YAM Moving Aircraft to the Bomber plant pics

[seabee1526]

http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_photo_galle/recent-events/the-last-mile-aircr/

also some very nice shots of the work being done on the bomber plant...new walls! The remaining portion of the Willow Run bomber plant was without 2 walls when the rest of the building came down. Lots of wonderful progress.

[Steve Nelson]

Cool! Looking forward to seeing the museum in their new digs. I've got a soft spot for that B-57. When I first moved to Battle Creek in 1988, it was displayed on a pole as a "gate guard" at our ANG base, having flown with the unit back in the day. I was driving by the base one day in the early 90s and noticed the plane had been taken down and was sitting along the fence with the wings removed. I asked the gate attendant what was going to become of it, and she told me it was going to some museum. A few months later it turned up at Yankee. I heard they had a problem finding the landing gear..it was removed when the plane was put "onnastick" and had disappeared over the years. For many years the welded steel pylon the plane was mounted on was sitting out behind the old Yankee hangar..don't know whatever became of it.

SN

Managed to find this pic on the interwebs of her days onnastick at the BC ANG base.

[Rob W]

Food for thought: With the YAM moving to the west side of the airport what does that mean for future TOM layouts?

[martin_sam_2000]

Food for thought: With the YAM moving to the west side of the airport what does that mean for future TOM layouts?

I was wondering that myself when i was there this year. It will be interesting to see what they do.

Sean

[Chris Brame]

Managed to find this pic on the interwebs of her days onnastick at the BC ANG base.

Nice! For contrast, here she is all dressed in black:

(Courtesy Forgotten Fighters)

[TOM WALSH]

As I understand it, Thunder Over Michigan will remain on the east side of the airport. The ramp and taxiways are in better shape for aircraft parking and the overall infrastructure to operate the show is better than on the west side.

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

[SaxMan]

I believe YAM's B-57 was among the first B-57s produced. If my math is correct: 52-1517 was the 100th B-57 down the line, so counting backwards would make 52-1426 the 9th B-57 produced. This could be the oldest extant Martin B-57, unless one of the first 8 are still around. I'm sure there are probably older Canberras still extant.

52-1517 was an early B model with the tandem cockpit and was lost on a delivery flight on February 8, 1955 less than 15 minutes after takeoff and came down in Beallsville, Maryland. Pilot William Todd was killed during the ejection process and his navigator Masuru "Dick" Uyehara was badly maimed, losing one leg during the ejection process, and eventually needing to have the other leg amputated. Uyehara was the first B-57 crew member to punch out and live to tell the tale. It turned out the seats were just "bubbling up" and not shooting the pilots and bombardier/navigator clear of the airplane. This crew's sacrifice likely saved many B-57 crews' lives further down the road.