{"id":48592,"date":"2022-09-16T23:35:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T21:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=48592"},"modified":"2024-09-16T00:08:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T22:08:00","slug":"a-desert-in-which-three-strategic-bombers-from-the-cold-war-are-abandoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/09\/16\/a-desert-in-which-three-strategic-bombers-from-the-cold-war-are-abandoned\/","title":{"rendered":"A desert in which three strategic bombers from the Cold War are abandoned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Walking through the desert, you can sometimes find very surprising things, as happened recently to some young people in California.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/08\/18\/balalae-aeronautical-relics-of-the-world-war-ii-in-an-airfield-with-a-macabre-past\/\">Balalae: aeronautical relics of the World War II in an airfield with a macabre past<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/07\/08\/cornwall-an-airfield-with-old-harrier-fighters-and-other-derelict-aircraft\/\">Cornwall: an airfield with old Harrier fighters and other derelict aircraft<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>The video of the find was posted last week on the YouTube channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/WesternMineDetective\/featured\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Western Mine Detective<\/a>, and in it we can see three strategic bombers: <strong>a supersonic Convair B-58 Hustler and two Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cold War Secrets: Finding 3 Strategic Bombers\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kYbpZDjNkdk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It should be noted that this place, known as <strong>Rogers Dry Lake<\/strong> and located in the Mojave Desert, is well known and it is likely that the young people knew what they were going to find. It is <strong>a test field located near the United States Air Force base in Edwards, California<\/strong>, an important military center not only associated with the activity of the USAF, but also of NASA. <strong>The B-58 is specifically a prototype: the YB-58A.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52362803953_ba6611eacd_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>This plane, nicknamed \"Snoopy\"<\/strong> (it has the famous dog drawn on both sides of its fuselage) and with serial number 55-0665, <strong>was equipped with a very long radome in which it housed an AN\/ASG-18 radar<\/strong>, in the early 1960s. That radar would later be used on the Lockheed YF-12, predecessor to the famous SR-71 Blackbird. <strong>\"Snoopy\" was also used to test a long-range air-to-air missile, the AIM-47 Falcon<\/strong>, the predecessor of the AIM-54 Phoenix missile that ended up equipping the F-14 Tomcat naval fighters.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52362882799_2d8fe5cc12_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After those tests, <strong>\"Snoopy\" was left in this place, which was a photographic test field.<\/strong> There it continues, out in the open, without engines and without wheels, and increasingly deteriorated.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52362996195_4f39b1f0b8_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nearby there is another very peculiar plane: a Boeing RB-52B Stratofortress<\/strong>, a bomber and reconnaissance version of the famous B-52 strategic bomber. A total of 27 aircraft of this variant were built, which <strong>carried electronic intelligence and photo-reconnaissance equipment<\/strong> in a capsule that docked in its bomb bay. Within a few hours, that capsule could be removed so the plane could fly bombing missions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52362882809_19d18e435f_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>This RB-52B has the serial number 53-0379<\/strong> and has been abandoned at this location since the 1970s. Interestingly, <strong>its fuselage has many bullet holes<\/strong>, as this video capture shows.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52362996285_f202903a37_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>A few meters from the RB-52B there is a B-52E<\/strong> that is completely destroyed. This level of damage is not the result of vandalism: <strong>the plane was deliberately destroyed in 1991<\/strong>, in compliance with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52361632557_04d3c29090_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>This B-52E has serial number 57-0119<\/strong>. It was used as a test aircraft for the General Electric TF39 engine that was used in the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. It was moved to its current location in 1980.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52362803858_eec139f57a_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can see here <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/3aZkbTErMUvv7npo9\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the location of the YF-58A on Google Maps<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d742.1266262299505!2d-117.86475945034672!3d34.816167995443244!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0xebd6a64d22bd0336!2zMzTCsDQ4JzU4LjIiTiAxMTfCsDUxJzQ5LjMiVw!5e1!3m2!1ses!2ses!4v1663362699718!5m2!1ses!2ses\" width=\"665\" height=\"450\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And here <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/CnaUg6AvVn2vFwXX9\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the location of the two B-52s<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d987.199751970921!2d-117.85362904239157!3d34.81905899193589!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x50920605c7e50bbe!2zMzTCsDQ5JzA4LjYiTiAxMTfCsDUxJzA4LjAiVw!5e1!3m2!1ses!2ses!4v1663362759566!5m2!1ses!2ses\" width=\"665\" height=\"450\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walking through the desert, you can sometimes find very surprising things, as happened recently to some young people in California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,16877],"tags":[1104,2421,13921,17459,6278,11748,17460,10431,6761],"class_list":["post-48592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-ruins","tag-boeing-b-52-stratofortress","tag-california","tag-cold-war","tag-convair-b-58-hustler","tag-edwards-afb","tag-mojave-desert","tag-rogers-dry-lake","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-air-force-usaf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}