Hoovering On High

by Phil Rowe
The word in the title really is "Hoovering" and not hovering, like helicopters do. This piece has to do with vacuum cleaning, or Hoovering (as the 'Britts' say) at 30,000'.

Many B-52 crew chiefs were very conscientious, some in the extreme. I recall one airplane, a B-52D model, which the crew chief and his assistants kept in immaculate condition. It was unusual to find an airplane so lovingly cared for and spotlessly cleaned inside and out. It even had custom-fitted floor mats on the flight decks.

The crew chief was meticulous about keeping his plane neat, clean and showroom new. He even vacuumed it in flight. Well, actually, he did use a vacuum cleaner hose. He didn't have a vacuum cleaner, Hoover or any other brand name. But he did suck out the dirt, dust and other crud that inconsiderate flight crewmen brought in. And he did it in an unusual way.

A B-52 flying at high altitude, say 30,000 feet or above, is pressurized to keep the crew from becoming hypoxic for lack of oxygen. Air, drawn from the compressor stages of the jet engines, runs through various heat exchangers and then is dumped into the crew cabin. A spring-operated release valve allows enough air to escape to maintain a constant pressure altitude inside the cabin. That means that the air pressure within the airplane is considerably greater than what it is outside.

I explain all of this so you will understand from whence the vacuum cleaner action comes. The crew chief, in flight, inserts the end of his long home-type vacuum cleaner hose into the overhead receptacle used for the navigator's periscopic sextant. When he opens the valve, a rush of cabin air passes through that hose and carries with it anything small enough to fit. Dirt, dust, mud, cobwebs or whatever might be in the cabin is quickly sucked up and out. Mr. Hoover never made such an efficient vacuum cleaner.

So that's the story of what I call "Hoovering" in flight. Frightfully clever those B-52 crew chiefs. Eh? I would have preferred a French maid in a short skirt with a little apron.