Lon
Well-known Member
- Location
- Central California
It was 1955, I was a 19 year old enlisted instrument technician now assigned to SAC after returning from 18 months in Korea where I worked on F86 Sabre Jets. Now it was B47 Bombers. The 47's had a three man crew. Pilot.co Pilot, Navigator. A fourth non crew member could sit in the stair well going up to the cockpit for the Pilot and Co Pilot, the Navigator sat in the nose of the air craft. I of course had the stair well seating with no view other than looking up and out over the pilots head at the sky through his canopy.
This was the Cold War Days and SAC with it's Nuclear Armed B 47's were constantly on the alert and in the air. I was given very little info about our upcoming flight other than it would be 12 hours with in flight re-fueling. I was also reminded that I was riding the so called Death Seat because the crew members could all eject from their respective seating in the event of an emergency.
I finished my boxed lunch about four hours into the flight and was able to listen to the chatter from the crew members over my head set. At some point during the flight the pilot said he was going to bank the plane so I could get a view from where I sat. He banked the air craft some where over the North Pole and I had a magnificent view of a lot of ice and snow.
Further on with the flight we met up with a KC 97 Refueling Tanker where I had a limited view of the refueling procedure. I made many TDY's with the wing to Africa but always flew on the tankers and not the 47's.
All this was a great experience for a young kid and though I have flown many times on commercial flights over the years this was my only flight in a combat aircraft. I think they even paid me $45 for the flight.
This was the Cold War Days and SAC with it's Nuclear Armed B 47's were constantly on the alert and in the air. I was given very little info about our upcoming flight other than it would be 12 hours with in flight re-fueling. I was also reminded that I was riding the so called Death Seat because the crew members could all eject from their respective seating in the event of an emergency.
I finished my boxed lunch about four hours into the flight and was able to listen to the chatter from the crew members over my head set. At some point during the flight the pilot said he was going to bank the plane so I could get a view from where I sat. He banked the air craft some where over the North Pole and I had a magnificent view of a lot of ice and snow.
Further on with the flight we met up with a KC 97 Refueling Tanker where I had a limited view of the refueling procedure. I made many TDY's with the wing to Africa but always flew on the tankers and not the 47's.
All this was a great experience for a young kid and though I have flown many times on commercial flights over the years this was my only flight in a combat aircraft. I think they even paid me $45 for the flight.
