COLORADO - Air Force Academy

[P Bellamy]

On the other side of Colorado Springs to Peterson AFB is the Air Force Academy.

The gate guard, B-52 Diamond Lil:



Chapel:





Chow Parade and 9-11 memorial:



PB

[REF]

Nice Paul, looks like you have had a great time out there. Why were the wings clipped on that B-52?

[P Bellamy]

Ta Richard,

The guide told us that she'd had a few feet lopped off each wingtip due to the strong winds coming off the mountains lifting her off the plinth.
Having checked, simply by measuring the wingspan in GE, it turns out the guide was telling porkies and she's not had her wings chopped at all.

I met up with a couple of the chaps from the 10th Air Base Wing, who run the support facilities at the Academy.
The 10ABW was previously stationed at Alconbury as the 10TRW/10TFW until 1994 when they were reassigned to the Academy.

The unit that runs the flying part of the Academy is the 306th Flying Training Group, the current incarnation of the 306th Bomb Group stationed at Thurleigh during WWII.

[kebecker]

I beleive that particular Buff featured extensively in one of the Great Planes series , I am guessing they could not get access to a live one?