I. M. Esperto
15th Apr 2002, 14:59
http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/B_52_Stratofortress.html
Happy Birthday, B-52
It's still Launching Things and Blowing Things Up, With No End in Sight
The B-52 Stratofortress, considered by many to be the Air Force's workhorse
bomber, celebrates its 50th anniversary April 15.
On April 15, 1952, Boeing Co. test pilot "Tex" Johnson and the Air Force
Flight Test Center's Lt. Col. Guy Townsend took the first B-52 on its maiden
flight, from the Boeing runway in Seattle.
Although few people realized it then, the nation gained a strategic weapon
that would outlive the Cold War. The new bomber had a number of design
features that would make modifications and upgrades simple, leading to the
bomber's long service life.
Boeing designers, aware that their thoroughbred B-47 Stratojet had barely
enough wing area, gave the new plane a generous 4,000 square feet. This made
the wingspan so long that it was necessary to develop an ingenious swivel
action for the landing gear trucks that allowed the plane to yaw during
crosswind landings so the wingtips wouldn't contact the runway.
The boxy fuselage contained landing gear, bomb bays and most of the fuel
cells, but still had space for equipment additions and modifications.
The first two prototype aircraft were configured with tandem seats for the
pilot and co-pilot, who sat beneath a long, fighter-style canopy. Gen.
Curtis LeMay, Strategic Air Command commander, directed a change to a
side-by-side arrangement to improve communication between the pilots and
provide space for more instrumentation. The XB-52 -- the first prototype
aircraft but the second to fly -- arrived for evaluation Nov. 21, and was
soon joined by the YB-52.
After that, the eight-engined bomber type never went away.
Townsend and Capt. William Magruder completed the flight test phase by the
following June, and in July the YB-52 took off from Edwards' Rogers Dry Lake
bed for an 11-hour basic radius test sortie. That flight confirmed the
bomber's ability to take off with a heavy fuel load, fly more than 2,700
miles at combat altitude, conduct simulated combat maneuvers and return.
This capacity to project power on a global scale changed the entire
strategic equation with the Soviet Union, and had immense effects on
America's defense posture for the rest of the century.
A long series of airframe, engine and weapon system evaluations continued
throughout the next two decades. These programs involved young AFFTC pilots
and engineers such as Capt. Fitzhugh Fulton and Capt. Phil Conley Jr., who
became AFFTC commander twenty years later.
The first three production B-52s were designated A models and arrived here
at Edwards AFB (CA) for performance and stability testing March 3, 1955. One
of these, tail number 003, was kept by Boeing for various test flight duties
for the next ten years. In November 1958, it was modified to an NB-52A and
began service as an X-15 mother ship. NB-52B, tail number 008, arrived at
Edwards for the same duty on June 11, 1959, and began a career of flight
test support that has lasted until today.
A total of 744 B-52s were built with the last, a B-52H, delivered in October
1962. Only the H model bombers are still in the Air Force inventory and are
assigned to Air Combat Command and the Air Force Reserve.
The first of 102 B-52Hs was delivered to Strategic Air Command in May 1961.
The H model can carry up to 20 air launched cruise missiles. It can also
carry the conventional cruise missile, the weapon that was launched in
several contingencies during the 1990s, starting with Operation Desert
Storm.
[Thanks to Raymond Puffer, Air Force Flight Test Center History
Office --ed.]
Happy Birthday, B-52
It's still Launching Things and Blowing Things Up, With No End in Sight
The B-52 Stratofortress, considered by many to be the Air Force's workhorse
bomber, celebrates its 50th anniversary April 15.
On April 15, 1952, Boeing Co. test pilot "Tex" Johnson and the Air Force
Flight Test Center's Lt. Col. Guy Townsend took the first B-52 on its maiden
flight, from the Boeing runway in Seattle.
Although few people realized it then, the nation gained a strategic weapon
that would outlive the Cold War. The new bomber had a number of design
features that would make modifications and upgrades simple, leading to the
bomber's long service life.
Boeing designers, aware that their thoroughbred B-47 Stratojet had barely
enough wing area, gave the new plane a generous 4,000 square feet. This made
the wingspan so long that it was necessary to develop an ingenious swivel
action for the landing gear trucks that allowed the plane to yaw during
crosswind landings so the wingtips wouldn't contact the runway.
The boxy fuselage contained landing gear, bomb bays and most of the fuel
cells, but still had space for equipment additions and modifications.
The first two prototype aircraft were configured with tandem seats for the
pilot and co-pilot, who sat beneath a long, fighter-style canopy. Gen.
Curtis LeMay, Strategic Air Command commander, directed a change to a
side-by-side arrangement to improve communication between the pilots and
provide space for more instrumentation. The XB-52 -- the first prototype
aircraft but the second to fly -- arrived for evaluation Nov. 21, and was
soon joined by the YB-52.
After that, the eight-engined bomber type never went away.
Townsend and Capt. William Magruder completed the flight test phase by the
following June, and in July the YB-52 took off from Edwards' Rogers Dry Lake
bed for an 11-hour basic radius test sortie. That flight confirmed the
bomber's ability to take off with a heavy fuel load, fly more than 2,700
miles at combat altitude, conduct simulated combat maneuvers and return.
This capacity to project power on a global scale changed the entire
strategic equation with the Soviet Union, and had immense effects on
America's defense posture for the rest of the century.
A long series of airframe, engine and weapon system evaluations continued
throughout the next two decades. These programs involved young AFFTC pilots
and engineers such as Capt. Fitzhugh Fulton and Capt. Phil Conley Jr., who
became AFFTC commander twenty years later.
The first three production B-52s were designated A models and arrived here
at Edwards AFB (CA) for performance and stability testing March 3, 1955. One
of these, tail number 003, was kept by Boeing for various test flight duties
for the next ten years. In November 1958, it was modified to an NB-52A and
began service as an X-15 mother ship. NB-52B, tail number 008, arrived at
Edwards for the same duty on June 11, 1959, and began a career of flight
test support that has lasted until today.
A total of 744 B-52s were built with the last, a B-52H, delivered in October
1962. Only the H model bombers are still in the Air Force inventory and are
assigned to Air Combat Command and the Air Force Reserve.
The first of 102 B-52Hs was delivered to Strategic Air Command in May 1961.
The H model can carry up to 20 air launched cruise missiles. It can also
carry the conventional cruise missile, the weapon that was launched in
several contingencies during the 1990s, starting with Operation Desert
Storm.
[Thanks to Raymond Puffer, Air Force Flight Test Center History
Office --ed.]