Happy 70th!
Although there are ships like the Constitution which have officially been on the books since the 1700s, effectively most major weapons systems (as opposed to single weapons like the legendary Ma Deuce) last a few decades and then they are gone. The M-1 tank? Been in common use since 1982 or so, but has been extensively reworked. But the B-52? Just keeps going, and going, and going.
The U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) is marking the 70th anniversary of the B-52 Stratofortress, also known as the BUFF, celebrating its legacy as a central figure in American strategic airpower. Entering operational service on 29 June 1955, the aircraft continues to support the long-range strike capabilities of the United States.
Seventy years. I suspect that is older than all but a handful of our readers. (You know who you are!) And still going strong, at this point intended to stay in service till 2050 (by which time I will assuredly be gone. Dunno about any other old farts here – mebbe they gots ambitions I don’t have.) Seven decades. Put into perspective – The B-52 predates any fighter, and most other aircraft with the glaring exception of the C-130 which is a year older, and its days as a weapons system (Spooky, Puff, and all the variations) are far more recent, dating from Vietnam. Heck, they started designing it in the ’40s before there even WAS a U.S. Air Force.
The first operational B-52 was delivered to the 93rd Bomb Wing at Castle Air Force Base, California, following a seven-hour training mission from the Boeing Moses Lake testing facility at Larson AFB, Washington. Although AFGSC had not yet been established at the time, the mission signified the birth of principles that now define the command: strategic deterrence, long-range strike, and bomber readiness. Defense Industry EU
Service ceiling of 50,000 feet? Check. Conventional and/or nuclear payloads? Check. EIGHT massive engines? Check.
Despite its age, the B-52 bomber is still able to fly at a service ceiling of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), which is well above the operational range of most surface-to-air missiles and fighter aircraft.
In terms of range, the B-52 Stratofortress can fly up to 8,800 miles (14,080 km) without refueling, making it a true long-range bomber. This range is essential for global power projection and enables the B-52 bomber to strike anywhere in the world with minimal need for support aircraft. DefenseFeeds.com
Besides, what other plane starred with the immortal Slim Pickens? What other plane could have?
If you’ve never seen one, they are bucket list items. Watching one take off is a near-religious experience (and as you watch the wings rise up well before the rest of the plane, it’s a tad freaky.) Sadly, the interior has been crammed so full that much of the layout you imagine from Dr. Strangelove simply doesn’t exist now. But they are grand old planes, the newest ready-to-retire in human years, yet they still keep serving.
Happy Birthday, BUFFs!
Category: Air Force
Happy Birthday, BUFF!
I’m just a year or two older than you, and I’m feeling the years and miles. I wish that i could have updates and parts replaced to be able to keep going strong until 2050.
And to think, the B52 was designed pre-computer, with paper, pencil, reference books, and engineers with mad skills.
Well done!
You forgot the slide rule.
It was oh-dark-too-damn-early.
Ya expect me to remember EVERYTHING?!
But thank you anyway.
Still have my K&E “slipstick” in the leather case.
Somewhere in all my moving hither and yon, I’ve lost/misplaced/tucked away my original slipstick(s).
But there are plenty out there in yard sales and online auctions. I picked up a nice (12″?) (K&E?) from an online auction for cheap. I’d like to buy another one.
Don’t forget the talcum powder!
I still have my USAF circlular flight computer I was issued in my Army ROTC flight school program. I was still using it when I took the written tests for my private pilot license and instrument rating back in the 1980’s.
I still have mine from private pilot ground school in high school and my dad’s from back in the day.
My father brought back a three foot bamboo slide rule from Japan. It is a thing of beauty, a precision (three significant digits, anyway) instrument with more scales than I can name. I wish I knew what happened to it.
Using slide rules with an accuracy of three significant digits.
When diplomacy fails.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Four winters at Minot in the mid 70’s. Saw a lot of these amazing planes! And, they were the newest ones in the fleet. H models, new in ’62! Had a buddy that was a crew chief on one. I got a primo “tour” on his jet. Felt like I was on the set of Dr. Strangelove.
The BUFF and the Herc, awesome aircraft that I’m sure will outlast me!
I would think a winter in Minot deserves its own patch or award, let alone 4 of them.
Did they ever sit still long enough to get cold? I can imagine the fuel guy probably looked like frosty the snowman by the time they put fuel on/off the plane, standing out there with a magnet on a small chain to keep the fuel pumps in the pump house running.
Dec 1967 to Jan 1969 Anderson AFB Guam B52Ds bombing Vietnam 12hr workdays 7day work weeks, kept this sgt. on the wagon!
My pa spent a lot of time flying out of Guam in those days, didn’t see him a hell of alot in ’67.
All the Buffs flying today were built new in the early to mid 60s, and have been extensively updated since then as well.
The Buff like its sibling from the hay days of SAC the KC-135 were designed like anvils and were meant to last.
In June 1980 I participated as an AWACS crewmember in a SAC conventional bombing exercise on the NTTR/UTTR ranges. During the weeklong event (flying nights) SAC generated sorties from the CONUS based bombers D, G, H models and FB-111s. We were told that if they weren’t sitting nuke alert and they were SAC possessed (as opposed to depot/test) they flew that week. I had no reason to doubt this as they stretched from horizon to horizon.
I heard someone say once that B-52s have been refitted so many times they’re not the same airplanes that came off the assembly line.
Kind of like the comedian in the 80s who juggled hatchets. He held up one and said; “This is the hatchet used by George Washington to chop down the cherry tree. My brother replaced the handle. And I had to replace the head….but it occupies the SAME SPACE.”
Yep…they shorely don’t build ’em like they used to. Pity! I’m two (2) years older than BUFF and am in no way as good a shape as these proud Old War Birds are…and I damn shorely ain’t gonna make it to 2050…even if I got a massive infusion of new parts and upgrades. As a young’un and into my teen years our home was located only about five (5) air miles from the runway of RAFB Georgia where SAC had a wing of Alert BUFFs parked, ready to go at plus 5. During the 60s they would scramble on the reg and as they thundered over the house it would shake and it seemed as if you could reach up and rub their bellies as they passed over. We knew they were coming when the tankers went roaring overhead first. As the BUFFs climbed for altitude we could see the pivot point for which ones were going to take the eastern route and which ones would go the polar route.
Happy Birthday, BUFF!
Somewhat different memory; the Air Force said St
Louis resembled Moscow from the air, and ran semi-constant supersonic B-58 Hustler runs over the area for years. Taught me that when you heard the boom HERE, to spot the plane you looked OVER THERE.
I remember hearing the sonic booms as a kid too.
Didn’t know St. Louis resembled Moscow from the air.
My father was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB in the mid-60s. It was a bit alarming to be awakened at 3:00 A.M. by a swarm of SAC B-52s thundering over the house on a practice alert. Made it a bit difficult to get back to sleep.
Can dependents claim PTSD?
“ships like the Constitution”
Toured her in Boston Harbor as a kid. Yeah I’m old.
Older than a Buff but I got to fly in a B-17 with my dad who
was a bombadier in WW2 (the big one).
Unfortunately we lost the B-17 “909” a few years ago in a mishap.
I want to fly in a Buff. Anybody offering tour flights yet?
Not to take away from the fiddytoo’s special day, but…:
On today’s date, 1973, Richard M. Nixon created another branch of the fun police, the DEA.
For your S2: guess alphabeta demiboi cosplay is in style this year.
Only in New Yawk could you be held on $250K bond for a knife over 4″ (good for cleaning your fingernails), and 10 rounds of 44Mag (maybe two loadouts of your favorite revolver)
Greenwich, CT. But also samesame.
The lack of proper policing has that well-heeled town reeling from out-of-towner stupidity.
Was 10 years old when the B-52 came out. Never built the model, only planes that Republic Aviation made since my Dad worked there. Boy, that testers glue was strong.
I still have a Guillow”s B-17G in an unopened box.
My old hands could never assemble it let alone my lungs
handlng the glue.
Always wanted to build it with my dads markings and put it
in a glass display case. Life got in the way….
USAF aircraft maintenance. Prove me wrong…
“I love the smell of Testor’s in the morning. It smells like……gee, I can’t remember”.
Spent most of my lunch money as a kid on paperbacks, models, and Testor’s glue & paints. No decals for me. Malnutrition and brain damage.
Dad was navy, but we were living in Albuquerque while he was at some USAF nuclear weapons course. I was so small I could walk under the bomb bay without crouching.
Mom was a model with the wives club and they did a fashion show—on the wings of a static B52. Let’s see the Victoria’s Secret models do that. No, really. Let’s see that!
You probably wouldn’t want to see the “full-figured” models they use these days—-not to mention the possible structural damage to a beautiful aircraft.
My dad’s flight crew picked up the last B-52 off the line in June 1962. I was born in November. The BUFF was a yuge part of my childhood, all us crew kids used to crawl all over them when they’d to engine runups the night before polar orbit missions. Dad came back after one of those trips, I think he’d been gone like 72 hours, conversation went something like:
5 year-old D: “Where’d ya fly, dad”?
LtCol D: North Pole. Bombed Santa.
Fookin’ near put me into therapy as a yute. Funny as hell now, though!
The look on your face must have been priceless. The look on mom’s face towards dad spoke volumes too.
Born in ‘55 myself. Happy Birthday BUFF!!
From Dr. Strangelove:
Was SFC D the little monster D?
Thanks, that was a good video.
Absolutely, along with 3 older female monsters
Happy Birthday BUFF🎂 I was born in 1955 also🇺🇸
My Dad flew the 52, but the 130 was his favorite. The 52 fully loaded would not be able to take off, so they would launch with minimal fuel and then hit a tanker. Dad’s final job was Alert Forces Commander at Ellsworth (SAC). Too many stories I’ve been told to share here, but a quick one is the US knew when the Russian satellites would fly over so after one passed they would move planes to different parts of the ramp to make it seems like we had more than they did. I personally observed this same strategy when I was stationed at Ellsworth with B-1s being moved for the same reason. Good Times.
Back in 1988, during REFORGER, my crew was up on a mountain somewhere in the FRG. We heard a rumble, and the ground started to shake, and up through the valley, flying below us, came a BUFF, spewing black smoke and dropping jaws. We later heard it flew under radar to make a strike on the OPFORS divisional CP. It was pretty incredible.
,” the B-52 bomber is still able to fly at a service ceiling of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), which is well above the operational range of most surface-to-air missiles and fighter aircraft.”
Gary Powers might say that “most” is not “all”.
There is a significant difference.
Another old-timer, the U-2. A year younger, I think.
Just because I think this is cool—-
“. One occurred during these test flights when a U-2 suffered a flameout over Tennessee[dubious – discuss]; the pilot calculated that he could reach New Mexico.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2