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Posted by Tom Kwiatkowski Sr. - 309C
on 10/29/2009, 6:36 pm
74.44.81.74
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
The B-52 is surely one of the greatest combat aircraft of all time, remaining in front-line service for almost six decades after the USAF specification for what became the B-52 was released in 1946. The USAF wanted a bomber with a 10,000 mile range and a speed of over 500 mph. Boeing initially proposed a conventional design with piston engines to achieve the range. As the US Air force wanted the aircraft to fly as high a possible to drop atomic weapons, Boeing revised the design with eight jet powerplants and swept wings.
The prototype first flew in 1952 and ever since entering service in 1955, the B-52 has been in the front-line. The first operational version was the B-52B, and in 1956 a B-model dropped the first air-dropped hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll. In an attempt to demonstrate the reach of the USAF Strategic Air Command, three B-52Bs made a non-stop flight around the world in January 1957, with the help of five inflight refuellings.
A total of 744 B-52s were built with the last, a B-52H, delivered in October 1962. Only the H-model is still in the Air Force inventory and is assigned to Air Combat Command and the Air Force Reserves. The first of 102 B-52s was delivered to Strategic Air Command in May 1961.
The B-52 could bomb the Soviet Union from bases in the continental USA and was the key element in SAC's deterrence of the Soviet Union. To insure the survivability of the SAC deterrence against a pre-emptive Soviet strike, the SAC B-52 force was dispersed and rotated In addition, a given number of B-52s were kept on standby ready to take off and, for a time, in the air ready to begin attacks on Soviet targets. From 1958 to 1968, ten to twelve USAF B-52s were airborne at all times. At the time of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, 70 aircraft were kept aloft at all times for one month. Following two crashes in which radioactivity was released from the nuclear bombs aboard, the airborne alert ceased.
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