It's been a little hectic around here lately. I took on some work on my buddy's 1970 Suburban, but haven't been able to work on it as MY fleet has become jealous of it and started having issues that absorb any shop time I have available. Hopefully I can get my fleet back in service and start on the things that I have to do to it. Luckily, my buddy and his oldest son have been coming over and working on it. They have managed to get most of the heavy-line work done on it, so as soon as I get my fleet off of my back I will hopefully be able to make some good progress on it.
So, anyways, I'm still on vacation at this point. We are still in Rapid City SD. We got up on day two of Rapid City and decided to head over to Ellsworth AFB to check out their air and space museum. To get there we have to head further east. On the way we came across some Wall Drug signs. Anybody who has been in the vicinity of southwest SD has seen the signs.
We didn't go to Wall, but I have been there before and didn't feel it was worth the time/trip to get there. Our loss.
Upon arrival at the air and space museum at Ellsworth AFB, you are immediately greeted by a B-1. Neat looking aircraft:
This is the only heavy bomber they fly our of Ellsworth anymore. The 52's left in the 80's, so they are left with the Bone.
Nice B29 out front as well. They flew 29's out of Ellsworth years ago:
Speaking of 52's, they had an old tall tale B52 out front as well:
So right about now I see an old janke-ass hooptie airport shuttle bus with "Ellsworth AFB Tours" on the side of it. Hmm, if they have a bus, they probably have tours of the base. I know, it's a crazy assumption, but worth checking out. Turns out they do in fact, have bus tours of the base. Sweet. I wanna see me some Bones on the ramp. I go in to take the tour and find out the next tour leaves in ten minutes and is full. D'oh. Next one leaves in an hour and ten minutes. Sign this guy up!! (and his wife and boy too...) Sweet. I paid the lady a bunch of money and we wander around the indoor museum for an hour. It is a very nice place. Lots of great displays, pictures and mock-ups. There is even a cockpit/flight training device from one of the century series fighters there that you can get in and play with all the switches, knobs and levers. Pretty cool. The hour and ten minutes passed very quickly. Soon it was time to go. Oh boy, this is going to be sweet!!
So we line up and get on the janke-ass hooptie airport shuttle bus. We had to give driver license numbers at the gate to gain access to the base. Everybody on the hooptie pass security and we are on our way!! The tour went something like this:
Over here we have the base housing, and over here we have the fitness center. That building over there is the credit union and this is the fitness center. This building on the right is the teen center and the building behind it is the commissary. Uh, really?? I paid how much money for THIS?? Ugh. Come on, get the bus out on the ramp already. No dice. The ONLY saving grace of the whole tour was the Minuteman II missile silo on base. Now if you're thinking all the Minuteman II missile silos were destroyed with the START treaty you are right, they did. This particular silo on base was a training facility and thus was not required to be destroyed. It also had stairs to access the silo instead of having to go through the "B" plug like the silo operators had to back in the day. So we go down in the silo and check out the mock missile and support equipment. Not too much to see really, but we are starting to get some redemption for the money spent to take the tour.
Missile in its hole:
There is actually a ton of neat history about these missiles and equipment used to support them. It is also very impressive when you think about the engineers who created them. No computers, just huge brains and slide-rules. Good luck pulling that off today.
So it's cool. I enjoyed it, but in my opinion, the coolest part of the missile silo area were the support vehicles on display up top (what can I say, I have a thing for trucks??)
This was one of the armored trucks (two were used per shipment) that lead and followed the van trailer that transported the warhead to the silo site:
It looks like it was built on a M715/M725 running gear, but I didn't look too closely at it. The reason I didn't was I was more interested in this:
This was a purpose-built missile transport vehicle. It was built by GMC to haul the missile (minus the warhead) from the manufacturing facility to the silo site. Very unique. I made sure I was the first person out of the silo so I could check it out a little before we had to re-board the clapped-out shuttle bus.
Front shot:
Interior shot:
Seeing all of that high-style carpeting over the engine cover got me to thinking it must have an old Detroit Diesel in it. Maybe an 8V71 or even a 12V71?? This is a large truck and those missiles ain't exactly light. I wandered around the other side and found a cover over the rear of the engine that I could monkey with and get open to allow it's power secret to be told. I was very surprised to see two distributors looking back at me!! Yep, the GMC 702" V12 gas engine. Sure didn't expect THAT!! I know they were extensively used back then, but so were the 71's. Interesting. So I kept wandering around (time on site is finite, but I'm not sure how finite, so I have to get as many pics as possible as quickly as possible).
It is a twin screw with a tag axle on the rear with two steer axles. One interesting thing I noticed were tubes in front of the lead trailer axle:
I opened one of the cans above the tube and found trace amounts of sand in the reservoirs. Sanding the tires for traction on slippery surfaces. I found it interesting that this was the only position that got the sanders. No sanders on the power axles or steer axles--only on the trailer.
Another curious cat had followed me over to the transporter and he swung open one of the rear trailer doors. We were immediately hit with the smell of fiberglass resin. Amazing the thing still stunk of fiberglass after all these years.
So at this point we are getting yelled at by the tour guide and other passengers (namely our wives), so we reluctantly head back to the 6.9L diesel powered chariot. Cool. We get to see some ramp action now. Yeah, not really. This building on the left is the motor pool. The buildings on the right are the hangars (the back side of them). If you look real close between the buildings you might be able to see the tail of a B-1. Hell, I saw a B-1 sitting at the entrance of the museum and I MIGHT be able to see the top of the tail on one here?? I can understand not being allowed out on the flightline or even the ramp for that matter, but how about pulling up to a fence down the road a bit so we can see the lineup?? Meh, I digress. I guess we saw what we could see, but I was a little disappointed for the money spent. The missile transport truck was very cool to check out, even if we weren't supposed to be over there.
The museum itself is great. If you ever find yourself in the area it is well worth the time to check out (use your own judgment on the base tour). It is free to get into the regular museum and there is a TON of stuff to see there. I've been to pay-museums that were not as nice as this one. Very cool place.
So with that, we finish our time in Rapid City SD. Where should we go now??
