On Christmas Eve 1972, while families throughout the world prepared for a day of celebration, the crew of the B-52D Bomber “Diamond Lil” were preparing for something entirely different.
That they had been tasked with the damaging mission of bombing North Vietnamese railroad yards at Thai Nguyen. Their mission was a part of a broader campaign often known as Operation Linebacker II. On the time, the nearly 20-year-old Boeing B-52 Stratofortress was accustomed to flying bombing missions with out a fighter escort, as a substitute counting on tail gunners operating quad .50-caliber machine guns to guard the huge planes from Vietnamese fighters.
Because the mission began, Airman 1st Class Albert Moore took his position within the bomber’s tail and scanned the skies for enemy aircraft, then he spotted an inbound MiG-21 because it raced to intercept their bomber.
“I observed a goal in my radar scope 8:30 o’clock, low at 8 miles,” he wrote six days later. “I immediately notified the crew, and the bogie began closing rapidly. It stabilized at 4,000 yards at 6:30 o’clock. I called the pilot for evasive motion and the EWO (electronic warfare officer) for chaff and flares.”
The Vietnamese MiG-21 was about as old because the Diamond Lil, nevertheless it was greater than twice as fast, extremely maneuverable, and armed with a single 23mm autocannon and as much as 2,000 kilos of ordnance underwing. Greater than 30 B-52 Stratofortresses were lost in combat throughout the Vietnam War, and because the Vietnamese MiG continued to shut with the Diamond Lil, probabilities were high that it will be added to the list.
“When the goal got to 2,000 yards, I notified the crew that I used to be firing,” Moore recounted. “I expended 800 rounds in three bursts.” Moore’s kill was confirmed by Tech. Sgt. Clarence Chute, a gunner aboard one other B-52 aircraft.
“I went visual and saw the ‘bandit’ on fire and falling away,” Chute wrote. “Several pieces of the aircraft exploded, and the fireball disappeared within the under-cast at my 6:30 position.”
Moore would go down in history as not only the second B-52 tail gunner to earn a MiG kill but additionally because the last tail gunner in American history to take down an enemy fighter. But this story is simply one moment within the operational history of the mighty B-52, an aircraft that’s lifespan will likely stretch a full century—and beyond.
Born in a “Dayton Weekend”
Like a lot of America’s most legendary military aircraft, the B-52’s development was spurred directly by the necessity to offset the looming Soviet threat that characterised the Cold War. America needed a bomber that might reach far-flung Soviet targets, defeat their air defenses, and carry an enormous atomic payload to shore up the brand new military doctrine often known as “mutually assured destruction.”
So it is sensible that the primary design iteration of what would grow to be the B-52 bore a striking resemblance to the Soviet’s long-range bomber, the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear. Boeing’s initial designs for the bomber included swept wings and 4 massive turboprop engines, which was a logical alternative on the time. While jet engines had already existed for over a decade when Boeing made their first pitch in 1948, they were still seen as too fuel-hungry to be feasible for a long-range, high-altitude bomber.
Nevertheless, Boeing’s pitch was received by the then-32-year-old Colonel Pete Warden, and he was an enthusiastic fan of turbojet technology. The MIT-educated engineer and Army officer was already aware of Pratt & Whitney’s work on the J57 turbojet engine, which might prove to be way more efficient than other jets of the day.
“Eliminate those props or your proposal shall be rejected,” Warden reportedly told the Boeing team consequently. He didn’t technically have the authority to send Boeing back to the drafting board, but they conceded nonetheless. It was a Friday, and the Boeing team told Warden they’d have a brand new design ready for him by Monday.
To be able to pull it off, six of Boeing’s aeronautical designers, George Schairer, Vaughn Blumenthal, Maynard Pennell, Ed Wells, Art Carlson, and Bob Whittington, locked themselves in a hotel suite in nearby Dayton, Ohio, and set to work. Wells led the hassle to supply what would grow to be a 33-page B-52 proposal, while Schairer sat by himself working with materials he’d purchased from an area hobby store.
“We didn’t know what George was as much as,” one in all the engineers was later quoted as saying. “While we were running the numbers all weekend, George was off in a corner whittling away on his rattling model.”
When it was over, the team returned to Warden with a design for an all-new eight-engine jet bomber that retained the name “B-52.” Their proposal included hand sketches of the brand new aircraft, and due to Schairer, a scale model of the brand new B-52 made out of balsa wood and painted silver.
“Essentially, they found the proper type of the subsonic jet,” Michael Lombardi, Boeing’s corporate historian, said. “Airbus, Boeing, another company, it’s the essential form they follow.”
Warden was obviously pleased with the brand new design, and the B-52 moved toward production.
Across the World Without Refueling
The primary B-52 Stratofortress took to the sky just 4 years later, on April 15, 1952, three years after the Soviet Union developed its first atomic weapon. It might take three more years before the nearly 160-foot-long B-52 would enter service, and once it did, the U.S. was desperate to exhibit its newfound bombing capabilities.
The B-52 was built for long-range bombing missions, nevertheless it was the addition of recently purchased looped-hose in-flight refueling technology that made the heavy bomber a really global threat. In January of 1957, the U.S. Air Force set about pushing the bounds of their recent mid-air refueling capabilities with a B-52 mission they dubbed “Operation Power Flite.”
On the time, the U.S. Air Force characterised the mission as “by far essentially the most colourful and maybe an important of all peacetime operations ever undertaken by the US Air Force,” but Lieutenant Colonel James H. Morris, the person who commanded the three-bomber mission, had already set records on the stick of a B-52, including leading an eight-bomber mission across the perimeter of North America without stopping to refuel.
Operation Power Flite desired to prove three things: America’s ability to mount global bomber operations, the B-52’s ability to deploy nuclear weapons at long ranges (think Soviet Union), and the plane’s ability to soundly complete missions, assuaging concerns concerning the B-52’s continued operation.
Of the five B-52s that took off on January 16, 1957, for Operation Power Flite, two could be forced to divert as a consequence of mechanical issues. The remaining three, nevertheless, conducted a simulated bombing run over Malaya, a British territory on the island of Singapore, before heading across the Pacific toward California.
On January 18, 1957, all three of the remaining B-52s landed at March Air Force Base. Their globe-circling mission had taken lower than half the time of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that had made the primary non-stop flight around the globe eight years prior. The B-52 had secured its place within the history books and within the Air Force’s budget.
Changing With the Times
Unlike quite a few more modern bombers, the B-52’s massive airframe allowed for weapons and electronics that hadn’t even been invented yet. Even so, there’s no way the “Dayton Weekend” team could have ever imagined that their balsa-wood bomber would remain an important a part of America’s nuclear triad many years into the twenty first century.
Much of the B-52s lifespan could possibly be credited to Colonel Warden’s insistence on jet propulsion, which helped propel the mighty BUFF, or Big Ugly Fat Fella, through many years of shifting combat strategies and mission parameters. For a time, the B-52’s role was seen as a low-altitude penetration bomber, coming in for bombing runs at just 400 feet above the bottom to avoid rapidly developing air defense systems.
Eventually the B-52’s subsonic top speed made it too slow for highly contested airspace, but the appearance of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles meant America’s longstanding nuclear bomber could retain its spot within the airborne portion of America’s nuclear triad.
Throughout the Sixties, B-52s carrying nuclear weapons under the banner of America’s Strategic Air Command were airborne 24 hours a day, circling just outside of Soviet airspace to offer an instantaneous nuclear response to a Soviet attack. Although these bombers were never called upon to deploy their nukes, an accident during refueling in 1966 caused a B-52 go down with 4 Mk 28 nuclear weapons on board. Three of the damaged bombs were recovered near the Spanish village of Palomares, nevertheless it took 11 weeks for an enormous Navy search effort to search out the fourth on the seafloor.
Today, the B-52 is the one jet in lively service to run eight powerful Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines, which permit the mighty BUFF to hold 70,000 kilos of ordnance an astonishing 8,800 miles without refueling. It’s also found use outside the nuclear realm due to its payload and loitering capabilities. B-52s are used not only in nuclear missions, but for precision bombing and shut air support missions due to its deep weapons magazine and upgraded flight systems.
B-52s have participated in combat operations throughout the Global War on Terror, including bombing runs over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, and air support missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. A B-52A, named The High and Mighty One, and a B-52B, named Balls 8, served NASA as a test platform for its X-15 experimental hypersonic aircraft.
In recent times, upgrades to the B-52’s internal weapons bays now allow it to hold advanced Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles internally in addition to on external pylons, alongside a bevy of other munition options. All told, recent upgrades have produced a 66 percent increase within the B-52s payload capabilities, helping to make sure the aircraft stays a workhorse for many years to return.
A Century of Service
In 2015, the Pentagon awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to develop America’s next long-range, heavy payload bomber. The B-21 Raider, as it will later be dubbed, is predicted to enter service sometime within the mid-2020s and borrows elements of its stealth design from its predecessor, the B-2 Spirit.
America’s only supersonic heavy payload bomber, the B-1B Lancer, can be expected to be put out to pasture in favor of the forthcoming B-21—however the longstanding nuclear workhorse Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is notably absent from the Air Force’s pending retirement list. In actual fact, two B-52s have actually been pulled back into service years after they were retired—once in 2015, and again last May.
It now appears that the venerable B-52 will remain flying years after the last B-2 Spirit or B-1B Lancer have flown off into the sunset. Because of continued upgrades, the Air Force now expects their fleet of 76 B-52Hs to stay in service until at the very least 2050, with a couple of expected to last into the early portions of the 2060s.
To be able to sustain combat operations because it approaches the century mark, the B-52 will need a slew of recent technologies and upgrades, and the Air Force has already set about installing recent cockpit displays, lively electronically scanned array (AESA) radar that enables it spot targets on the bottom, and secure data links that make the mighty BUFF a bomber and a priceless aerial reconnaissance asset.
In the approaching years, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is predicted to hold a few of America’s most advanced weapons systems, including a few of the first operational hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic weapons are able to traveling at sustained speeds in excess of Mach 5, making all of them but indefensible with the newest of air defense systems.
The B-52 “Stratosaurus,” as some have taken to calling it, may lack modern stealth capabilities, but its reliability, payload capabilities, and suppleness have ensured its continued service. Stealthy platforms just like the B-21 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may clear the trail, but once air defenses are down, the mighty B-52 will bring the warmth.