MacDill air force base is 12 miles south of my house. I drove down there this morning to visit a small park on the base where they have three aircraft on display. The airman standing guard at the front gate looked at me and said: "Nice car, sir!". God bless and protect our airmen. The airplane that I had always assumed was a B-29 Superfortress turned out to be a post-war B-50. A sign explained that a B-50 was a post WWII modification that had a bigger body and 50% more power than a B-29 and that a B-50 was the first airplane to fly around the world non-stop. The KB-50D on display was built in 1947 and retired on October 1963. It was still serving on active duty when my Falcon was a new car.
See: http://www.johnweeks.com/b50/b50usafmKB.html (This says that the plane was a 50J, but the sign at MacDill says it is a 50D. I can't say what the difference is.)
A pair of fine pieces of American machinery:
Falcon and KB-50D.jpg
The KB-50D was upgraded with two jet engines:
KB-50D.JPG
A 1963 Falcon and a F-16A Falcon:
63 Falcon with F-16A Falcon.jpg
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