Subject: FW: B-1 Bomber for Sale
_______________________________
Ellsworth AFB is at Rapid City, SD, home of the B1/B1B
About 14 years ago a B-1 bomber was in here (Billings, MT ) doing practice
approaches and touch and goes. On one of the landings the pilot sets his
brakes on fire. He taxis in, and the airport parks him on a taxiway and then
puts cones around him until parts and mechanics can be brought in from
Ellsworth AFB the next day.
The next day is a Saturday, which doesn't have much going on, so we get to
laughing in the tower that maybe somebody should hang a For Sale sign on the
plane. We convince one of our guys who's well known for doing things like
this that it would be a good idea.
So he takes off for the hardware store to buy a For Sale sign. On the way
back he stops at a car dealer and gets one of those "As is/No Warranty"
signs that hang in all used cars. On that sign was written something like
low miles, new engines, needs brakes and tires. Those signs were taped
together, and off goes our hero.
He climbs over the fence, leaving some skin on the barbed wire, and makes
his way the 1000 feet or so to the aircraft. As he's doing that, we see a
couple of airport vehicles starting to gather with the recently arrived
mechanics as well as the plane's crew. Not looking good for our intrepid
airplane salesman. He gets to the nose wheel and tapes the sign to the nose
strut.
Then he starts to make his way back from the plane as the vehicles start to
head out from the shop on the way to the bomber. Somehow he makes it without
being seen.
The vehicles arrive at the plane, and of course notice the sign right away.
The Air Force guys are in stitches, funniest thing they've seen in a long
time. Airport guys are not sure what to think. Airport management is livid
as they've been tasked with security.
Pretty soon a camera appears and all the Air Force guys are taking pictures
of each other by the sign.
Our hero is back in the tower now, and notices the bomber's commander is
talking on a cell phone. Our guy gets on the radio to the airport truck and
asks for that guy's phone number. As soon as he finishes that call, our guy
calls the aircraft commander. When he answers, our guy says "I'm calling
about the plane you have for sale." The aircraft commander about falls over
from the laughter. It just so happened that the chief photographer for our
local newspaper is a pilot and he may have been called prior to the sign
being placed.
He was told to get up here with a big lens. Here's one of the pics he got:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3415/...fa96d641_o.jpg
An article showed on the front page of the Sunday paper. When that came out,
the Colonel running Ellsworth called the airport director and read him the
riot act, wondering what kind of dog and pony show he was running up there.
We were later informed by the crew that the sign was framed and is now
permanently mounted inside the aircraft. Hard to have that kind of fun
anymore.
Originally Posted by rock on sooner
