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For those living on or near Air Force Bases. Coolest planes?

SteveSS

SteveSS

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Living in Wichita, Kansas during the 80's the the city was nicknamed the Air Capital. McConnell AFB, Boeing, Cessna, Beechcraft, and Learjet. The coolest (and most annoying) were the B1B Lancers. Their afterburner take offs. What we called "the turn and burn." Impressive but LOUD! We lived near the flight path. Once when I was mowing the lawn I looked up and a 747 was flying by with one of the Space Shuttles on its back. The Beechcraft Starship was a cool plane too. It sounded really different.

What cool planes did you see?

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I worked on Little Rock AFB as a civilian for 27 years (Dept. Of Army) but being primarily a C-130 training base the aircraft was all C-130 aircraft and for a while a Guard refueling wing. There was a lot of excitement when the first C-130J-model was delivered to the Base. Most of the interesting aircraft that showed up was either in transit or sometimes evacuated from southern coastal basis during Hurricanes. We did have one of the AF Guppies show up one time.

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Most memorable for me was when some F4s from Fort Smith put on a demonstration at an air show in the 80s and showed us what pulling one into a vertical climb from the deck with afterburners lit was all about. I think I remember having a space shuttle with its transport plane stop at the Base overnight while in transit. There was a lot of interest in the 80s when the Stealth fighter F-117 would pass through and was finally allowed to be viewed publicly instead of being hangared immediately in the middle of the night.

My work also included Blytheville AFB (later Eaker AFB) before it was closed in the early 90s. It was always impressive seeing the B52s and their tanker wing sitting out there in the Christmas tree alert area and watching their take offs and landings. I was always amazed by how far up and down their wings would flex just sitting on the apron with some wind blowing. But the emergency alert or training scrambles were also something to witness. It was also always entertaining working in the alert area and in the nuclear weapons storage area and watching the security guys jack up workers who were not following rules or just didn’t look right to them, tossing them on the ground, putting shackles on them hand and foot, throwing them in a security vehicle and hauling them off. They would usually reappear in a day or two.
 
I lived on "the other side of the hill" from Wright-Patterson AFB from 1969 to 1980.
In 1980, we moved closer- about 5 blocks from the back side of the USAF museum.
I could walk there (it was a looong walk) and did frequently during the summers.

Let's see if I remember-

C130
C135
C141
C5

F4/RF4
F5/T38
F15
F16
F111

A10

E3
EC135

B52
B58
B1 (including the development program)


..oh, and project Blue Book.

...and "Area 51".
 
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All manner of aircraft you can imagine at Carswell AFB & Air Force Plant 4 throughout the 1980's along with very memorable cameo appearances by an SR-71 Blackbird, an Avro Vulcan bomber (last operational one), and the Space Shuttle Discovery riding atop a 747.

Outside the gates of Air Force Plant 4 there was a B-58 Hustler and a KC-97L, as well as a B-36 Peacemaker known as the "City of Fort Worth" (the last B-36 ever built). All of these aircraft were pretty much neglected throughout the 1980's during my time in "Cow Town".

I am grateful the aforementioned B-36 was rescued and moved to PIMA; and happy it is now restored. I was telling my wife, just last night, that we need to visit PIMA and this B-36.
 
I've always lived within 20 minutes of Selfridge ANG, but have lived 1 or 2 miles off either end of the runways for the last 30 years. I've seen about everything come and go since 1964, but we currently have the air to air KC135's and A-10's. I know we're getting the newest F-15's and KC-46 tankers. I'll really miss the Thunderbolts. My wife and I have had many great experiences at Selfridge. We've volunteered for the bi-annual air shows for 12 years, and drive elderly and handicapped people around on 6-place golf carts. Big fun!! We've also had the opportunity to fly in the Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphins. My wife got to go on an air to air refueling trip. She got to go back with the boom operator and refuel A-10's. She also rode in the cockpit while landing the KC-135. I see A-10's, almost daily over our place....
Air Force 1, has been over our home many times.

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I didn't grow up by an air force base, but I did grow up under the flight path of the Glenview Naval air station.
Transients from all services, including the USAF stopped in regularly for fuel or a weekend visit. And planes were stationed there for the Chicago air show every year, along with several other air shows over the years.
I saw the Thunderbirds there several times, a B1, B52, and F117 for air shows. F4s, F16s and F15s along with F111s were not unusual sights there. Even some foreign air forces stopped by like British Jaguar jets and Canadian F18s.
For awhile starting in the late 80s until it closed in 1995, I often hung by the base with my camera. There were great locations to photograph planes there, I miss it!

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Having grown up as a military brat, Dad was Army Air Corp during WWII then Air Force starting in 1947 till he retired in 1974... I saw plenty, sat in the cockpit of quite a few... If it had a F or a B at the front I probably got close to it... C not so much.... Saw U-2's in the early 60's, didn't see an SR-71 till 69.. If it's newer than an F18 I probably haven't seen it...
Hard to believe the SR-71 is older than any of the cars parked in front of it....
 
The warehouse here at Layson's I work in is about 500 yards dead-nut straight north of the end of the main runway at McChord AFB.

When the C-17's are taking off and landing, they're only about 150-200 ft above our roof, and they will rattle your ribcage!!! You should see the looks on the faces of our customers in the showroom when one of those things goes over....

The REALLY REALLY noisy ones are those A6 radar jamming planes and those F-35's!

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Being an oldster, I still like the F-4’s & B-52’s. Had a cousin pilot in a ‘52 to Dayton air show one year and got to meet the whole crew, what a rush. This was a year or so after 1st Gulf War.
They arrived on a Thursday and had to immediately fly to Wright-Pat to top off fuel. They had to leave on the Sunday w/o clogging up Wright-Pat for fueling then.
Asked my cousin how much that little side step for fuel cost; he said probably more than I made in a year! Maybe 60mile(straight line trip?).
 
When I was a youngster, we would sometimes visit family friends in Riverside. On those drives, we went by March AFB which was a SAC base back then. Sometimes you saw this massive amount of B52 tails plus the tanker support. Sometimes you saw an empty field. This was in the mid 60's.
 
Thanks for all the great pics!!! I, having served in the USAF for 34.5 years, have seen and witnessed just about every type and kind of airframe there is. And not to disparage those who have not, I was also an Enlisted Aircrew Member/Loadmaster, and flew on 3 different models of cargo aircraft and performed extensive Aerial Delivery/Airdrops for a number of years. I still get a fuzzy when I recognize military-type aircraft's engine signatures as they routinely transit over my home in NW Nevada. Every one of them is what most will call...The Sound of Freedom!!! cr8crshr/Bill :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::usflag::usflag::usflag:
 
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I was in the USAF from 1986 - 1991. I was stationed at Castle AFB in Atwater CA and they had KC-135 and B-52s. Then I went to King Salmon AFB, Alaska where they had 2 F-15. They also had a C-130 that would come by every few days for supplies. We could get a hop from King Salmon to Anchorage via C-130, which was cool. No seats, just a cargo net seat. Gave us earplugs due to the engine noise.

I ended up getting out of the USAF in 1991 and went back to Atwater. Both bases are closed, but the airport is still active. A few years ago I was taking pictures at a scale RC event when a C-17 "Globemaster"...
landed.

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When I started working on a base, I went out to the smoking area outside the hangar. There was a B1 with engines idling across the taxiway (250ish feet). After a couple minutes they ran up the engines with afterburners, I had my little foam earplugs, but it was so loud I could've screamed at the top of my lungs without being able to tell. I'm sure I lost some hearing that day.
 
When I was a kid, we lived on a farm around 10 miles from the Ohakea Air Force base in the lower North Island. We often had the RNZAF Strikemaster aircraft fly low over our farm....it was always a good show.

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Years later while living in London, we had a flat in Richmond...right on the flight path to Heathrow. Concorde was my alarm clock when on night shift.
A video I shot one afternoon captured the 5:00pm landing and then we drove the few miles to Heathrow and caught the 6:00pm landing.



I used to see Concorde take-offs and landing all the time at work because I worked a couple of miles from Heathrow at Stockley Park - home to a very nice Nick Faldo golf course - we played a bit of golf also. Often we would play golf in the surrounding area, and everyone stopped when a Concorde was taking off and passing overhead. It was so loud - even at sub-sonic speeds.

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