Aircraft tug

[Jones]

Ran across this picture and wanted to share.
Not sure any of these still exist but once upon a time there were a whole bunch of them at McClellan AFB here in Sacramento. They were stationed here because McClellan was the home for both the XC-99s and the B-36s in the early '50s.

 

[hole]

Interesting! Looks like they mated two cabs back to back.

 

[RealCavDog]

Now that is tooo cooool ! I could really see a bunch of awesome uses for that beauty !

Most of them shock-value or head -scratching based !

If there are any more pictures or information on these, that would be great !

 

[Bighurt]

It's a 1952 Coleman CF-55-AF (MB-2)

length 21'2"
height 8'10"
width 7'7"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/jinxx1/Wheeled Vehicles/CF-55-AFAircraftTugPimaFeb051.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v20/jinxx1/Wheeled Vehicles/CF-55-AFAircraftTugPimaFeb052.jpg

 

[bkwudzhom]

Raise the gears a bit and have one cool daily driver!!

 

[steelypip]

From before my time. By the '70s those were all replaced with tugs that look very much like a large airport has. All those windows make a lot of sense for checking status of the tow bar and tow and for backing. I bet they begged for air conditioning, though - it's always pretty hot on the flight line and that cab doesn't look like it would catch a lot of breeze.

Airplanes as big as BUFs and B-36s get dragged around a lot - starting engines to taxi down the flight line is a major (expensive) event.

Knowing how fragile and unreliable (prone to overheat) the recip powerplants on the B-36 were, I suspect they didn't start them until they knew for sure that they were really going flying....

 

[Derrickl112]

It's a 1952 Coleman CF-55-AF (MB-2)

length 21'2"
height 8'10"
width 7'7"

weight?

 

[Bighurt]

Couldn't find a weight....

The current Dragon's, UTE's, MB-2 whatever you call them we use for the BUFF is a beastly machine, and gets a lot of use...

Steely was right nothing with 8 engines is cheap to start or fly...

 

[DUUANE]

Ive been using mine in its modified state for a few years now..its a beast..and its truly a rubber tired locomotive..ive used it to drag tandem truck around with the brakes all locked up and had 10,000# swinging from the jib while driving around in the yard..you can hardly tell theres any load on it..its simply the most fun pull-your-house-down toy ive had..makes my tridem dump seem like a lightweight.

 

[Scooteerr]

Subscribed...

 

[swbradley1]

There is also another thread on SS about them.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?36191-Federal-F55-AF

Here is a link with pics of the back of it.

http://forums.aths.org/PrintTopic136209.aspx

 

[steelandcanvas]

We have a Club Member that has a MB-4. The photo is off the net and not his.