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Out of the Boneyard, Into the Fight: Ghost Rider Flies Again

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B-52 "Ghost Rider", relegated to the "boneyard" in 2008 @ Davis-Monthan AFB in Tuscon, AZ arises like a Phoenix to fly once again (www.minot.af.mil) More...

James Simms
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jskerencak
John Skerencak 12
Looks like the taxpayers got their money's worth out of the B-52s and A-10s!
How times have changed!
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jbqwik
jbqwik 4
DC-3, P-51, B-52, A-10, F-16, F-35.. oops (couldn't resist the dig.)
When we got it right, it was legendary right. B-52 is definitely stuff of legends.
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chalet
chalet 6
Don't forget good old C- and KC-135 some of which started flying in the early 60s and still going strong like Johnny Walker Scotch
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jbsimms
James Simms 3
Don't forget The Dragon Lady, the U-2. I want to say there's another fifties era plane outside of the B-52, U-2, & KC-135 still flying but it escapes me
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jordanabrown
Alan Brown 1
Don't forget the Recce version the RC-135. I was crew on the M model and they are now W models, and still doing the job.
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jbqwik
jbqwik 2
Yup. I am quite fond of the ole bird myself. Never flew one, just controlled a few. But the topic a/c is a special class act.
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baja463
Bill A 5
And I hafta add the glorious and venerable C-130 Hercules -- in all its configurations, in peace and in war. Long may she fly!
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jbsimms
James Simms 1
That's the one I was trying to remember
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jordanabrown
Alan Brown 3
Great article on an amazing aircraft. Thanks.
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jskerencak
John Skerencak 2
Yes, many years ago I read the USAF was investigating the possibility of installing a turboprop on an updated P-51 airframe. Nothing came of it, but it just demonstrates the outstanding design of an aircraft that cost $50,000 to produce in 1945 dollars! That is about one million dollars in today's dollars. http://www.brighthub.com/science/aviation/articles/115886.aspx
One million dollars today will buy the canopy on a modern fighter jet! Amazing!
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jbqwik
jbqwik 2
Hah good article. Thanks for the link.
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jporter5408
Jim Porter 1
Ghostrider happens to be my call sign as well
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imaraigump
Iain Robertson 1
Over 25 turboprop Mustangs were built/converted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_Mustang
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jbqwik
jbqwik 1
Dang, no performance spec for the turboprop version. Must have been impressive.
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jskerencak
John Skerencak 1
Thank you for the link, I never heard of the Cavalier, produced starting in 1957!
I imagine since at that time the military had so many jet aircraft in test status and on the drawing board that a Mustang rework had little appeal. Always something new to learn about aviation history!
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B524EVER
Roger Wolpert 1
Retired Buff lover and Aero Repair shop tech and super here; a question - if 1007 was a very reliable and loved bird for so many years, how and why was it selected to become a boneyard H-model?
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nk4091
Neil Klapthor 1
This is just a guess, but it may have been because it was so reliable it was able to fly mission after mission while other BUFFs were in the hanger having maintenance work performed. When it came time to have to retire an aircraft, this one had a lot of flight hours on it so the old horse got picked to be put out in the desert pasture.
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mmarcovitch
Myles Marcovitch 1
There's a story about the ever-increasing cost of modern aircraft. The cost per plane keeps getting higher and higher until the Armed Forces will only be able to buy one: the USAF will have it on even numbered days and the Navy on the odd ones. The Marines will get it on Leap Day. They can't cram any more hardware into a stealth airframe to make the airplane more expensive since it starts getting too heavy. So they had to invent something that weighed nothing, but could have infinitely escalating cost. That "something" was software. A huge chunk of the cost overruns on the F-22 and F-35 programs was software code. It's also the hardest thing to invent elsewhere. In fact, the F-35 software design is still not done.
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