strange B52? flyover

Before I get into my topic I want to stress that my knowledge of aircraft is pretty limited.

Outside today around 2:15 PM CDT a plane that looks alot like a B-52 (based on images I found at the link below ) flew over our house. It looked like each pair of engines was only one turbine however, so I am not totally sure. It flew over our house in the southern suburbs of Chicago, going directly west. I would liken it's altitude to about where planes are as they fly over the interstate near O'Hare airport in Chicago ... so pretty low. It was flying fairly slow and wasn't overly loud but you could hear it for a long time before and after it flew over. It was totally gray with no markings whatsoever except some small numbers or letters along the tail that I couldn't make our.

Then about 2:20 it flew back over from the west going directly southeast at a slightly higher altitude. Unfortunately my camera wasn't charged so I didn't get to take any pics.

Does anyone know of any airshows or anything of the like near Chicago this weekend? Or any military bases that would house this plane? For the record, I have lived here 17 years and have never seen any military aircraft other than a few helicopters. I don't know of any bases close enough that would warrant a low flyover like that ... plus the flightpath seems pretty odd to me.

Another thing that's odd (but may or may not be related) is the fact that I have seen only 2 commercial airliners flying VERY high the entire day today. Normally there are numerous east-west flights that bank directly over our town going to Midway and O'Hare at a pretty low altitude (I'd liken them to the "B52"s second pass). The frequency of these flights are usually roughly 20-30 planes an hour during the day. Now it could be because of Sunday flight traffic, and the fact that I never really paid attention on a Sunday. But I figured I'd toss that in here anyways.

Any thoughts?

external link

EDIT: screwed up the link

[edit on 9-7-2006 by Fiverz]

there have been plans to upgrade the b-52 engines to 4 more powerful engines instead of the 8 it has currently. theres a thread on it somewhere(or a thread that mentions it and has links) . dont know about the odd flyover times and the empty sky.

justin

It was a flyover for the NASCAR race at Chicagoland Speedway today most likely. The timing is right for it. It started at 3pm EDT.

They've talked about upgrading the engines for years, but nothing has ever come of it, and nothing probably will ever come of it for a long time to come.

[edit on 7/9/2006 by Zaphod58]

Originally posted by Zaphod58
It was a flyover for the NASCAR race at Chicagoland Speedway today most likely. The timing is right for it. It started at 3pm EDT.

I just saw the replay, it looked like the standard "eight burning."

Ah yea that makes sense ... I'm only about 20 min from Joliet where the race is held. Wierd to see a bomber go over a race though and not just fighters

I'm sure the lack of air traffic is just due to Sunday lulls. I'll report back tomorrow if things don't return to normal.

It depends on what region you're in. Some places have used B-2s, some B-52s, B-1s, etc.

As an aside, does anyone know where it could possibly be based from?

Either Minot North Dakota, or Barksdale Louissiana. Mountain Home used to have them, but they consolidated to 2 bases.

For the record, I have lived here 17 years and have never seen any military aircraft other than a few helicopters.

Are you sure about that? 14 years ago there was a SAC base at ORD, and im sure you atleast a saw a KC-135 flyby.

This is from 2005:

www.nascar.com...

Evidently they do it every year.

Originally posted by uuhelpus
Are you sure about that? 14 years ago there was a SAC base at ORD, and im sure you atleast a saw a KC-135 flyby.

I mean it's entirely possible one did flyover but I never saw it. I am pretty far south of chicago and I don't see many planes flying out of the city, only into it.

Planes are flying normally today so it must have just been a light Sunday. Thanks for all the info guys and gals.

Originally posted by Mirthful Me
This is from 2005:

www.nascar.com...

Evidently they do it every year.

Yea that was definitely the plane ... funny I thought I didn't see pairs of engines. Must have been the angle I was at. Thanks for the digging.