Exellent! I've been wanting to hear what 8 screaming J57's sounds like! Pretty neat seeing such and old bird still in use! Too bad "Balls 8" isnt flying now but least theres a preserved B model around! Maybe she'll fly again some day, I hope!
Was stationed at Edwards from 90 - 94. Loved watching tail 008 in flight. One of the many planes I love to talk about when I bring up my time at Edwards.
Beautiful video. Neat perspective from a ground camera and from a chase plane. Nice tribute to 008. So long girl. It's hard to comprehend sometimes the size of a B-52. I was at an airshow recently and a B-52 was on display. Wow ... they are BIG !
Actually, the black smoke trails are of the water injection. For older jets, such as these bombers, they injected water into the engine aft of the combustion section, this adds more mass to the exhaust as well as cools the turbines, allowing them to throttle up higher without causing engine damage. As you can see, however, it also cools the combustion considerably, extinguishing a portion of the exhaust and giving the tell-tale black smoke of unburned fuel.
Edwards Aug75: NASA 008, under wing X-24B. Manned Askania tracking site A-5. Lifting body pilot Col. Mike Love. Tracking scope full of big beautiful 008 for X-24B drop. After 40+ years saw her where she sits pulling guard duty at North Gate. Not flying, but still looks good.
