Tornado wipes out 108 aircraft

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11324

Just received the following via e-mail:

Quote:

Subject: Fw: tornado wipes out 108 aircraft

On 1 September, 1952, the Air Force had 108 aircraft damaged by a tornado at Carswell AFB, Texas. In this total of 108 aircraft, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) lost the operational capacity of two-thirds of its heavy bomber fleet consisting of giant B-36 bombers. Twenty-six B-36 aircraft were damaged. It cost the Air Force 48 million dollars (about 912 million in> today's economy) to repair the damage. The aircraft were not tied down and> service equipment was left in place around aircraft.

Since that time and through lessons learned, maintenance and safety practices and standards have improved but it is still amazing to look back and see what happened. One things has stayed constant, the power and unpredictability of the weather.

The site below has photos of the damage.

http://www.cowtown.net/proweb/tornado/tornado.htm

Tulio · **Joined:** Mon May 03, 2004 1:05 am **Posts:** 3236

The bomber base that used to be located at the Liberal, KS airfield, was hit twice by tornadoes during WW-II, on the very same day, two years in a row.

Does anyone know how many B-24s were damaged or destroyed there?

Saludos,

Tulio

B-29 Super Fort · **Joined:** Wed Sep 01, 2004 11:12 am **Posts:** 871

Amazing amount of damage but only one aircraft totally written off.

GIJOE290 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:14 am

Great piece. Holy Cow that's a lot of damage. :shock:

And to think that it was less than 10yrs after that happened, those planes were decomissioned. :cry:

I didn't know Meachem had long enough runways to handle the that size traffic!

Thanks for posting it!

RickH · **Posted:** Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:31 am

Meacham currently has 7,501 ft.

Carswell is now called Navy Fort Worth JRB and is operated by the Navy. The airfield is still called Carswell.

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Tornado wipes out 108 aircraft

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