"atfsgeoff" (atfsgeoff)
07/18/2020 at 16:40 • Filed to: None
7
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"atfsgeoff" (atfsgeoff)
07/18/2020 at 16:40 • Filed to: None | 7
| 12 |
Just spent half a day at the SAC Museum in Ashland, Nebraska. What a great place. Anyone who’s a history buff or a gearhead will love it.
So many aircraft and so many huge engines.
We got the Pratt & Whitney J-58 out of the above-featured SR-71:
And the equally-impressive GE J-93 out of the XB-70 Valkyrie:
Both of these engines are roughly the size of
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
, for a sense of scale.
Then they had some of the most magnificent piston engines ever built:
Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major, a 28-cylinder air-cooled radial monster and the largest aircraft piston engine ever mass-produced:
Stromburg Injection Carburetors!
And a Packard-built Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 next to a different turbojet for size comparison:
They have A B-58 Hustler, which is the second rarest aircraft in the museum:
Yes, that exact airframe set a speed record from Tokyo to London in 8-1/2 hours. One of six B-58s left in existence.
The only one rarer still is the positively gargantuan Convair B-36, which is one of only four surviving airframes. I couldn’t get any photos of the entire bomber in one shot, it is so massive.
They had some scaffolding up to service one of the six colossal props, gives a glimpse as to the scale of the aircraft:
And of course no Strategic Air Command museum would be complete without a complement of thermonuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The photos don’t do justice to any of it, you can’t really get proper perspective for the sheer size and complexity of these machines without getting right up next to them. Great place, well worth the $13 admission.
My hat is off to those brave men & women who manned these doomsday delivery devices for half a century while WWIII loomed over the world like a shadow of death, and also to all the American taxpayers who funded the development and production of them.
Brickman
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 16:47 |
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Wow! There’s actually something in Nebraska.
415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 17:01 |
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Wow, that R-4360 is cool I would totally put that in my living room. I used to go up to Montana where my dad is from, he would point out some markers off the road and he said there were missile silos near where those were but some had been shut down.
CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
07/18/2020 at 17:29 |
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Fuck that, I want one of those inert nukes.
now THERE is a conversation starter
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atfsgeoff
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
07/18/2020 at 17:43 |
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I hope your living room is on a concrete slab, because that engine weighs 34
00 lbs on its own!
Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 17:48 |
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Those photos pretty much encapsulate the concept of “peace through superior firepower”.
glemon
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 17:51 |
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That is in my neck of the woods, haven't been there in years, but have visited many times. The Blackbird as you walk and and the B-36 are my favorites, but the whole place is pretty cool, have to get back there soon.
ttyymmnn
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 19:18 |
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Wish we could have stopped there on our trip to SD two years ago. We went straight north out of TX, through KS, and then hung a left at I-80. It would have been a bit out of our way. Hopefully some other time. I have, however, seen the B-58 and B-36 at the USAF Museum in Ohio. The newer 4th hangar there is extraordinary.
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ttyymmnn
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 19:21 |
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Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
“Therefore let him who desires peace get ready for war ”
Or, the slightly more poetic:
Si v is p acem, p ara b ellum
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atfsgeoff
> ttyymmnn
07/18/2020 at 19:43 |
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Yep
f86sabre
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 20:38 |
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The B-36 is something to see isn’t it?
Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
> ttyymmnn
07/18/2020 at 21:32 |
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It's amazing how many people don't understand that. I get it, nobody wants war, but failing to be prepared is just delusional.
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Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
> atfsgeoff
07/18/2020 at 21:34 |
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Managed to get here when I was 9. Didn’t really understand where we were going and almost opted out of tagging along.
I've been hoping for the chance to go back ever since...