steve(at)stevegregory.us
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 Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 10:28 am Post subject: There was a time when 488,000 pound airplanes were pretty |
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For all the precise engineering and science in manufacturing, it boiled down to this. I was a navigator in the B-52H. So here’s this 22 year kid, taking readings from the pilot, plotting the data points and drawing a line to determine the TA (terrain avoidance) correction feeling like he was inside the paint shaker at the ACE Hardware store trying to keep his lunch down halfway into a 16 hour mission. Precise? I’m just glad I didn’t have a window.
All kidding aside, we did have write-ups, but the overall feeling was that if it kept us below Soviet radar, it was worth the effort.
Steve
RV-8
Livermore, CA
From: owner-aeroelectric-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-aeroelectric-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of Ed Anderson
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 10:25 AM
To: aeroelectric-list(at)matronics.com
Subject: Re: There was a time when 488,000 pound airplanes were pretty amazing. . .
Bob, I really can not recall for certain the reliability/reliance on those early terrain avoidance systems - best I recall they were acceptable - but at that time don't know too many pilots that actually trusted any "gadget" to keep them out of a hillside.
I do know we had the terrain avoidance systems - however, for peace time exercising/training - the routine required for one of the pilots to exercise "eyeball terrain clearance" through the wind screen at all times.
As best I recall, if we had ever gotten the "GO CODE", the thermal curtains would be pulled around the cockpit windshield - and flash goggles would be worn by the pilots. However, I do recall there were some situations where one pilot (the co-pilot naturally {:>)) was to pull away the goggle from one eyeball, pull back a portion of the curtains and keep one (presumably sacrificial) eye ball on the outside world.
But, its clear that terrain avoidance has come a long ways since those days as have all things electronic.
Ed
From: Robert L. Nuckolls, III (nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelectric.com)
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 11:40 AM
To: aeroelectric-list(at)matronics.com (aeroelectric-list(at)matronics.com)
Subject: Re: There was a time when 488,000 pound airplanes were pretty amazing. . .
At 08:43 AM 5/6/2011, you wrote: <![if !supportLineBreakNewLine]> <![endif]>
Many years ago, I flew as a Electronic Warfare Officer crew member aboard the B-52E on the first exploration of the B-52 in a low-level mission role as well as many hours on "Chrome Dome" nuclear airborne alert - at the time, it was the most massive airframe to leave the ground - now seems like a light weight {:>).
Hmmmm . . . low level stuff . . . did your pilots
have the pleasure of flying that so-called terrain
avoidance radar?
I worked on a crew tasked with aligning the radar's
display processor (lots of vacuum tubes) on E and
F models being recycled through Wichita for
upgrades. It took 3 shifts to run the alignment
procedure during which it was not uncommon to take
3 or more modules up to the lab for "repairs or
adjustment".
Those might have been infant mortality issues. It
was a brand-new-out-of-the-box processor
from Raytheon. I often wondered what the failure
rate was for these things in the field. I hope that
nobody ever had to fly head-down with one of those
things in anger . . . it didn't take much drift
to use up those 200' margins for clearing the hilltops
and/or keeping your wing tips off the canyon walls!
<![if !supportLineBreakNewLine]> <![endif]>
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