Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: B-52 bombings
Message-ID: <1990Sep13.011917.16017@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 13 Sep 90 01:19:17 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Lines: 23
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
I believe that after a short experience with the "latest and greatest" 
B-52 variants in Vietnam, i.e., the B-52G and B-52H, SAC realized that
the plane was pretty highly optimized for long-range missions with a 
few thermonuclear weapons, and that for conventional bombs it ran into
a volume limit well short of its weight limit.  So they put out an
rush order for a modification called "Big Belly" (pretty much what it 
sounds like) to older B-52Ds.  These planes could carry a _lot_ more 
conventional ordnance.

If memory and dubious (civilian) sources of information further serve,
the Big Belly planes were mothballed in Arizona in the mid-70s and
presumably have not undergone the numerous upgrades (most notably to
avionics) of the later models. 

Are these aircraft just junk waiting to happen, or is somebody chasing
the snakes out of them in anticipation of dropping a lot of iron bombs 
on Iraq?

--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"