In September 1975, a new item was introduced on the flightline at Plattsburgh AFB. A joint maintenance-operations product known as "Big Apple". Big Apple was a new concept for FB-111A launch and recovery, repairing problems while the aircraft engines were still running. The Big Apple maintenance truck, stocked with common fail items and a crew of seven Avionics Maintenance Squadron (AMS) specialists, was the last thing an FB-111A saw before take-off and the first thing after landing. It allowed maintenance to correct problems in the aircraft as they were happening.

According to Maj.Carl H.Tresher, 380th AMS commander, Big Apple provided rapid response for launches and recovery. It allowed fault isolation, something they did not enjoy in the laboratory or on the flightline once the engines were shut down. "We could look at a problem while malfunctions were still indicated, giving our specialists a better chance to analyze and correct the difficulty right after they landed."

Big Apple was a trial program and limited to AMS for the time being. However, the enthusiasm and results generated in its first two weeks had left people talking already about expanding the concept to Field Maintenance (FMS) and even Munitions Maintenance (MMS). The two major functions of Big Apple were to decrease deviations in the flying schedule and provide a more rapid turn around of aircraft by reducing the amount of maintenance time required per flying hour. 2nd Lt. Dave Yates, the initial project officer for Big Apple, was sent to other bases with similar programs to observe how the rapid response concept operated. Lieutenant Yates discovered at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, for example, that the concept decreased flight cancellations by as much as 64 percent. Although the Plattsburgh results were inconclusive, Big Apple had performed up to or beyond its expectations during its first week on the job.

"There were no late take-offs during the first week of Big Apple related to avionics equipment," reported Capt. John Long of AMS."That was a sizeable improvement from our performance during the first 12 flying days of September. In the recovery phase, almost two-thirds of all AMS malfunctions were taken care of prior to parking the aircraft."

Big Apple provided for a more coordinated maintenance effort for the FB-111A, while increasing the lines of communication between flight crews and maintenance personnel. "We could reach a crew as early as one hour before landing," said Major Tresher. "We discussed major problems over the radios, knew what equipment would be needed and had it in place when the aircraft landed."

Big Apple was stocked with 64 common fail parts, line items such as converter sets, inertial reference units (IRUs), general navigational computers (GNCs) and weapon delivery computers (WDCs). The advantage that the FB-111A hold to other aircraft such as the KC-135, for example, was the high number of line replaceable units (LRUs), complete systems that could be easily taken out and replaced.

Major Tresher, joined by most in the maintenance complex were very enthusiastic about the future of Big Apple and its eventual contributions to the overall maintenance effort.

The Big Apple concept at Plattsburgh AFB was later renamed "Super B". During generational phases for SAC ORI's and other readiness inspections, as many as three "B's" (Super B, Super B 2 and Little B) were active at one time ferrying troops and parts in support.

More infos from the Big Apple maintenance program from MSgt Clifford Van Horn Jr. (Ret):

"As the story said we had a Chevy stepvan outfitted with dexion racks for our spare parts. We started getting a jug of coffee from the inflight kitchen and offering it to the pilots/navs after they got back into the parking spot if they had gripes for us to check out. (Kept them a little less impatient if they were holding a hot paper cup of coffee while we worked the problems. One of the guys, I don't remember who, had brought an 8 track and speakers they used when I wasn't around, and didn't get it off in time once, so we mounted it on one of the dexion racks and ran a switch to the drivers overhead console where the radio controls were so we could shut it off when using the radios (FM maintenance for truck to truck and maintenance control, and a UHF to talk with the aircrews.) When we first started it was using an extra old tube type UHF from the KC-135 side of the house. Had it mounted on the floor behind the drivers seat and ended up having to run a couple of 3" cooling hoses down to the footwell and through some holes for cooling air. (later we somehow managed to come up with one of the new "all in one" units from the FB). As the inside got pretty hot for the troops we asked for permission to put a crank up roof vent in like the RV's of the day had. The motor pool of course said no way, (they were not happy with the seats and racks as it was). I happened to mention the vent to the DCM and he said go ahead, so on a Saturday a couple of us installed the vent (a little off center so as not to cut the main beam) and also small florescent light in the aft part where the racks were. (Those Chevy vans did not have much of a dome light). The attached patch is one some of us designed for the maintenace guys assigned to Big Apple and I had a bunch made and we wore them on our fatique uniforms without any real official approval.

When we were starting out we just tried things, like finding a UHF frequency to talk to the crews on, just picked one that didn't seem to be in use. Turns out the Canadians or someone was using it, or owned it or something, so the powers that be gave us an "official" frequency so we wouldn't bother anyone. The program worked well to keep the Code 1 sorties up, if we fixed all the gripes before engine shutdown it was considered a Code 1 flight even though the gripes were written up in the 781A while we worked them and then we signed them off so the A/C history would reflect the descrepancies. Getting the spare parts to carry was sometimes fun, if they were in supply we could just sign them out for a period, if not you couldn't officially "canalbalize" until all the paperwork was done so we had to "remove for troubleshooting" parts from the plane we expected to canalbalize from and if it fixed the problem we left it in the now fixed plane, (over a lot of screaming from Job Control) and then ordered the part and when it went backorder had to ask to canalbalize. Although Job Control supposedly didn't know it quite a few of the parts we carried on the truck had been "removed for troubleshooting" in advance from some hangar queen. Now this was all back in the beginning as I left Plattsburgh in early 1981."