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Description
| Manufacturer: | Martin | |
| Base model: | B-57 | |
| Designation: | RB-57 | |
| Version: | A | |
| Nickname: | Night Intruder | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1924-Present | |
| Basic role: | Bomber | |
| Modified Mission: | Reconnaissance | |
Specifications
| Length: | 65' 6" | 19.9 m | |
| Height: | 15' 7" | 4.7 m | |
| Wingspan: | 64' 0" | 19.5 m | |
| Empty Weight: | 26,800 lb | 12,154 kg | |
| Max Weight: | 51,000 lb | 23,129 kg | |
Propulsion
| No. of Engines: | 2 | ||
| Powerplant: | Wright J65-W-5 | ||
| Thrust (each): | 7,220 lb | 3,274 kg | |
Performance
| Range: | 2,300 miles | 3,703 km | |
| Max Speed: | 582 mph | 937 km/h | 506 kt |
| Ceiling: | 48,000 ft | 14,630 m | |
Known serial numbers
Examples of this type may be found at
| Museum | City | State |
| Glenn L. Martin Aviation Museum | Middle River | Maryland |
| Hill Aerospace Museum | Hill AFB | Utah |
| Museum of Aviation | Warner Robins AFB | Georgia |
| New England Air Museum | Windsor Locks | Connecticut |
| Selfridge Military Air Museum | Selfridge ANG Bas | Michigan |
| USAF History and Traditions Museum | San Antonio | Texas |
| Yankee Air Museum | Belleville | Michigan |
RB-57A on display
Glenn L. Martin Aviation Museum | Hill Aerospace Museum | Museum of Aviation | New England Air Museum |
Recent comments by our visitors
| j stone wood river, IL | what ever happend to turner afb. i know the 4080th strat.recon wing had rb57s there in 57. i was in the 4080th after they moved to laughlin afb. tex. from 58 to 62.along with the u2. 12/14/2007 @ 19:52 [ref: 18924] |
| Billy Smith Fort Walton Beach, FL | I was crew chief on a B-57-A while stationed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, 1959/1962. Our mission was flying air-sampling missions.
All I can remember of the tail number is "65". I was selected to crew the new T-39, VIP bird as the back-up aircraft. I attended T-39 training at Sheppard Field, Texas and returned to Elmendorf to await the aircraft arrival. They eventually canned the VIP program. I lost my aircraft and was assigned to another squadron. The job as Crew Chief on that aircraft was the ultimate Crew Chief Job, I had my own specialist,my own pilot, and no one bothered us as long as the mission was on schedule. The sad news was I watched my pilot and ECM operator die in crash at the end of the runway during Armed Forces Day in 1961. I believe till this day that my Pilot, Capt. Krisler had a lot to do with my selection to the VIP aircraft program. They ruled that accident as "pilot error" as well. My web site http://members.cox.net/sketterguy/sitemap.html/email Billy Smith brsmith6@cox.net 08/13/2007 @ 13:08 [ref: 17593] |
| John , KS | There are 2 Martin B57 bombers in Topeka at the Former Forbes Air Force base Topeka Kansas. One at the Air National Guard main entrance and one Being Restored for the Kansas National Guard museum on Forbes Field 07/22/2007 @ 16:01 [ref: 17237] |
| Mike Fevola , NJ | I was the Crew Chief of RB-57A 1492 stationed at Rhein Main AB in Germany. I crewed her from 1958 to 1961 and she was transferred to the Far East. I also crewed a B-57A at Eglin AFB in Florida.
I have worked on a number of Air Force aircraft, T-37, B-66, F-100, C-121, KC-135 and I still have a favorite spot in my heart for the B/RB-57 model aircraft. I crewed the following versions: B-57A, RB-57A, B-57B, RB-57D and B-57E. It was truly the "Mechanics Dream" 07/09/2007 @ 08:42 [ref: 17046] |
| Jim A. , GA | Below is a link to info regarding the "Tropic Moon 3" project asked about on a previous post. Also, the "Patricia Lynn Project" asked about was the use of RB-57s out of Saigon in the early to mid sixties for recon of VC assests at night. A google search will bring up info on jbaugher's aircraft site if you're interested. The project was apparently named for the project leaders wife and was terminated in 1971.
Jim http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADD703207 05/26/2007 @ 04:27 [ref: 16606] |
| Steve Wooden Sarasota, FL | I worked as radio/radar and ECM tech on the RB-57A,RB-66B and RB-66C and D models. In the 30th TacRecon Sq, I was stationed at Sembach AB Germany TDY at Landstuhl AB and transferred to Spang on New Years 1958.
The 57 was a nice plane to watch fly. The shotgun black powder starter would scare the crap out of someone not noticing that a crew was going to start an engine. Huge clouds of black smoke would spew upwards.The plane could fly out of anywhere because it didnt need ground power equipment. Our squadron set records for most hours flown because we had a special maintenance policy. We inspected the engines regularly. If they passed basic tests, they were reinstalled and flown. A friend(armament/electrician)was severely hurt when the explosive squibs for the canopy blew in the hangar while he was in the cockpit installing them. Blew him out the 18 inch square hatch backwards taking flesh off his back. One of our( 30 TRS/66TRW) RB-57A's, one that I actually worked on, is at the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run, Ypsilanti, Michigan. 08/20/2006 @ 10:27 [ref: 13931] |
| Willliam Dalton Gulf Breeze, FL | The last aircraft my father ( Capt. Forrest Adolph Dalton Jr.) flew was a RB57A. He was killed on a flight from Eglin AFB when his plane crashed near Van Cleave, Miss. on April 4 1957. I have heard that there were many problems with this aircraft during this period. Two other 57s crashed at Eglin in 1958. I looked up the serial number of my dad's plane and believe it was 1434. Although the plane iced up @20,000 ft, lost an engine and went down in a flat spin the primary reason for the crash was cited as pilot error in that he lost control of the aircraft. I have often wondered if anyone who participated in the accident investigation could have maintained " control of the aircraft" under those conditions. There were severe thunderstorms, and severe turbulance in the area at the time. Give, he flew into a known area of sever weather, but his mission was to test the airframe. I have often wondered why he did not eject. The safety-type pin was found still installed and the explosive squbbs were still in tact after the crash. Does anyone know if the pin is supposed to be pulled out upon entering the cockpit? If this is the case , I can only assume that he couldn't reach it because of g forces. THERE ARE FEW OLD BOLD PILOTS. DON'T FLY INTO A KNOW AREA OF SEVERE WEATHER WITH HEAVY RIME AND SHEET ICING EXCEEDING 20,000 FT.. WAIT UNTIL ANOTHER DAY AND TRY AGAIN. 09/18/2005 @ 05:23 [ref: 11266] |
| Phil Peterson Kearns, UT | They just repainted the plane at Hill. I got a couple of pics but they hadn't done the new markings yet.
[img]http://www.ipmsslc.com/gallery/albums/HillAFBMuseum/P1010925.sized.jpg[/img] 09/05/2005 @ 03:26 [ref: 11153] |
| James Kelly , MO | I am SMSgt Retired James Kelly. I was the Shop Chief of the electrical shop from Aug 66 to Aug 70. Would enjoy hearing from any of the old gang. Enjoyable tour of duty but, just a few too many TDY's. 12/27/2004 @ 18:47 [ref: 8984] |
| Jac Murphy Miramar, FL | I was in the first wing in the usaf to get the B-57B and the C Models both We got the aircraft from GL Martin factory in Baltimore after the first7 crashed on t/o Why you ask simple the dash-1 said to set the moveable stablizer to full nose up it would freeze there and the a/c ground looped.Boom. We had 2 squadrons of them each sqdn had 3 to 5 C models dual control.
The aircraft carried a pilot and a nav/bombardeer 1 behind the other. The a/c hurt a lot of weapons mechanics because to get the Shoran system out you had to remove the ejection seat. Burned a lot of groins me included. Schools were FTD only what a waste. Nobody but us had the aircraft for over 4 years. We crashed them in the utah desert we crashed them at Wendover AFB Utah. We crashed them off the coast of florida. The a/c used to take the legs off the nav if he forgot to drop the table before ejecting. The aircraft never had a rocket ejection system so the nav usually hit the tail. Part of the K model mod was a rocket ejection system. We were constantly getting grounded. We finally went PCS to Blytheville AFB Arkansas what a dump of a base no paved roads for the first 2 years finally left there in 1957 Thank you lord. We went tdy to Eglin AFB Fl while there we were grounded because they found out the snatch unit which was supposed to disconnect the elevators was never cocked at the factory.So we fixed that. We went TDY to Wendover AFB Utah and were flying The Toss Bomb Manuver with 10 aircraft and got awesome at it so much so they flew in 5 B47s and started haveing our guys teach them how to do it we were throwing a 7500lb bomb shaped like a mark 7 which was also carried on the F84. I know I was the Special Weapons Load Crew Chief the first certified to load the bomb the real thing.I personally found the aircraft very remarkable we would pre-load the bomb door for the next mission when the a/c came in we would swap doors and then readjust them to fit. Finally we got the MJ-1 Bomb Loader and we stopped changeing doors . The a/c came with 3 different doors 1 had 3 rows of 4 bomb racks and 2 solo racks all setup for 100lb pratice or 250 lb or the 750 bomb. The second door carried 1 atomic weapon. The 3 door carried 2 spools for carrying tow targets banner type. They were never used by us but when I got to Wheelus AFB Liya they had the d model which did carry the tow targets they were banner type targets. Our a/c were black till you opened a access door then they were all white. Except the bomb bay was zinc-chromate. The B models carried 4 .50cal machine guns in each wing. The C model carried 2 20mm M39cannons in each wing. Aesome a/c. 08/19/2004 @ 23:55 [ref: 8100] |
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