top 3 rare USAF cold war bombers

Nathan · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2014 11:45 am

Top three rare USAf cold war bombers:

B-45
B-50
B-66

All three only have a handful of survivors. I had not realized there were so few B-66's. There is also a big lacking in reading material on the B-66.

Now if you want to get technical and include model and sub-types...you could include the B-52C(perhaps because only 35 were made :shock:

). From the list Im looking at no complete airframes exist. Correct me if Im wrong.

On a side note: I find it very interesting that the B-57 has more surviving aircraft then any of the three on the list. This aircraft is probably less known then any on the list I provided. Yet more are still around(some still flying)

daviemax · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2014 1:32 pm

The B-58 could also be considered for this list. Few built, not many left, and did not last very long in service.

Mike · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 8:54 am **Posts:** 3331

What about the B-36? Only four-and-a-bit left!

sandiego89 · **Joined:** Mon May 21, 2012 12:28 pm **Posts:** 1201

When counting number of airframes, I agree with the B-36, B-45, B-50, B-66 being on the short list. I'd add the B-58 as well, but % wise not too bad.

The B-29 (actually lowish % wise), B-47 (again lowish % wise given over 2,000 bulit) B-57, F-111, B-52 (and even B-1's now showing up at museums) seem to be better represented.

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Wed Dec 10, 2014 5:17 pm

Another odd thing about the B-45; as I've mentioned on another thread:

Quote:

Surprisingly, at least 51 of the 143 B-45s built suffered the same fate:

(image from millionmonkeytheater.com)
They were sent to bases in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Morocco to be burnt for firefighting practice. (This one's at either Alconbury or Wethersfield.) I wonder why?

Invader26 · **Joined:** Wed Aug 11, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 843

RB-69

lmritger · **Posted:** Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:55 am

List fails without the XB-51. :twisted:

Lynn

JohnB · **Posted:** Thu Dec 11, 2014 10:46 am

Many years ago...circa 1972, Air Classics did a story where it said the B-45 was extinct.
At the time, even I knew that not to be true!

About 20 B-47s remain, that's 1% of their total. They're common enough for the NMUSAF to scrap one (ex-Pease AFB display...or was it Platsburgh?) a few years back after picking parts off of it.
The B-66 is very rare with 5-6 left, another one of those types that you'd think there are more of.
Likewise the B-50. The NMUSAF had two for years, then gave on to a museum in California. Pima has one.

It would be rather pointless to name the XB-51 in the list of rare bombers...none are left, so yes it is rare, but that's not the point behind this thread.

The B-1s in museums or static are very early B models. The first 10+ were slightly different than the rest, so when the budget axe fell, the AF wanted to standardize on the later production run...many of which had already received upgrades. That's back when a couple of guard units had them so each guard unit that had them got one to display.

Nathan · **Posted:** Thu Dec 11, 2014 11:47 am

The B-36
The B-58

Definitely both are in the list. The B-47 still has a healthy dose of aircraft out there.

usaf ssgt · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:41 pm

The former Bergstrom AFB in Austin Texas had an RB-66 on display in their air park. I was serving in the USAF at the time and helped put it into shape. I was a corrosion control specialist that prepped and painted her. I have no idea where it ended up after the base closed.
It was in pretty rough shape. From what I remember, it had come from the bone yard and had its wings cut off. Our fabrication guys had to reattach the wings building their own, home made main spar.

Leon

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:18 pm

usaf ssgt wrote:

The former Bergstrom AFB in Austin Texas had an RB-66 on display in their air park. I was serving in the USAF at the time and helped put it into shape. I was a corrosion control specialist that prepped and painted her. I have no idea where it ended up after the base closed.
Leon

RB-66B 53-466. It's now at Linear Air Park at Dyess AFB. A couple photos here:
http://www.aero-web.org/museums/tx/dlap/53-0466.htm
(Note: While looking for images of 466 on Google, some older images of it came up listed under arcforums.com, but when I tried to open them my virus warning went off - so proceed with caution.)

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