Some "dog days of summer" fun. Tom "Gnoopey" Kohler's RB-50
Looking for a project to beat the heat, I wanted to find a B-50 to putt around in.
The B-50 was the end of the line for the Boeing B-29 series of heavy bombers. Many of the B-50's were later converted to tankers, however some of them also flew as Recon aircraft over the rural areas of the Soviet Union prior to the introduction of the Mig-15. Finding Gnoopey's B-50 turned into a bit of an adventure, my only advise is to use the search term "superfortress" to find the proper files.
The B-50 is basically the same bird as the B-29, the differences being the larger radial engines with large air scoops, the taller tail, and some neat "Flash Gordon" window framing around the glass the Bombardier would look out of.
I got the files downloaded and installed a borrowed the sound set* from my Wings Of Power B-29 and I had the plane ready to go. Now, where to fly it from?
A quick check on Wiki and I found out that the RB-50's all belonged to the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. The 55th seemed familiar and I later remembered that they still fly the RC-135's out of Offut AFB, but back then they were HQ'd at Forbes AFB in Topeka, KS. Great, another old AFB to track down in FS2004, but its still there and listed as Forbes or KFOE.
If you want to get really picky, you can fire up AFCAD2 and add the tower view and some military parking ramps (I need to find some photos of Forbes AFB from back in the 1950's), but otherwise Forbes is ready to go. A stop over at Fairchild AFB makes the most sense between Topeka and Fairbanks.
The recon flights (photographic and radar recon) were forward deployed to Eielson AFB in Alaska and MAIW has some nice add-ons for PAEI, so that base is covered. All that was left was to find a tasty call sign and I settled on "Raven" plus the buzz number. It gives the flights a nice James Bond feel.
After that, figure out how to set the RB-50 for high altitude cruise (aim for something between FL 300 and FL 320) and head west.
The docs for the RB-50 give you enough info to get the bird sorted but there are some nice additions in the dynamics that can make the engines run rough at odd times. Fiddle around with them enough and they'll clear up.
*- An alternate sound set could be something loud for the Lockheed Constellation, they used the same engines.
These flights are actually pretty neat and most of them are still considered Classified.
Still, it isn't all that hard.
It was the early 1950's and Kurt LeMay was still turning SAC into the juggernaut it became by the late 1950's into the mid 1970's.
Having the hardware to attack anything in the Northern Hemisphere was fine, but what exactly did they need to attack?
Better yet, where were these targets located? It wasn't like the Soviets were a font of information and spy satellites were still a good, but mostly unproven, idea.
Anyone who understood Great Circle Navigation knew that the Artic Circle was important.
Like-wise, the Far East and Northern portions of Russia needed to be explored. If it was that quiet in the Far East, did it mean that the Soviet's had, in reality, an unlocked back door?
I'll leave it to the reader to figure that one out.
Why was the US Navy concerned about Vladivostok, the Sakhalin Islands, and Petropavlovsk?
The Navy and SAC weren't exactly best friends in the early 1950's.
You may also want to include Misawa AB as a destination.
There is still a good source for terrain files at:
These are old files BUT they work well for these missions.
Make sure you download the map to figure out which mesh and terrain files you'll need.
Getting the mesh to download is a little tricky on a newer OS, just right-click the file links you'll need and use "Save As".
Where are the bases? Near the cities? Are there any cities out there??
Go and find out.
Oh, don't forget your pomade. Its the 1950's after all, and you want your hair looking sharp.
FS 2004
Fiddle around with them enough and they'll clear up.
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