Martin B-57B and WB-57F Canberra

[John Young]

Andy (ACG) is working to remove the last ridge in the custom mesh for my retro Marham scenery and hopefully, I can release the packages along with the Victors and UK Canberra's next weekend.

As promised, I have been working on the conversion of the Canberra to the Martin B-57. It's all done for FS9 and FSX, just the readme to do.

Here are two paint schemes for the same B-57B model:





The WB-57F is strictly not a retro AI project, unless NASA have ceased operating them in the last 6 months. They have two operating out of Ellington Field Houston Texas. I have included the current unmarked scheme and the previous marked one, with the the more prominent blue fuselage stripe:







The NASA aircraft has been particularly interesting to model because it has so many different visible payload options for it's varied high altitude research missions. It was good to find some photos of the aircraft on a visit to Mildenhall here in the UK, in Oct 2008.

I'm planning to upload the 4 aircraft as separate FS9 and FSX packages next weekend, inluding a paint kit for the 57B model.

John

[LEBTowerGuy]

Outstanding John, they look absolutely stunning!

[BadPvtDan]

I wonder if I have some pics of the NASA bird. I used to be based at Ellington and been (and performed) in lots of air shows there. I'll be there for a flight this month; wonder if ill see it!

[DaleRFU]

Awsome stuff there John, Can't wait for them

[ronniegj]

Absolutely wonderful John. Looking forward to these. Ron

[gsnde]

Again more than beautiful, John!

[f4nutter]

outstanding stuff John

[jetmax]

Very nice! Can't wait to get my hands on the NASA WB-57

[Firebird]

Lovely stuff.

[jaguar1]

The NASA birds look awesome, so glad I was cheeky enough to request them... outstanding work as usual John

[MIKE JG]

That is cool!

[mikewmac]

As promised, I have been working on the conversion of the Canberra to the Martin B-57. It's all done for FS9 and FSX, just the readme to do.

John,

I am almost done putting together for you and/or any interested painters a package containing 21 of the tail numbers and ~40 photos of the EB-57B's and C's flown by the VT ANG's 134th Defense Evaluation Squadron from 1974 to 1981. Unfortunately two of these EB-57B's crashed, 52-1502 and 52-1503, in 1977 and 1980 respectively and in the former a pilot friend of mine was killed.

The VT ANG's EB-57B's and C's were painted in at least 5 different paint schemes including the more prevalent standard grey with red visibility accents, gloss black with red lettering, gloss black with white lettering, Euro camo and SEA camo. This is how they came to the VT ANG and the decision was made to leave most of them in their original liveries with the addition of VT ANG insignias.

The old VT ANG flightline photo attached below provides a sampling of some of the various paint schemes.

[Makadocias]

Looking so awesome!

[John Young]

Mike, thank you for your package. I did notice from my own research that the grey/orange liveries did vary a little from aircraft to aircraft but decided to paint the one that "hobby" liked - he did send me some really nice plans. I think I'll leave it to the painters to modify and expand into individual squadron aircraft if you don't mind. I'd like to move on to another project rather than go into more Canberra detail.

John

[John Young]

Re-thought that one Mike while out with the dogs this morning. As you have gone to the trouble of producing the information, I think I should make use of it. As the unit obviously holds a personal interest that really cements the reason to produce all the aircraft. I'll PM my e-mail address next so you can send it when you have it ready.

John

[hobby]

Well done John!

I am really pleased to see that the copy of the plans I sent to you are about to take to the AI air!

If forum users wish to fly the B-57B in Vietnam they might wish to visit Avsim for FS2004 scenery VNChuLai.zip

[Jon]

Very nice. Thanks.

[VulcanDriver]

Great stuff John, any plans to do the B-57G?

[John Young]

No plans to do the B-57G, I have to stop somewhere alas and I want to get the packages out this weekend.

The B-57B's, EB-57Bs and Cs are all done. I spent a bit more time making the 18 individual EB-57B/C aircraft of the Vermont ANG 134th Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron, circa 1981 for Mike M, who gave me all the information I needed. They include 3 versions of the grey and red paint schemes, two black schemes and a SE Asia camouflage livery:





I added 18 parking spots in the default Burlington Vermont (KBTV) AFCAD for my tests and I have included the file in the zip. I also had a bit of fun making a quick model of the flight line "drive through" hangars that house 4 of the aircraft and that's in the zip too:





I could add some more period buildings but there really isn't the information around to do that and in any case I would prefer to move on to another project.

I've just sent to finished zip to Mike M to have a look and then I'll upload to flightsim.com along with the NASA EB-57F Canberra's.

John

[mikewmac]

Many thanks for these John.

You've done a great job and they sure look outstanding in your screenshots.

I have received the zip file and will take a closer look at them in action later today.