B-52 Stratofortress trivia

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Main article: B-52 Stratofortress

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[edit] Popular Culture

The B-52 has appeared in many books and movies during its 50+ years of active service. Some of these include

[edit] B-52 Museum and Static Displays

  • B-52A 52-0003 & B-52D 55-0067 & B-52G 58-0183 Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson Arizona
  • RB-52B 52-0005 Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum Lowry AFB Colorado
  • B-52B 52-0013 National Atomic Museum Albuquerque New Mexico
  • RB-52B 52-8711 Strategic Air & Space Museum Ashland Nebraska
  • B-52D 55-0057 Static display Maxwell AFB Alabama
  • B-52D 55-0062 K.I. Sawyer Heritage Museum Former K.I. Sawyer AFB Michigan
  • B-52D 55-0068 Static display Lackland AFB Texas
  • B-52D 55-0071 USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile Alabama
  • B-52D 55-0083 Static display USAF Academy Colorado
  • B-52D 55-0085 Museum of Aviation Robins AFB Georgia
  • B-52D 55-0094 Kansas Aviation Museum Wichita-(Currently inop) Kansas
  • B-52D 55-0105 War Service Memorial Seoul South Korea
  • B-52D 55-0677 Yankee Air Force Museum Belleville Michigan
  • B-52D 55-0679 March Field Air Museum Riverside California
  • B-52D 56-0585 Air Force Flight Test Center Museum Edwards AFB California
  • B-52D 56-0586 Arc Light Memorial - Static display Andersen AFB Guam
  • B-52D 56-0589 Static display Sheppard AFB Texas
  • B-52D 56-0612 Castle Air Museum Atwater California
  • B-52D 56-0629 & B-52G 57-6509 Eighth Air Force Museum Barksdale AFB Louisiana
  • B-52D 56-0657 South Dakota Air & Space Museum Ellsworth AFB South Dakota
  • B-52D 56-0659 Static display Davis-Monthan AFB Arizona
  • B-52D 56-0665 National Museum of the United States Air Force Dayton Ohio
  • B-52D 56-0676 Armed Forces & Aerospace Museum Fairchild AFB Washington
  • B-52D 56-0683 Static display Whiteman AFB Missouri
  • B-52D 56-0685 Static display Dyess AFB Texas
  • B-52D 56-0687 Orlando International Airport (Former McCoy AFB)- Static display Orlando Florida
  • B-52D 56-0689 Imperial War Museum Duxford England
  • B-52D 56-0692 Kelly Field Heritage Museum - Static display Kelly Field Texas
  • B-52D 56-0695 Static display Tinker AFB Oklahoma
  • B-52D 56-0696 Travis AFB Museum Travis AFB California
  • B-52F 57-0038 Being relocated to Palmdale Airpark- Calif.. Palmdale California
  • B-52G 57-6468 Static display Offutt AFB Nebraska
  • B-52G 58-0185 Air Force Armament Museum Eglin AFB Florida
  • B-52G 58-0191 Hill Aerospace Museum Hill AFB Utah
  • B-52G 58-0225 Griffiss AFB Museum Rome New York
  • B-52G 58-0232 Static display Offutt AFB Nebraska
  • B-52G 59-2577 Heritage Center - Static display Grand Forks AFB North Dakota
  • B-52G 59-2584 Museum of Flight Seattle Washington
  • B-52G 59-2596 Australian Aviation Heritage Center Darwin Australia
  • B-52G 59-2601 Memorial Park - Static display Langley AFB Virginia

[edit] Trivia

  • Among its crew, the B-52 is affectionately known as the "BUFF", an acronym for "Big Ugly Fat Fucker" (or "Fellow" in some circles where profanity is not used).[1]
  • The B-52 carries a total fuel load of about 300,000 pounds (roughly 50,000 US gallons).[2]
  • B-52 flies unlike other aircraft. Shortly after take-off, as it gains speed, the nose dips and it climbs in an initial nose-low attitude, a consequence of the high camber of its wing in the full flaps configuration. This looks strange to most people, who are used to seeing aircraft take off nose-high.[3]
  • An aircraft of this massive size, power and weight necessitates hydraulically boosted control surfaces. However, in the early years of the B-52's service, B-29 Superfortress pilots, who were used to employing brute force from the human body to actuate the control surfaces, would be transferred to the newer aircraft, which had hydraulic controls. Therefore, strong springs are used to help imitate the control feel of the older aircraft. As a result the B-52 is a physically demanding aircraft to fly.[citation needed]
  • Each B-52 has a name. Usually the maintenance crew chief has the privilege of naming her (in the U.S.A. aircraft, like ships, are referred to as female). Some of the more interesting names are "The Need for Speed", "Heavy Metal II", "Conceived for Liberty", "Death from Above", and "Night Stalker". One is even named "Memphis Belle IV," in honor of the original Memphis Belle, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.[citation needed]
  • Each B-52 has small wingtip landing gear which ensure the wings do not touch the ground due to the droop caused by the heavy fuel load. When the wings are empty the gear do not touch the ground[4]
  • The B-52's skin looks wrinkled when the aircraft is on the ground. In flight, the wrinkles disappear as the wing loading causes the wings and airframe to flex to in-flight configurations.[citation needed]
  • The crew compartment (cockpit) is quite cramped with entire crew occupying a space only slightly larger then a larger family van. There is a bunk for crew rest was introduced on H models, but not on earlier ones. B-52 crews joke that Boeing put the cockpit in as an afterthought.[citation needed]
  • The only toilet facilities on board are a urinal on the lower deck, just forward of the crew compartment pressurization door, and a potty (lined with a plastic garbage bag) on the upper deck. The potty has a privacy curtain. Female crew members use an adapter for the urinal.[5]
  • The B-52G and B-52H has a very small oven which can warm food for the crew, older models only had hotplates. The only drinking water is carried in coolers. There is no sink or shower.[citation needed]
  • The ejection seats for the lower-deck crewmembers, the Navigator and Radar navigator, eject downwards. Because of this, these crewmembers cannot eject at an altitude of 200 feet or less.[citation needed] A navigator and a radar navigator from Fairchild AFB both survived a downward ejection at approximately 200 feet above ground level in a training accident near Kayenta, Arizona on the evening of October 20, 1984.[citation needed] The upper deck crewmembers (pilot, copilot, electronic warfare officer, <and formerly the gunner>) have seats which eject them upwards. Their seats work at any altitude, as long as the airspeed is at least 90 knots. This is necessary to inflate their parachutes, since their ejection seats are blast propelled and not rocket propelled, and are not 0-0 certified (ejection from the ground with no forward airspeed) as are more modern ACES-II ejection seats. A televised video of a B-52 crash at Fairchild AFB shows an attempted upwards ejection, but it followed the same trajectory as the aircraft into the ground.
Memorial and wreckage of B-52 on Elephant Mountain
Memorial and wreckage of B-52 on Elephant Mountain
  • During a training mission on January 24, 1963, a B-52C out of Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts experienced trouble and crashed into the side of Elephant Mountain near Greenville, Maine. Of the 9 men aboard, only 2 of them survived the crash. The wreckage of the crash is still on the side of the mountain to this day. The navigator, Capt. Gerald J. Adler struck the snow covered ground about 2,000 feet from the wreckage at a force estimated at 16 times the force of gravity when his parachute did not deploy upon ejection. His skull was fractured and three ribs were broken. The impact bent his ejection seat enough that he could not get his survival kit out. He survived the night by wrapping himself in his parachute, but both feet were frostbitten. The other survivor, pilot Lt. Col. Dante E. Bulli broke an ankle when he landed in a tree 30 feet above the ground. He survived the night, with temperatures reaching 28 degrees below zero, by tucking the sleeping bag from his survival kit into the snow.[6]
  • In the early 1980s Boeing submitted an unsolicited proposal for a "Super B-52," more appropriately known as the B-52I. It would have offered upgraded engines, improved electronics and avionics and vastly improved ergonomics for the crew. The plan was considered but dropped in favor of the B-1B that was then being considered to replace the then-20+ year old B-52G/H fleet. Boeing submitted another unsolicited proposal in 1997 to replace the B-52's 8 engines with 4 engines and update cockpit avionics. Since the original proposal never left the drawing board, this proposal, which has received tentative Air Force approval due to the cost savings involved, is also referred to as the B-52I model.[citation needed]
  • The B-52 on static display outside Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, has a patch on the cockpit. The damage was caused by impact with an American Bald Eagle during landing.[citation needed]
  • It is predicted that the B-52 will last until at least 2040, at which time the USAF has programmed a phase-out cycle.[7] Some Air Force proposals are that the supersonic B-1B Lancer and stealthy B-2 designed to replace the B-52, would be retired before the B-52.
  • During the early morning of January 17, 1991 the first day of operation Desert Storm a B-52G (tail # 60-248) was fired upon by an F-4G Phantom II in Wild Weasel trim. The B-52's tail gunner locked his tail gun radar on the Wild Weasel mistaking it for an Iraqi MiG. The Wild Weasel immediately detected the B-52 tail gun radar and misidentified the radar signature as an Iraqi Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) site. The F-4G crew fired a single AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile and watched in horror as it headed not towards the non-existent Iraqi AAA site, but to one of the B-52 bombers it was tasked with protecting. Luckily the missile failed to hit the plane, but instead detonated directly behind the bomber. The shrapnel and missile debris damaged the tail section of the B-52G. It ripped off everything aft of the vertical stabilizer. This included much of the tail gun system, the aft Electronic Warfare suite, and the drag chute. The B-52G was able to return safely to the island of Diego Garcia. It was later fully repaired at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam where it was renamed "IN HARM's WAY". The tail gunner position was subsequently eliminated from the entire B-52 fleet.[citation needed]
  • In a conventional conflict the B-52 can perform strategic attack, air interdiction, offensive counter-air and maritime operations. During Operation Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40% of all the weapons dropped by coalition forces.[8]
  • All B-52s are equipped with an electro-optical viewing system that uses platinum silicide forward-looking infrared and high resolution low-light-level television sensors to augment targeting, battle assessment, and flight safety. This improves its combat ability and low-level flight capability.[9]
  • Pilots wear night vision goggles (NVGs) to enhance their vision during night operations. These goggles provide greater safety during night operations by increasing the pilots' ability to avoid terrain and enemy radar and to see other aircraft in a covert/lights-out environment.[citation needed]
  • In addition to its twin-tandem main wheels, B-52s have two small retractable "bogie wheels" near the outboard ends of the wings which are used during takeoff and when the aircraft is being taxied or is parked. These prevent the wing tips, which droop when the wing fuel tanks are filled, from brushing the ground.[citation needed]
  • Starting in 1989, ongoing modifications incorporate the Global Positioning System, heavy stores adapter beams for carrying 2,000 pound (900 kg) munitions, and a full array of advanced weapons currently under development.[citation needed]
  • During the early part of Desert Storm three B-52Gs launching from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana flew to the Middle East, launched cruise missiles at command and control sites in Iraq, before returning home. The round trip mission took 35 hours and is the longest combat mission on record.[10]
  • The crosswind crab system of a B-52 provides a means of turning all four main gear to align with the runway while the aircraft is flown in a wings-level attitude compensating for drift. This system uses the steering actuators on the front main gear and a similar set on the rear main gear. The landing gear can be preset and turned up to 20° left or right of center during the approach. The maximum of 20° crab will accommodate landings in crosswinds up to and including 43 knots blowing 90° to the runway at a landing weight of 270,000 pounds.[11]
  • The aircraft's flexibility was evident in Operation Desert Storm and again during Operation Allied Force. B-52s struck wide-area troop concentrations, fixed installations and bunkers, and ruined the morale of Iraq's Republican Guard. The Persian Gulf War involved the longest strike mission in the history of aerial warfare when B-52s took off from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, launched conventional air launched cruise missiles and returned to Barksdale— a 35 hour, non-stop combat mission. During Operation Allied Force, B-52s opened the conflict with conventional cruise missile attacks and then transitioned to delivering general purpose bombs and cluster bomb units on Serbian army positions and staging areas.[citation needed]
  • The B-52 bomber gained notoriety after Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Cold War black comedy movie. The cockpit of the plane is one of only four movie settings. The Air Force refused to allow Stanley Kubrick to photograph the cockpit interior; he developed his B-52 cockpit by extrapolating from photos of a B-52 interior published in a British flying magazine, based on a walking tour of the cockpit of a B-29 Superfortress bomber. His guess was so accurate that his production company was later investigated by the Department of Defense. The flying model also shows the characteristic upswept wing tips of a flying plane. Major T. J. “King” Kong (played by actor Slim Pickens) is famous as the pilot in a cowboy hat who rides the bomb down to its target.[citation needed]
  • A hairstyle known as the "B-52", because of its resemblance to the nose cone of this aircraft, was popular in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.[citation needed]
  • The musical band The B-52's (Love Shack, Rock Lobster) were named after the B-52 hairstyle members of the band wear.[citation needed]
  • A joke used on the children's television show J.P. Patches in the 1960s was "Roses are red, violets are blue, you have a nose as big as a B-52".[citation needed]
  • A B-52 is the name of a drink, said to have been invented in Thailand during the Vietnam war in bars frequented by American military personnel.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [www.danshistory.com/b52.html]
  3. ^ [www.avsim.com/pages/0202/b52_review/b52_review.html]
  4. ^ [www.afa.org/magazine/dec2001/1201buff_print.html]
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ The B-52 Crash on Elephant Mountain Greenville, Maine
  7. ^ B-52 Service Life
  8. ^ [www.battle-fleet.com/pw/his/b52.htm]
  9. ^ [www.swri.org/3pubs/brochure/D07/B52/home.htm]
  10. ^ Info on 35 hour mission
  11. ^ [www.landings.com/_landings/stories/tough-landings.html]
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