I see this one in TX or down south every now and then. Where is this based out of? Looking at the history it appears it's based out of Shreveport LA. but i dont' see it on here very much in the last two months. Is it mode 5 most the time or does it not fly much? How often do you guys see these B52H's flying on here? https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae588c
Based out of Barksdale AFB. They almost always show up as 00000000 but only 50/50 show up as an actual B52 or unknown type. They fly all the time, usually 3 or 4 of them cross over DFW every day on the way to the range out west.
I can't believe how old they are. I seen a documentary on YT of them and was like wow they're old. Since then i was looking for them on here and just now found the one yesterday.
We have four currently based here in the UK. Two go out most days together; they either head North over the North Sea and disappear from the map because there are no receivers, and only reappear when they are heading home, or they fly around Europe. I've seen them around Poland, you know, quite close to Ukraine...
ahhh - Balls 48 any B52 starting with 60 as the year in the serial is referred to as a "Balls" aircraft ( this comes straight from the B-52 Facebook group that is pretty much 90% USAF 52 Crews and Technicians who worked on and flew in 52's ) this is due to prior serial numbering. ive posted him several times within the group. Because they are allowed to alter their Callsigns at their discretion. but they will always show up as L8J or B52 on the info. ive yet to catch one flying without its type designation.
where they flying in formation the whole time? the second one doesn't' come in too good on the tracks. maybe why i didn't see it.
its to do with the serial numbers from 1960 and a change into 1961. they had 00 in the number so the 00 = "Balls" as a code name hence 60-0048 is "Balls 48"
I missed them on the map, but all four UK-based B52s have now finished their UK stint based at RAF Fairford and have headed home. (https://ffdmovements.blogspot.com/)
In the mid-70s, I was stationed at Barksdale. We had KC-135s and B-52Gs. Now they just fly the H model. The aircraft had the last 4 of their serial number painted on them for identification. We had a couple G models that were 00XX tail numbers, we called those the 'balls'-whatever aircraft. Primarily a means of identification, plus it was shorter to say balls-38 instead of zero-zero-3-8 Look up 'Joe Baugher". He has an extensive list of military aircraft serial numbers by year. Like someone else mentioned, 60 and 61 are the years the H models were built. They were the earliest numbers assigned to aircraft, so they were probably 60-0050, etc.. One photo for my desktop has a G model 2602, so that year, it was the 2602 aircraft assigned a number. Next duty station was working RF4Cs, For some reason, the fighters just had 3 large digits on their tail, so we just used that for an ID. On some of the photos from that era, you would see 2 smaller numbers for the year, then the 3 larger numbers. 67-383 with 67 being smaller. I don't recall what happened if the serial number was higher like, 67- 1014 I never saw 4 large digits, so I'd guess they'd leave it off. The command may have had something to do with 3 digits or 4 on the tail. SAC used 4, USAFE used 3.
Yes. I don't post a heck of a lot. A couple other somewhat related groups as well. I was at Barksdale from Jul76-Jul78.
Yeah, good post. I've been aware of ADSB for years, only lately installed my own receiver. That group has some people that scream Op-sec quite often. I figure if I can go to wikipedia and look up stats of a B52, it's fair game on facebook. Likewise with ADSB, if the military decides to transmit, they probably shouldn't care if people post screenshots of where they flew. A few weeks ago, Poland was quite busy with RC135s, KC135s, and KC10s. they chose to make it visible, maybe to let Russia know for sure we're in the area, or maybe a warning, like, don't stray too close? I figure with each tanker, there's a half dozen other aircraft not visible in the area.
I think it's mostly the fighters and bombers that aren't visible to us. I read the other day the fighters and bombers use the UHF discreet freqs. and i finally heard a B-2 talking to the ATC on a RCAG discreet freq. i normally don't hear traffic on the discreet side.
my air force history is all cold-war era, so when I see something with the military, I can't help but wonder we see what they want us to see. I have seen fighters off the coast of E England, practicing dog fights. guessing about that, but based on fighters and the bases they came from. the base I was stationed at in England had F-5Es, they were an aggressor squadron and practiced with NATO aircraft over the north sea somewhere, so it's not a stretch to figure that's what they are doing. I've seen some random euro-fighters over there, away from the current conflict, but various places around the channel. On serious missions though, they probably go dark as far as we're concerned.
I'm curious how the US Government Officials are visiting Kyiv in Ukraine without problems with the Russians. I don't know if they fly in or what. But the Russians can probably detect them on radar and try to shoot them down. i don't know if the airports and runways are operational or blown up.
