B29 - "Necessary Evil"

In article ,
Cub Driver writes:

Pease was hosting one of the FB-111 wings (379 BMW or whichever) about
the time it was inactivated. Were they noisier than B-52s?

No, they were grounded most of the time.

Also they seemed to fly as individuals, not mass formations. And they
weren't memorably noisy.

Well, other than the one that went into Seacrest Villiage, in '79 or '80.
But no, they weren't that bad.
Like all of SAC, it was all either sitting alert or proficiency
flying. I think they did occasionally deploy 1 or 2 aircraft to
dispersal fields, just to be sure that they;d have everything ready
Just in Case.

When those ole 52s took off, I was living NW of Pease on the runway
centerline, on a point of land. (From the air, this area looks like an
archipelago.) Of course the point was granite, or else it would have
been wiped off by the glaciers. The sound of the 52s would begin in
the cellar, move up to the living quarters, and only after a
considerable time (or so it seemed) did the noise elevate to the sky
where it belonged. If there was a party going on, everyone just
stopped with mouths open and glassy-eyed and waited the five minutes
(whatever) before the possibility of hearing began again.

The C-124s that the NH ANG were flying were rather impressive on the
noise front as well. A different timbre to it, so it didn't seem as
opressive, but loud nontheless,

The KC-135s are actually noisier than I remember the 111s to be. This
was however a relatively quiet summer. Perhaps some of them are
forward-based somewhere?

Back in the day of the Steam Jets (Water-injected A models with
straight J-67s) you could hear the morning trim runs in downtown
Durham. (Student Daze, mid '70s) They gave a new definition of loud.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster