A cut of history

Published March 17, 2015
By Senior Airman Brittany Y. Bateman
Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- An Airman from the 5th Maintenance Squadron repair and reclamation section uses an electric saw to cut the vertical fin of a B-52H Stratofortress on Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Feb. 25, 2015. The fin is being cut for shipping purposes for thermal and blast testing. Thermal testing will look at the thermal response of coatings and material stack-ups to a pulse similar to a nuclear thermal pulse. Blast testing will be conducted at a future date looking into the structural response to an overpressure shockwave. The results will be used to update the nuclear hardness of the aircraft, which is used in models to produce Escape Distance Required Curves within Technical Order 25s. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Brittany Y. Bateman)