Aviation Ancestry - August 2011

Buff: Part II

By Scott Schwartz

On March 18, 1954, the first Boeing B-52A was rolled of the company’s Seattle plant.  It differed from the X/YB-52 in several ways – besides the replacement of the tandem cockpit with side-by-side seating.  An Electronics Warfare Officer (EWO) was added to the crew.  This crewmember was placed on the upper flight deck with the pilot and co-pilot.  The bombardier’s and navigator’s positions were placed on the lower deck, and the tail gunner sat in his own position in the rear of the fuselage (from which he could fire four .50 caliber machine guns).

That wasn’t all.  Water injection systems were added to the J-57 engines, and small doors were installed on the top of the fuselage, aft of the cockpit, which covered the air-to-air refueling receptacle.

The Air Force wanted 13 B-52As, and the first one left the Boeing plant on March 18, 1954.  Only three were built. The remainder were built as B-52Bs.  The three “A” models were loaned back to Boeing for use in flight tests.   One was eventually modified for use as the launch aircraft for the X-15.  None were ever assigned to the Strategic Air Command.

With the July 14, 1954 roll-out of the B-52B, the Air Force had the first combat-capable B-52.  Including the 10 B-52As that had been upgraded to “B” standards, the Air Force order called for 50 “B” models to be built. 

With more powerful versions of the J57 engines, the B-52B could be fitted with a drop-tank under each wing, each of which could hold 1,000 gallons of fuel.  With the drop tanks installed, the airplane could carry a total of 37,385 gallons of fuel. 

The first “B” model to enter service with the Strategic Air Command (SAC) was actually an RB-52B. 

Fifty RB-52Bs were ordered; unlike the pure bomber B-52B, the RB-52B could be fitted with an internal “capsule” that was fully pressurized, and which was equipped with several cameras along with two additional crewmen to operate them.  The RB-52B was equipped with two 20 mm cannons in the tail turret; the bomber variant retained the four .50 cal. machine guns. 

After nearly two years of training its crews and testing the aircraft, SAC wanted the world (not to mention the Soviets) to see what the B-52 could do.  In connection with a mission that was dubbed “Operation Power Flite,” five B-52Bs took off from Castle AFB (now Castle Airport) on Jan. 16, 1957.  The plan was to fly around the world, non-stop.  Two of the airplanes were “back-ups” in case any of the assigned airplanes had mechanical problems – two of which did.  The three airplanes left, completed the flight and landed at March AFB (now March Air Reserve Base) on Jan. 18 – 45 hours and 19 minutes after they took off.  Naturally, the B-52Bs refueled in flight (by Boeing KC-97s), and General Curtiss LeMay publicly emphasized that Operation Power Flite proved that SAC could strike any target on the planet.

B-2Bs soldiered on until the end of 1965.  At that point, retirement of the B-52B had begun, and by early 1966, all the B-52Bs had been retired.

In keeping with its role as a nuclear bomb carrier, the B-52C was the first Stratofortress with a completely white under-side.  The white paint was meant to reflect nuclear radiation and heat away from the aircraft.  The first “C” model left the Seattle plant on Dec. 7, 1955, and 35 were built. 

Its external wing tanks each carried 3,000 gallons of fuel (compared to the 1,000 gallons carried in the B-52B’s external tanks), and the extra fuel capacity, combined with the gloss-white paint added considerable weight to the aircraft.  To offset the additional weight, J57 engines with improved water-injection systems were fitted to the B-52C. 

Very nearly identical to the B-52D, B-52C’s were assigned to B-52D squadrons that were flying combat missions over Viet Nam.  Still, the last B-52C was flown to the bone yard at Davis-Monathan AFB on Sept. 29, 1971.

Two items distinguished the B-52D from the B-52C.  The first was the fact that the ability to carry the “reconnaissance capsule” was deleted altogether.  The second item was the movement of B-52 production from Seattle to Boeing’s plant in Wichita, Kans.  Well, some of the B-52D production was moved; 101 of the 170 B-52Ds were built in Seattle, with the first flight of a Seattle-built B-52D taking place in 1956.

Like its predecessor, the B-52Ds were delivered to the Air Force with the “anti-flash” gloss white paint on its underside.  However, a little problem brewing in South East Asia would lead to the re-painting and technical modifications of the aircraft for quite some time.