I will not apologize for the 64th Bomb Squadron bias
of these pages. The squadron was home to my dad Bob “Abie”
Randall from December 1948 to September 1952.
I invite any assistance, corrections or additions to these pages and I am
solely responsible for the content.
Sincerely, Mike Randall,
This page
is always going to be under construction—so slow down. This is the first of several
pages regarding the B-50 bomber.
A special
thanks to CWO Bryan Howerton USAF Ret. (and the Navy
too- and that’s another long story) without whose help these pages would have
been totally impossible.
A
View of the Lucky Lady II Round-the-World flight
As
seen From The Home
of
the 43rd Bomb Wing Davis-Monthan
43rd Bomb Wing
63rd BS 64th BS 65th BS 43rdAreFS
509th
AreFS
These
are the patches for the principle culprits. I couldn’t find all of the patches
for additional units TDY’d to the effort. If someone
wants to supply all of those, I’ll post those too.
These are some clippings from The
Tucson Citizen a local afternoon daily and the Desert Airman the base newspaper
of
Some of these are a pain to see on the screen. I highly
recommend that you save the images and print with an image editor or …worse MS Paint
or Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. These sacred parchments will not take
another scanning.
There are many great accounts of
the globe-circling effort on the net. This page is intended as a supplement and
is not here to borrow the tailwinds (and from what I read of B-50s.. they can
sure use them!). Please find a number of links to other Lucky Lady sites below.
Please report dead links. mailto:mikeran@aloha.net
I am keeping a
B-50A genealogy <LINK including data on nicknames, squadrons, photos, air incidents,
crew details….anything on the 79 B-50A models produced. Please contact me if
you can help. mailto:mikeran@aloha.net
The
Logs!!
Lucky Lady II (bottom) and KB-29M
(top)
“What a
lousy system!” My comment the first time I saw the Cobham
looped hose system of refueling used the first generation of B-50s. As an
entomologist, I observe that nature might have provided a better model for
“doing business”. A bit of turbulence could ruin your whole day. As
unfortunately it did for a number of poor souls as evidence by a number of
combined B-50- KB-29 fatality accidents.
“Our
unit was rated best in SAC, which was the reason for us to be the first
converted to B-50's and getting the A models. The principal difference between
the A and D models was that the A model used the British Hose System for
mid-air refueling and the D models used the American Boom System. The British
Hose System was dangerous and we lost several aircraft, as well as KB-29's
(B-29s converted to tanker use) in mid-air collisions while refueling. When
using the British system the tanker flew directly above the bomber and deployed
a hose which had a large brass connector on the end and snapped around in the
air like a wild snake.
A
crew member was positioned about half-way out of a hatch located near the
forward part of the vertical stabilizer and would snag the deployed hose with a
gaff-like device (usually after several tries). Because of the wild gyrations
of the hose when trailed from the tanker, it had to be fairly short and forced
the bomber to be flown beneath the tanker; requiring a high degree of flying
expertise on the part of the crews of both aircraft. Air turbulence was a
killer. The American Boom System was a great improvement over the British
system, employing a rigid refueling boom deployed from the aft section of the
tanker and was designed so that the
tanker boom operator had a lot of control over the position of the
boom when trying to engage the bomber which was positioned just behind and
below the tanker during refueling. It was much safer.”
--Bryan Howerton 2003
LINKS:
A history
by Patrick Stimson -a view of the historic effort
from the refueler's perspective
The
above link is on the KB-29 site. It was the best researched history of the
events surrounding the Lucky Lady II flight I found researching for this site.
Air Force
Museum Site Regarding The Lucky Lady II
A
brief homage to the flight.
1999
Article recollection of the flight