Message posted by Richard Cliff on June 17, 2000 at 16:10:03 EST:

The colour is the standard for most jets and bombers plus the transports.
the US and UK have painted nearly all transports and fighters Grey taking over from the old european 1 and 2 camo of the cold War.
You will only find a handful of bombers and transports not painted grey now...some are dark green but not many.
Believe it or not, Buffs painted in this visibility scheme(grey) are extremely hard to see when above, especially when they are not smoking(which is not very often)
They came over me(5 of) during Allied force packed with Missiles at 12,000ft on the third day and i couldnt see them even though they travelled directly above me.
Most RAF trainers painted in this Grey scheme have been repainted for that reason, for hi-vis because you couldnt see them in flight....perfect if you are below, but for a pilot above, not so good.

I believe the Buffs(B-52H) are to get an engine refit with just 4 engines being the same power as all 8 previously and as fitted now.
No more smoke, no more characteristic whine of 8 engines throttling up on the runway threshold....what a noise that is....something to be missed when one after one b-52 takes off....it'll just sound like an overpowered KC-135R trundling down the runway.
The Buff in the photo is based at Barskdale AFB, Louisiana and are qualified to take the AGM-142 'Have Nap ' (Popeye) stand off missile aswell as the usual mk80+ iron bombs and CBU's.

cheers
Richard C

In Reply to: Re: Sightings at Rachel posted by Jim on June 17, 2000 at 11:51:02 EST:

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