Today is the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the first prototype B-52. Plans are for the current fleet to serve in the Air Force for at least 40 years to come. Read and be awed here.
There are third-generation B-52 pilots serving today - their fathers and grandfathers flew 'em. Amazing.
My Dad worked on 'em for around 25 years. It’s rare to find something that works so well there’s really no reason to get rid of them. They’re almost beautiful in a way—in the same way a hammer can be beautiful if it’s well suited for its purpose.
We used to count the seconds of a bombing raid in Kuwait, over 12 seconds was the Big Boy. We were next to the Direct Air Support Center, so we checked our guesses. Kinda mad me fell sorry for those guys getting slammed like that, but not TOO much.
Yet more trivia - I am told that the name of the Fender Stratocaster - the classic rock guitar launched in 1954 - was inspired by “Stratofortress”. (But, admittedly, it could have been named for the Stratojet, Stratocruiser, etc.) And presumably, the hairstyle was named after it.
There is a real beauty to many aircraft, and B-52s come pretty close to the top - but to my mind this beast has to be #1 in the aesthetics dept.
bernse, NASA has retired that old B model, which was used for air-launching the X-15 and a number of subsequent aircraft, and has replaced it with an H borrowed from USAF.
Anybody hear the piece on NPR today where they interviewed the co-pilot who flew the first B-52? Its pretty interesting he gives the reasons why the planes are still in service and what it was like flying one and what kinds of changes have been made to the planes over the years. The guy must be 70 years old or more, if you think about it.
I don’t know if any of you caught it this morning, but on the Today Show, they interviewed the commander. At first, Matt Lauer was going to come here to Minot. Then, it got changed to Matt Lauer was going to inverview our boss. Finally it ended up being Al Roker continually cutting off our boss as he was trying to talk about the B-52.