62 Year Since the First B-52 Flight Published April 15, 2014 By 1st Lt. Jose R. Davis Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- </div> frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen=""> April 15 marks 62 years since the first flight of the B-52 Stratofortress, making its maiden flight over Seattle, Wash., in 1952, piloted by the late Col. Alvin M. "Tex" Johnson. The B-52B was the first operational B-52 delivered to Strategic Air Command. The 93d Bomb Wing at Castle AFB, Calif., was the first unit to receive the new B-52B. Over the next several years, other units were equipped with various models of the B-52, with the aircraft ultimately being stationed at 43 bases. The 5th Bombardment Wing received the first production B-52G in 1959 at Travis AFB, CA, to replace the wing's RB-36 Peacemaker fleet. The 5th flew the G model until 1968 when the wing moved to Minot AFB, ND, and transitioned to the B-52H. Courtesy Photograph As part of SAC, the 91st Bombardment Wing, now the 91st Missile Wing, flew the B-52D from 1963 to 1968 out of Glasgow Air Force Base, Mont. In 1966-1967, while deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, the 91st conducted over 1,000 bombing sorties against North Vietnamese targets. The B-52H is the last and only model of the series currently in the Air Force inventory. The last B-52H rolled out of the Boeing Wichita assembly line in 1962, ending 11 years of the B-52 production. Boeing built a total of 744 B-52s for the Air Force, including the first two prototypes. The final B-52, 61-040 was delivered to Minot AFB in October 1962. The B-52 has a crew capacity of five. It has an unrefueled combat radius of approximately 4,480 miles and can fly over 650 mph. With a maximum takeoff weight of 488,000 pounds, it can carry about 70,000 pounds of munitions. Today, the B-52 operations mainly out of Minot and Barksdale Air Force Bases, and other locations as necessary. Through a constant modernization program, the B-52 Stratofortress is projected to operate into 2040. B-52 MILESTONES: · June 1945: Army Air Forces' Air Materiel Command sets criteria for new bomber · June 1946: Boeing design calling for a 221-foot wingspan turboprop bomber chosen as most promising · November 1951: First plane, XB-52, is "rolled out" under a dropcloth and at night at Boeing's Seattle works. Plane develops mechanical problems and second plane, YB-52, is prepped for flight. · April 15, 1952: YB-52, serial 49-0231, makes first flight. After two hour flight, plane lands at Larson Air Force Base, Wash. (Serial numbers are the way the Air Force and plane-watchers around the world identify airplanes. The "49" indicates the fiscal year in which the plane was funded, and "0231" is its sequence in the military's acquisition process.) · June 1955: First true "Stratofortress," B-52B serial 52-8711, delivered to Strategic Air Command at Castle AFB, Calif.; service recommends B-52 program be expanded to 576 aircraft. · July 1958: First B-52G, serial 57-6468, rolls out at Wichita, Kan. It is a complete rebuild of the B-52, with a shorter tail, smaller external fuel tanks, a radical new "wet wing" fuel design, and new one-piece radomes, the molded Fiberglass "nose" panels over radar antennae. · August 1958: Barksdale AFB receives its first B-52F. · September 1960: Last B-52G, serial 59-2602, rolls off the line at Wichita; that month, the first true B-52H, serial 60-0001 rolls off the same line. Besides radically new engines, the bomber has more powerful tail guns and is designed to carry the Skybolt Missile, which would have been air-launched ballistic missiles with 5,000-plus-mile range and nuclear warheads. · March 1961: First true B-52H flight, serial 60-0006, at Wichita. · October 1961: Soviets detonate 58-megaton H-bomb, the "Tsar Bomba," at Novaya Zemlya, islands in the Arctic Ocean just north of the Russian mainland; it is the largest man-made explosion in history. Scientists later estimate the bomb was a 100-megaton weapon that fizzled. · June 1962: The last B-52H, serial 61-0040, rolls off the Wichita line. It is the end of 11 years of B-52 production. Boeing Wichita built 467 aircraft, Boeing Seattle 277, including the first two prototypes. · October 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis puts Strategic Air Command aircraft on 100 percent alert status for a full month. The last five B-52Hs, of 102 built in all, are accepted by the Air Force. The last B-52H, serial 61-0040, enters service at Minot AFB, N.D. In all, 744 B-52 bombers, including the two prototypes, were built. · Mid-1963: B-52 force reaches its peak: 42 squadrons operate from 38 bases in the United States and Puerto Rico, with 630 available aircraft. · February 1965: President Lyndon Johnson decides to use B-52s in Southeast Asia; Operation Arc Light begins, with deployment of 30 conventional bomb-capable B-52Fs to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, from Barksdale and Mather AFB, Calif. · June 1965: First combat use of the B-52 in the Vietnam War. · January 1966: A Seymour Johnson Air Force Base B-52G is destroyed after a mid-air collision with a KC-135 over Palomares, Spain. Three of the alert-status B-52's B28 nuclear weapons impact on land; they do not explode, but there is some soil contamination. The fourth nuclear weapon is lost in deep water and is not recovered until April 1966. This recovery is portrayed in the Cuba Gooding Jr. movie "Men of Honor." · December 1972: Operation Linebacker II begins. The so-called "Eleven Day War" delivers 15,000 tons of bombs in 729 sorties against North Vietnam. · Aug. 15, 1973: Congress orders the end of U.S. air operations in Southeast Asia. B-52 combat operations have lasted eight years, numbered 126,615 sorties dropping 2.63 million tons of bombs. · November 1979: Iranian militants seize U.S. Embassy in Tehran, hold 68 Americans hostages. One hostage, upon release in January 1981, asked if he'd ever like to return to Iran, answers, "Only in a B-52." · April 1990: Perhaps the oldest B-52 still flying, a NASA mother ship called the NB-52B, serial 52-008, launches a Pegasus missile that places a Navy communications satellite into orbit. · 1992: B-52 combat crew training school relocates to Barksdale AFB. · June 1992: Strategic Air Command stands down after 46 years. By the end of the decade, base closures would force remaining B-52s onto just two bases, Barksdale and Minot. · August 1993: The first of 350 B-52s are scrapped, not because they are worn out but rather to meet with the requirements of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the former USSR. · August 1994: Operation Global Power 94-7, sees two Barksdale B-52Hs fly non-stop around-the-world bombing mission. The mission covered 20,062 miles in 47 hours and 12 minutes, setting a new B-52 endurance record, with five air refuelings. · Early 1995: First female combat crew members begin training for service in B-52s. Airplane celebrates 40 years in U.S. military service. September 1996: B-52s launched conventional air launched cruise missiles (CALCM) against Iraqi targets during Operation Desert Strike. · December 1998: B-52s launched CALCMs against Iraqi targets during Operation Desert Fox · March-June 1999: B-52s strike targets in Kosovo in support of Operation Allied Force. · 1999: Air Force and General Accounting Office predict B-52s will be in service through year 2040. · October 2001: B-52s begin combat operations over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Combat and patrol missions in support of OEF continued through April 2006. · March 2003: B-52 combat operations begin in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. · March 2003: B-52 deployments supporting Pacific Air Force's Continuous Bomber Presence begin at Andersen AFB, Guam. · 2011-2012: AFGSC commemorates 60 years of service with the "Year of the B-52" campaign. · Early 2012: USAF engineering studies indicate that the life span of the B-52 can extend to 2040. · July 2013: Air Force announces a fleet-wide technological upgrade of B-52 bombers. Source: H.D. "Buck" Rigg Archives, Shreveport (La.) Times research & Wikipedia U.S. Bases That Have Hosted B-52s Altus Amarillo Andersen Barksdale Beale Bergstrom Biggs Blytheville Carswell Castle Clinton-Sherman Columbus Dow Dyess Eglin Ellsworth Fairchild Glasgow Grand Forks Griffiss Homestead K.I. Sawyer Kadena Kincheloe Larson Loring March Mather McCoy Minot Pease Platsburgh Ramey Robins Semour-Johnson Sheppard Travis Turner U-Tapao Walker Westover Wright-Patterson Wurtsmith