The Boeing B-52 might be the most solid investment of any Air Force aircraft out there, with the design expected to remain in service far longer than even the most optimistic engineer might have believed in the early 1950s. The BUFF (Big, Ugly Fat…yeah, you know the fourth word) is the largest aircraft credited with air-to-air kills, held world speed records, dropped nuclear warheads, and still makes the C-17 look tiny to this day. They are awesome machines that are expected to be around for at least another twenty years…and it’s due to safety innovations learned along the decades of flight and action.
One of the most notable experiences for the B-52 came during a test and evaluation flight conducted by Boeing in 1964. Using B-52H (Air Force number 61-0023), the test was meant to evaluate loads on the airframe in a flight that went from Wichita, Kansas, into New Mexico, up into Colorado, and back. Most of the flight was performed at 500 feet above ground level with the low-level autopilot engaged, but just after the bomber passed over East Spanish Peak, Colorado, the aircraft was hit by clear-air turbulence so violent that the pilot prepared the crew to abandon the aircraft. Before the order was given, however, he determined that he was able to control flight, admittedly in a reduced capacity, and called for help while planning a return flight to Wichita. When the pilot of the F-100 fighter caught up to the B-52, he noticed that over eighty percent of the vertical stabilizer was gone, having been torn off during the turbulence.
By using flying skill and remaining cool even after being told that a control surface was somewhere on a mountain two states behind them, the crew managed to complete the flight, even after being forced to fly to Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas when weather rolled in at Wichita. The crew praised the design of the bomber, but we wonder if they did that before or after they kissed the ground…
