Eyes in the Sky

[TheGreenGoblin]

PIE FACE
SIDE KICK
SLOW BOAT
GINZA GIRL
RIVET GIANT
FLINT STONE
RIVET STEM
EAGER BEAVER
RIVET BOX
SPEED LIGHT ALPHA
SMALL FRY
RIVER FLOWER
SPEED LIGHT COCO
LITTLE GUY
RIVET GUMBO
WINE SAP
RIVET STOCK
BRAVE BULL
PURPLE PASSION
RIVET PUSHER
CINDY FAY
RIVET FLARE
RIVET TUB
RIVET ZIP

[TheGreenGoblin]

SPEED LIGHT BRAVO

https://lnns.co/s68Q3C2RYzk

[TheGreenGoblin]

SPEED LIGHT BRAVO

https://lnns.co/s68Q3C2RYzk

NB - The Plane Tales list of aviation podcasts are a great resource (see link above)

[Rossian]

.....Wot? no Rivet Joint?
PS and no Fruitbat Zero One. That's a very incomplete list methinks.

The Ancient Mariner

[TheGreenGoblin]

.....Wot? no Rivet Joint?
PS and no Fruitbat Zero One. That's a very incomplete list methinks.

The Ancient Mariner

Just checking!

It is about 1/5 of the list length....

[Boac]

Thanks for sparing us.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Thanks for sparing us.

[TheGreenGoblin]

The disputed history of PEE WEE III, Squadron Leader Muhammad Iqbal (Pakistani Air Force) and the Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F Canberra.

The RB-57F was the result of an Air Force Big Safari requirement for a high-altitude reconnaissance platform with better performance than the existing and similar RB-57D, some of which had been grounded as a result of wing spar failures. A more urgent need to field an aircraft capable of high altitude signals intelligence arose in 1962 when a SIGINT operation conducted by United States Navy against the Soviet Union from Peshawar, Pakistan, ended abruptly because the Pakistani government evicted the Navy for committing too many violations of restricted airspace. Two B-57Bs dubbed "Pee Wee 1" and "Pee Wee 2" were quickly modified by Big Safari with antennas and a modular telemetry receiver suite packaged in a pressurized canister and sent to Pakistan in January 1963 as an interim measure under an operation named Little Cloud to continue the mission. In the meantime Big Safari authorized the Pee Wee III project to develop the new high-altitude platform from existing B-57s. Because General Dynamics was responsible for contract maintenance on the D model, its Fort Worth Division was given the sole-source contract for the development of the Pee Wee III RB-57F prototypes.

The two aircraft chosen for initial development were Martin B-57Bs 52-1559 and 53-3864, which supplied the fuselage and horizontal stabilizers around which the rebuild was made. The prototype RB-57Fs incorporated many major changes from the RB-57D, the most obvious of which was a more enlarged and computer-designed wing to enable it to operate at extreme altitudes. The wing had a span of more than 122 feet (37 m), which was 16 feet (4.9 m) longer than the RB-57D and nearly twice the length of the B-57B fuselage on which it was installed. Extensive use was made of aluminum honeycomb wing panels in the wings that bonded outer and inner aluminum skins to a honeycomb of aluminum and fiberglass. All control surfaces had tightly sealed gaps in order to reduce drag, and there were no wing flaps. In addition, the size of the empennage was redesigned so that the vertical stabilizer had nearly twice the area of that of the standard B-57B. Its height was increased to 19 feet (5.8 m) and the width increased, improving longitudinal and asymmetric control for greater stability at very high altitudes (up to 80,000 feet (24,000 m).

Another obvious change was the replacement of the Wright J65 turbojets with Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-11 turbofan engines. The TF33s gave the aircraft more than double the thrust of the B model. The RB-57F was also fitted with two detachable Pratt & Whitney J60-P-9 turbojets mounted in pods attached to the wings outboard of the main engines. These auxiliary engines were air-started and only for use at altitude in flight. At altitudes above 40,000 feet (12,000 m), the J60s generated about 3,300 pounds-force (15 kN) of thrust each and increased the maximum altitude of the RB-57F by 2,000–3,000 feet (610–910 m).

To perform their Pakistani mission, the two prototypes were uniquely equipped with high-gain phased array antennas in their wingtips, an extended radome, and a canister package developed by HRB-Singer known as "System 365" installed in the bomb bay. The size of two 55-gallon drums, System 365 was a semi-automatic signal collection system that used 12 continuously scanning receivers and had a manual fixed-frequency coverage capability with pre-selected frequencies. The system automatically recorded up to six hours of collected signals on tape]


Strategic reconnaissance

The RB-57F prototypes (63-13286 and 63-13287) developed under the Pee Wee III program were detached from the 58th WRS after operational testing and evaluation and sent to Pakistan to replace "Pee Wee 1" and "Pee Wee 2" in Little Cloud. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 began while Pee Wee III aircraft #2 was out of the country and #1 was operated by 24 Squadron of the Pakistan Air Force. Older accounts of the Little Cloud operation give the original reason for the RB-57F deployment to Pakistan as being the monitoring of Communist Chinese nuclear tests, which began in October 1964. The aircraft were said to have been flown by USAF crews during these operations, and one of the RB-57Fs was reported to have returned to its U.S. base before the outbreak of hostilities with India while the other remained.

Because the PAF was outnumbered by its Indian counterpart, and with U.S. concurrence, the RB-57F was reportedly impressed into combat service with PAF No 24 Squadron to carry out daily reconnaissance sorties over Indian Air Force airfields at altitudes of up to 60,000 feet (18,000 m). The RB-57F was also said to have been locally modified by the PAF to carry a 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) bombload, but never actually operated in a bombing role. On other occasions, the RB-57F was accompanied by a pair of PAF B-57B Canberra bombers (apparently the Rivet Flash configurations sold to Pakistan in 1959 as standard B-57s but modified in 1964 under a pre-agreement of sale to enable them to track Indian mobile radars) that were jamming Indian military radio transmissions.

All three aircraft were involved in directing attacks on an Indian radar station at Amritsar, and during these operations, one of the PAF B-57Bs was shot down in error by Pakistani Anti-Aircraft Artillery. The account goes on to state that on 15 September 1965, RB-57F 63-13286 was straddled by two SA-2 SAMs as it commenced its descent towards Peshawar. Despite suffering major structural damage and sustaining over 170 holes, the pilot managed to nurse the aircraft back to Peshawar where he made a successful forced landing. The aircraft was eventually repaired and returned to the USAF.

However, in a newer history by a retired Big Safari commander published in 2014, some of the earlier account is refuted as erroneous. The Pee Wee III aircraft arrived in Pakistan in March 1964, well before the Chinese nuclear tests began, not for monitoring the tests since the aircraft were not yet equipped with the sampling equipment, camera, or sensors of the standard RB-57Fs, but to collect telemetry from Soviet missile test ranges, particularly Kapustin Yar. The aircraft were both flown and maintained by members of the Pakistan Air Force, not the U.S. Air Force, a condition mandated by the Pakistanis. The RB-57F prototypes, with the required capability of being a type that PAF airmen could fly, had been purpose-built with the telemetry mission as its goal, and the modification for carrying a two-ton payload in the bomb bay had been made by General Dynamics as part of its development, not by the PAF. From April to October 1965 the two RB-57s each underwent an annual three-month depot maintenance recycle at the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth required by Big Safari rules, which was where Pee Wee III #2 was when the air war began on 1 September 1965.

One member of the USAF crew sent by the Big Safari office to retrieve the damaged RB-57 doubts that the aircraft was used in the role described as its sensors were tailored specifically for the telemetry mission and of no value in combat, and that it operated in an area away from Indian airspace. Peshawar is located 70 miles (110 km) from the closest international frontier with India and was almost 100 miles (160 km) from the nearest battle front, making damage from a SAM highly unlikely. The damage itself was largely superficial, not structural. Instead he states that he was told that the aircraft was damaged during an IAF air raid on its airfield on 7 September. It had been kept in the air as much as possible to protect it from attack but was damaged during a refueling turnaround. The damaged aircraft was returned to the United States to protect it from further harm and to process the sensitive collected data, which the Pakistanis did not have the capability of doing. Both aircraft were reassigned to the 7407th Support Squadron when 63-13287 emerged from its depot recycle. The Rivet Flash B-57 was overflying a Pakistani radar site at Rahwali, 70 miles (110 km) from Amritsar, when it was shot down on 11 September 1965 by its own AAA, mistaken for an IAF Canberra. The death of the PAF squadron leader, Squadron Leader Muhammad Iqbal, flying it, who was the key Pakistani member of the Little Cloud operation, precipitated the rapid exit from Pakistan of the RB-57Fs.

The newer information is supported by the fate of 63-13287. On 14 December 1965, operating TDY from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as "Big Rib 06", it disappeared during a mission over the Black Sea whose route passed through telemetry range for Soviet ICBMs. What actually happened is still uncertain. There was speculation that the aircraft had been shot down by a Soviet S-75 Dvina (NATO designation "SA-2 Guideline") surface-to-air missile, but the official statement by the USAF was that the aircraft was on its third pass along its route when it deviated from its flight plan, orbiting and spiraling down to below minimum radar tracking altitude, indicating that the aircraft crew had probably perished from an oxygen system failure. Although searches for the wreckage continued until 28 December, only small bits and pieces of it were recovered, although unsubstantiated reports asserted that the two crew members had been captured alive by the Soviets. However one of the recovered pieces was an inner wing panel that a team of structural experts concluded was struck by an object, likely a missile. The crew was declared dead after being missing for six months. The Soviets used the incident to argue successfully against U.S. intelligence-gathering missions originating from Turkish air bases.

- From Wiki

[TheGreenGoblin]

A little more on Squadron Leader Muhammad Iqbal...

https://pafatwar-arshadhussain.blogspot ... b-57s.html

Another take on a murky story...

Poor Squadron Leader Iqbal was shot down by his own side.