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Fiftyyearsofthe B-52 In the skies over Afghanistan, the BUFF sees action in yet another war. Fifty Years of the B-52 By Walter J. Boyne The two B-52 prototypes—XB-52 (foreground) and YB-52—set the stage for multiple versions, one of which is still much in demand today. PRIL 15, 2002, will mark the The B-52 began projecting glob- its career is assured for at least golden anniversary of the al airpower with an epic, nonstop 20 years more. Early in its event- B-52 Stratofortress. Fifty round-the-world flight of three air- ful life, the B-52 was given the yearsA earlier, at Boeing Field, Se- craft in January 1957, and it con- affectionate nickname “BUFF,” attle, the YB-52, serial No. 49-0231, tinues to do so today. The origi- which some say stands for Big took off for the first time. No one— nal B-52 design was a triumph of Ugly Fat Fellow. not even pilots A.M. “Tex” Johnston engineering. However, its success The B-52’s stunning longevity and Guy M. Townsend—could have has depended mostly on the tal- is matched or exceeded by its imagined that the gigantic eight- ented individuals who built, flew, versatility. In the early years it engine bomber would serve so well, maintained, and modified it over functioned exclusively as a high- so long, and in so many roles. the decades. altitude strategic bomber, built to Certainly no one dreamed that Called to combat once again in overpower Soviet defenses with the B-52 would be in action over the War on Terror, the B-52 con- speed and advanced electronic Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. tinues to give front-line service in countermeasures and deliver nu- But it was. a variety of roles. What’s more, clear bombs totaling up to nine 50 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2001 AIR50 FORCE Magazine / December 2001 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 200151 In the skies over Afghanistan, the BUFF sees action in yet another war. Fifty Years of the B-52 By Walter J. Boyne The two B-52 prototypes—XB-52 (foreground) and YB-52—set the stage for multiple versions, one of which is still much in demand today. PRIL 15, 2002, will mark the The B-52 began projecting glob- its career is assured for at least golden anniversary of the al airpower with an epic, nonstop 20 years more. Early in its event- B-52 Stratofortress. Fifty round-the-world flight of three air- ful life, the B-52 was given the yearsA earlier, at Boeing Field, Se- craft in January 1957, and it con- affectionate nickname “BUFF,” attle, the YB-52, serial No. 49-0231, tinues to do so today. The origi- which some say stands for Big took off for the first time. No one— nal B-52 design was a triumph of Ugly Fat Fellow. not even pilots A.M. “Tex” Johnston engineering. However, its success The B-52’s stunning longevity and Guy M. Townsend—could have has depended mostly on the tal- is matched or exceeded by its imagined that the gigantic eight- ented individuals who built, flew, versatility. In the early years it engine bomber would serve so well, maintained, and modified it over functioned exclusively as a high- so long, and in so many roles. the decades. altitude strategic bomber, built to Certainly no one dreamed that Called to combat once again in overpower Soviet defenses with the B-52 would be in action over the War on Terror, the B-52 con- speed and advanced electronic Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. tinues to give front-line service in countermeasures and deliver nu- But it was. a variety of roles. What’s more, clear bombs totaling up to nine 50 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2001 AIR50 FORCE Magazine / December 2001 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 200151 megatons in explosive power. When ons, including sophisticated air- The BUFF’s first mission was one Soviet air defenses improved, the launched cruise missiles and preci- for the ages. LeMay made it the linch- B-52 broke new ground by carrying sion guided munitions, but it retained pin of the American strategy to deter Hound Dog stand-off missiles de- its legendary power to flatten enemy war by making SAC so strong that signed to suppress enemy defenses. ground forces with tons of World the Soviet Union would not dare However, when Soviet surface-to- War II–type bombs. The B-52’s de- launch a first strike on the United air missiles downed the U-2 spyplane fensive capability received compa- States or its allies. The quick re- piloted by Francis Gary Powers, the rable upgrades so that, even in the sponse capability of the B-52 and B-52 was given new tactics; it was to age of stealth, it serves a major com- the undeniable skill of its flight crews evade enemy radar by skimming over bat role. were made obvious to Soviet mili- the terrain at altitudes of 300 feet or In great part, the B-52’s longevity tary and political leaders by means less. Almost intolerable stresses were and the versatility resulted from the of its constant exercises and record- placed on the airframe and the crews actions of Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, both setting flights. in this flight regime, but the rugged before and after he became the SAC B-52 just flexed its wings and pressed commander in chief (and later USAF Nikita’s Case of Nerves on with its nuclear mission. Chief of Staff). At the dawn of the SAC and the B-52s succeeded in Along the way, the B-52 was tasked Cold War, defense budgets were tight that mission, and never more memo- with many missions that had not been and long-range missiles were seen as rably, during the October 1962 Cu- envisioned, including photorecon- the coming thing. However, LeMay ban Missile Crisis. As revealed by naissance of Soviet shipping and altered the calculus. When offered a Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in carriage of systems ranging from anti- modified B-47 design that met most his memoirs, the presence of nuclear- ship missiles to high-speed recon- of the requirements for the proposed armed B-52s on orbit outside the bor- naissance drones. B-52 mission at far lower cost, LeMay ders of the USSR made him think declined angrily, insisting that he twice and then again about the wis- The Vietnam Shift wanted an aircraft large enough to dom of challenging the United States. The Vietnam War brought another accommodate later developments, Eventually, Moscow backed down. significant change to the bomber. Part particularly in electronic countermea- Roger Ferguson, a B-52 navigator of the B-52 force was serving as Stra- sures equipment. during the crisis, recalls that the tegic Air Command’s long rifle aimed In essence, LeMay had defined a mission briefings were deadly seri- at the heart of the Soviet Union. How- new age in airpower, when aircraft ous and that plans called for B-52s ever, in Southeast Asia, the big bomb- were to be seen as “platforms” able to enter Soviet airspace at a given ers became flying artillery, backing to be modified over the years to take point every 12 minutes. Security was up ground forces whenever needed. the systems that new weapons and suffocating. When Ferguson’s crew Crews who had been trained in long- new missions demanded. There were raced out to their loaded B-52 to range nuclear penetration tactics now the usual protests at the time over launch, they were forced to hit the became the arbiters of the battlefield, high unit cost of the prototypes, but deck, spread-eagled, by an eager called on by commanders for close— no one could have guessed that the rifle-toting airman. The BUFF com- very close—air support. costs would be amortized over no mander had forgotten the counter- After the Vietnam War, the B-52 fewer than five and possibly as many sign. It was funny—but not until was modified to handle new weap- as seven decades. much later. There are many apocryphal sto- ries about aircraft being designed on the back of envelopes, but it is abso- lutely true that the original design for what became the B-52 was cre- ated over one weekend in the Van Cleve Hotel in Dayton, Ohio. On Thursday, Oct. 21, 1948, a group of highly talented Boeing en- gineers, including George Schairer, Vaughn Blumenthal, and Art Carlsen, were gathered to present the latest version of a straight-wing turboprop bomber design to Col. Henry E. “Pete” Warden, a project officer at Wright–Patterson AFB, Ohio. Un- known to them, acting on his own authority, Warden had been urging Pratt & Whitney to build the J57 jet engine. Warden suggested to the Boeing engineers that they scrub the Initial details for the B-52 that went to production were worked out one turboprop bomber and come up with weekend in a Dayton, Ohio, hotel room by Boeing engineers, including (from a swept-wing pure jet engine aircraft left) Shairer, Blumenthal, Pennell, Wells, and Carlsen. using the J57. 52 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2001 The Boeing engineers were not exactly starting from scratch. They had learned much from the six-jet- engine, swept-wing Boeing B-47 and were aware that there would soon be major improvements in in-flight refu- eling systems, including what would become the KC-135 jet tanker and the Boeing flying boom in-flight re- fueling system.
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