Warbird Information Exchange

Great old photo from the air. Many of those old buildings and hangars are still there. For several months in 2006 I stayed at Bolling during UTA weekends. I drove and walked around the base (including Anatcostia) each time soaking in some history.


Chappie

You WALKED around Anacostia? Most folks don't even like to DRIVE through Anacostia. Congratulations on your survival.

Mudge the impressed

OK early 50's but that's as high as I'll go lolol ...

Hi All,

GREAT PICS

You know me - - - - - - - - -

After a bit of checking, it's probably "1952" based on 3 items.

CG 1261 was accepted on 2/11/52 - on AFD '51. it was still on the assembly line.

The USAF SA-16A pictured is the model that was underdelopment in 1952 and
the Tri-phibian version, as it was called, and was not delivered in mass (in kit form)
until 1953 (152 kits). This aircraft was AF 48-588

The BIG humper is the Consolidated XC-99A, a 6-engine pusher with 19' 7" props
built as a cargo version of the B-36 series. The pic shows a silver fuselage and
no radome. In March of 1953, it was modified with the installiation of an APS-42
weather radar on the nose and the forward portion of the cockpit, crew compartment
was painted white as a reflective method. I got to know this machine very well on
AFD 1957, and can attest to its LARGE size. Shortly after 0500 on AFD, our TI
screamed us out of bed in Basic Training at Lackland AFB and told us that our
squadron had been volunteered to was airplanes at. Kelly AFB, just across the
highway and would earn the right to take a tour of downtown SAT if we did a good
job. Yours truly was assigned, along with 3 other Airman Nothings to wash the
tail section of the C-99. I don't know how clean we got it but we managed to turn
it into a giant water fight - and spend the afternoon downtown.

More useless info you never needed to know from an old fart.

BTW: The C-123 looking thing is actually a Chase C-122A that eventually became
the C-123B.

"Old fart"...If you were just going through basic in '57, you're just a kid.

Did you, like some of us, write your rank as A/Bc. (I may be an Airman Basic, but I've still got CLASS.)

Mudge the geezer/1c

The pusher (XC-99) was indeed a one-off machine and was bulit as a prototype for USAF
testing of a very large cargo carrying aircraft. It was built by CONVAIR at their DFW plant
on the same assembly line as the B-36 airframe. It had the same wings, landing gear,
tail feathers as the B-36 but was greatly reduced in weight with the absence of gun turrets
and bomb bay. With that reduction in empty gross weight, CONVAIR was able to turn it
into a double-decker with an electric elevator in the tail to faciltiate quick loading and un-
loading. The "MAIN" problem with the machine was twofold: the 230' wingspan and
wide footprint made it suitable for GW ops from existing SAC B-36 bases. The second
problem was when operating at MGW, limited it further to to even fewer bases that could
accept the footprint of its two single wheel main mounts. CONVAIR redesigned the main
mounts to 4-tires per strut but it was still considered not suitable as a transport and was
withdrawn from service in mid-1957 (shortly after I washed its tail section - sure hope I
didn't break it.

I showed it to our airplane expert...he goes with 1952. His response is below. He has pretty good detective skills.