. You knew who your enemies were and how to fight them.
Isn't that kind of old for a plane?
Rumor has it, they finally got a toilet in the old Buffosaurus a few years ago (after it went co-ed).
I remember the old Nuclear Curtains from my days flying the BUFF in the 1980s: they were worn, cracked, and threadbare THEN. . . .
And I think I still have one of the eyepatches we were required to wear. . . .
If it’s to duty, yes.
They obviously still have a role to play.
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