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Description
| Manufacturer: | Boeing | |
| Base model: | B-50 | |
| Designation: | WB-50 | |
| Version: | D | |
| Nickname: | Superfortress | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1924-Present | |
| Basic role: | Bomber | |
| Modified Mission: | Weather reconnaissance | |
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Examples of this type may be found at
| Museum | City | State |
| Castle Air Museum | Atwater | California |
| United States Air Force Museum | Wright-Patterson | Ohio |
WB-50D on display
Castle Air Museum | United States Air Force Museum |
Recent comments by our visitors
| Marc Boulanger Colpach, Luxembourg Europe, MA | Hello there,
I am a modeler and I am building a WB50 model; I like the version with some orange or red painted area (artic or equatorial hi viz option) Any body to help me for the wing details and limits of painted panels? Thanks a lot. Marc; 01/11/2008 @ 01:27 [ref: 19225] |
| Luther Hollums Snellville, GA | I was with the 56th WRS from November 1960 until April 1964 as a radio operator. AIF8 was our ground station located on Yokota AB. Our boss was MSgt Buscarino. I flew over 2,000 hours in this type aircraft while at Yokota. Many months were running about 100 hours. Spent many days, in the summer, on Guam chasing typhoons or easterly waves or going to Tarague beach. Times were simpler then.
I retired in August 1979 as a MSgt from the 1st MAS at Andrews AFB. 10/19/2007 @ 16:55 [ref: 18246] |
| Clarence M. Duff, Major USAF Ret Manito, IL | I flew this particular aircraft from McClellan AFB, Hickam AFB and Yokota AB Japan. My experience with it and about 30 others of it's type was from 1957 through 1963 for a total of 6714 hours, including storm, nuclear radiation and ELINT recon. Examples were Taiwan Strait, Lebanon, North Africa, Congo, Cuba, Alaska, Iron Curtain perifery, Indian Ocean, US nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll and later Christmas Island. It was a work horse for tropical storm, hurricane, and typhoon recon from 1957 until it was retired. In my last year at Yokota AB, I made 225 storm penetrations in WB-50D's. 6 in one storm in the same day. It will always be the one that I remember doing the job and bringing us home safely. 09/23/2007 @ 14:35 [ref: 17994] |
| Jerry Smoker Big Bear City, CA | I was a engine spec. in the 55th at McClellan from 1958 to 1962. I was on a mobilty team that worked in Daharan, Saudi twice. Many times to Hickaum and the H-bomb test on Christma Island. Any one out their from the 55th, drop me an e-mail. Thanks, Smoker 08/17/2007 @ 14:29 [ref: 17654] |
| jim mcclain cape coral, FL | There are many of us I imagine who had fathers in the USAF and we in turn joined up having our own careers. I did my 20 as a loadmaster in special ops. My dad was in supply his own life and I remember time at Little Rocks' surplus yard that he worked at. Rummaging thru all the old civil defense rations as well as flying gear and parts (wish I had some of them today, would be worth thousands), then my time at Yokota where he was in supply. I remember going to work with him and being around the WB50s in the hanger, the smell of hydraulic fluid, quietness at night, dim lights reflecting off the cockpit windows. There is a dvd out called Brats, Our Jouney Home that has recollections of life in the military as a kid. Kris Kristofferson whose dad was a general as well as a Ranger himself is a narrator. Here's to us, who served 20 before we did our own 20. Too bad we didn't get paid for being brats. Ha. 07/08/2007 @ 14:06 [ref: 17044] |
| Jim McClain Pensacola and Cape Coral, FL | My father, James W McClain was a supply specialist at Yokota AB in the 60s and with the 56th WRS. He lives in Pensacola FL and just turned 83 on 4 July. Anyone who knew him or has pics of him, please email me at Banzaisgi@comcast.net. His ph number is 850 474 9382. I live in Cape Coral FL and will move back to Pcola next year. (08). 07/08/2007 @ 11:37 [ref: 17041] |
| Edmund F. Fleck, M/Sgt (retired) Vacaville, CA | I have enjoyed reading some of the comments by others who either worked on or flew on the B 50 aircraft. George Statler says his family was stationed with the 59th WRS in Bermuda during the same time I was. 1959 to 1961, and that his father was a dropsonde operator there. I was a flight engineer there and must have flown with his father many times. I remember Hank Vigansky very well too and have some good pictures of him. Regarding the comments about Col. Mckibben, I can only ad that he was one of the finest and well liked officers I have known. When we were both in the 55th WRS at McClellan AFB, and I was on an extended trip to Hawaii, my mother became quite ill in Los Angeles and my family requested my presence there. Col. McKibben personally met my flight after midnight and offered any aid he could so that I would have a speedy departure to visit my mother. I was a new man in the outfit and it was the first time we had met. And yes, he did resemble Ward Bond and was fondly referred to as "Wagon Master". I am presently assisting with the maintenance of WB 50 490351 which is in the Castle Museum at Atwater, CA. We just completed the Memorial Day open cockpit day there. I was lucky enough to be flight engineer on the brand new "D" models at Castle from 1949 to 1954, the TB 50 trainers at Mather AFB, CA, from 1954 to 1955, and the WB50 models from 1958 to 1961 at McClellan, Kindley Bermuda, and Tinker AFB< Okla. The B 50 is a great plane and I enjoyed every minute of the 4,658 hours and 35 minutes I loged in that hard seat. THe Air Weather Reconn. Assn. Will meet for its annual reunion this Oct.'07 in Tucson, AZ. Email me for details if you wish to attend or call 707-448-3987.
06/01/2007 @ 19:54 [ref: 16703] |
| TJ HARRIS CMSGT RET PANAMA CITY, FL | I WAS A CREW CHIEF ON WB-50D 49-337 AND 49-348 IN BERMUDA 53RD WRS. GREAT AIRCRAFT.
HEY ROGER COLE SEND ME YOUR E-MAIL I GOT A PICTURE FOR YOU TJ E-MAIL tjhchief@aol.com 04/29/2007 @ 16:01 [ref: 16348] |
| Roger H Cole TSgt Ret Decatur, IN | I was crew chief of WB 50D 49-310 from December 1957 -August 1958 while assigned to the 57th WRS at Hickam AFB. During that period we were assigned to Enewetak Atoll for the Nuclear weapons testing, March thru July, as 57th WRECEP, JTF 7.4.
I served with the 58th WRS at Eielson AFB Alaska from August 1954 thru July 1957 and we began flying the WB 50 in 1956. 04/12/2007 @ 16:22 [ref: 16172] |
| Paul Steves Columbia, MD | I served as an ARWO with the 57th Wx Recce Sqdn from 1954 to 1957 at Hickam AFB. Flew in WB-29's and WB-50's. After a particularly hairy mission in '57, I received "by-name' orders to report to WPAFB to set up and conduct flight testing of airborne weather equipment being developed there. I had several aircraft at my disposal including a very tired WB-50. I also used a B-57A. a B-57B, a F100F and a T-33 flown by test pilots Joe Cotton, Click Smith and Gus Grissom. I plan to visit the museum in April and am looking forward to seeing the WB-50 which I assumed was the same one I had used while stationed there. From the info I have seen I gather it is not, but it will still bring back many pleasant and a few scary memories. In 1960 I became the Exec Officer for the Reconnaissance Laboratory and later was assigned to the Dyna-Soar program but I missed the flying and the challenge of getting that old WB-50 into the air. 04/12/2007 @ 06:26 [ref: 16164] |
Recent photos uploaded by our visitors
