Boeing B-52 Stratofortress turns 50

Flight Journal, Apr 2002 by Pace, Steve

The B-52 celebrates its half-century mark with crew members who are younger than their airplane.

The first Stratofortress to fly-a service test airplane designated YB-52-took wing on April 15, 1952, at Boeing's Seattle facility with the late, great Alvin M. "Tex" Johnston at its controls. The premier Stratofortress-an experimental airplane designated XB-52-was to be the first to fly, but its wing trailing edges were damaged during functional hydraulic tests and had to be repaired before it could fly; it first flew on October 2, 1952.

Nicknamed Big Ugly Fat Fellow (BUFF) by its crew, it was the heavy-bombardment backbone of the Strategic Air Command until the advent of the Boeing North American B-1 Lancer and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit strategic bombers.

Yet, at the ripe old age of 50, the BUFF is still a major player for the Air Combat Command (ACC) because today's B-52H model still flies, and some of them are being used in Operation Enduring Freedom-America's fight against terrorism. All earlier models of the Stratofortress-A through G-have been retired, leaving only the venerable H model to soldier on. The first B-52H made its first flight on March 6, 1961, at Boeing's Wichita, Kansas, production plant; thus, it is soon to be 41 years old. The ACC has about 85 B-52Hs still operational (as of March 2001; 102 built).

Unbelievably, even though ACC has very capable and much younger B-is and B-2s in its arsenal, it plans to keep its esteemed B-52H force flying for yet another 40 or 50 years. If this actually occurs, the Stratofortress will go down in history as the longest-lived operational aircraft ever. Happy birthday, BUFF. -Steve Pace