I'm trying to ID two very big airplanes I saw a few years ago.

January 13, 2005 11:54 AM

VeryBigAirplaneFilter: I'm trying to ID two airplanes I saw a few years ago. (more)

I live in Tampa, near MacDill AFB, and I remember two enormous planes flying out from the base. They weren't refuelers or cargoes (I see those all the time); these were obscenely big, grey, low-flying, and loud. I noticed the sound when I was in rush-hour traffic, if that says anything about volume. They made my car shake. I want to say they had at least two engines per wing, and the exhaust left small dark trails in the air that faded quickly. I also want to say they did a flyover for a Bucs game; the path they flew (due north from the Base) would take them right over the football stadium, and they were low in the sky, but I don't remember if there was a game that day. It also could have been in conjunction with an important political or military visit to CentCom. Pictures would be welcomed.

posted by cmyk to travel & transportation (15 comments total)

B-52s?
posted by LionIndex at 11:57 AM on January 13, 2005

pic, and other planes
posted by LionIndex at 12:00 PM on January 13, 2005

Why are you sure they're not cargo planes? The C-5s don't look like your average cargo planes, just really really big jets, imho.
posted by jessamyn at 12:03 PM on January 13, 2005

The C-5 came to my mind as well when I read your question. They're huge. They can carry three full size firetrucks and passengers. I've flown in them twice.
posted by Juicylicious at 12:08 PM on January 13, 2005

Grey almost always means military transport. Could have been C-5 Galaxies, but the trail of black smoke say Antonov to me. At a glance, the two can be tricky to distinguish, but the Antonov has an egg-shaped body profile, while the C-5 is rounder. For a sense of scale, you can get up to four (or is it six?) 18-wheel trailers in the cargo bay of a C-5. The Antonov is even bigger.
posted by bonehead at 12:10 PM on January 13, 2005

Scroll down for a good picture of a C-5 next to a KC-135.
posted by MLIS at 12:10 PM on January 13, 2005

As LionIndex suggested, they were probably B-52s. These have 4 engines per wing (in clusters of two) and leave an exhaust trail similar to what you describe.


OTOH, to support jessamyn's argument, MacDill is the home of the 6th Air Mobility Wing, which runs a lot of transports and tankers. Here's a gallery of some of the types of aircraft at MacDill.
posted by joaquim at 12:15 PM on January 13, 2005

I'm kinda thinking if they're not planes you see all the time while living next to the AFB, they're not normally stationed at the AFB, and maybe they came to town just for a special occasion, like to do a flyover for the game or an air show. Really, would you rather have a flyover by a bomber squadron or some cargo planes? I must admit, a C-5 would be pretty impressive, though.
posted by LionIndex at 12:32 PM on January 13, 2005

I've seen both C-5s and B-52s do flyovers at the London (Ontario) and Ottawa airshows. The B-52 is big and all, but the C-5s win hands down.
posted by bonehead at 12:38 PM on January 13, 2005

Thanks, guys; I'm about 90% certain they were B-52s. They looked older than the C5, somehow. And LionIndex, that's exactly why I was so baffled. I hadn't seen anything like these monsters before or since. I get a great view of everything coming and going from my back yard, which is maybe a mile away from the end of the runway. (Stratotankers are my favorites, since they're the first ones I learned to recognize when I moved down here.)

The stadium is maybe a ten-minute drive north of the base, so if either of those (the C5 or the B-52) takes a while to get good and airborne, that could explain it.

Airplanes are cool.
posted by cmyk at 12:39 PM on January 13, 2005

B-52s?
maybe B1 Bomber.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:05 PM on January 13, 2005

Contenders for big, grey, at least 4 engine pods among American planes are the B-52, various types of xC-135, C-5, C-141, and C-17.

How to tell if it was a C-5, 141, or 17: T-shaped tail.

How to tell if it's a 135: 2 big engines per wing, instead of 4 little ones. The electronic-warfare variants have crap all over them -- big bulges along the fuselage, big droopy noses, and so on.

B-52 is what's left over. AFAIK, B-52s will usually be green/olive or dark grey, while the cargo planes will usually be light grey.

Back when I was in the area in the early 80's, MacDill was a big F-16 training base, and we'd see them all the time even out in exciting Brandon. I once got a sunburn bad enough to blister at their air show... good times.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:34 PM on January 13, 2005

C 141s & KC 135s are nowhere near the size of a C5. I'm still *guessing* that it was a C5. Why don't you try calling the control tower and asking what it was. They may or may not tell you, but it's worth a shot.
posted by Juicylicious at 1:47 PM on January 13, 2005

Okay, I just realized that you saw these aircraft a few YEARS ago. Calling the control tower will do you absolutely no good. I will now work on my reading skills.
posted by Juicylicious at 1:52 PM on January 13, 2005

With that kind of a smoke trail, it was probably an old B-52. The C-5 and more modern transports have had modern engines since their early days; c. 1970-1980, when I used to see them flying over my granny's place in Fort Worth, the B-52s all still had older engines that performed poorly at low altitude, hence throwing off big plumes of black smoke. And they were loud as hell -- they'd vibrate the house, every time (which was often, because they flew strategic patrols out of that base -- Tinker?). Very impressive beasts.

Another telltale for the B-52: Long body, with hardly any variation in thickness for most of its length and a distinctly rectangular cross-section.

Aside: In the late '70s, they also seemed to be flying an aggressor squadron out of that airbase, equipped with MiG 19s. I'd see them doing low-altitude runs -- it's a pretty distinctive profile, so I'm pretty sure that's what they were.
posted by lodurr at 9:37 PM on January 13, 2005