Thread: Any BUFF Fans out there?

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The first plane I trained on while in the Air Force was the venerable B-52 Stratofortress. It’s remarkable to think this old gal has been in active service since 1955 and that there are still nearly 100 of these planes on active and reserve status. In 2010 all B-52s were transferred to the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). As per the Air Force Office of Information, the B-52 will continue to be in service until 2040!

Watch this video to the end – while this is a fairly routine landing at an air show note the The B-52 has quadricycle landing gear and the gear offsets up to 20 degrees to facilitate landing in up to a 43 knot cross wind and believe me, that was a real thrill.

As big as this beast is, she rotates at just over 130 KIAS when loaded lightly and about 150 full – gear needed to be retracted at 190 KIAS at which time she literally leapt into the sky (or so I recall…) And remember, there was eight of everything to monitor i.e., throttles, tachs, EGT, oil temp, etc..

Modified continuously it’s still in one amazing plane – “Mors ab Alto” is Latin and translates to “Death from Above”. Anyone who’s seen the BUFF in action knows that true.


This Video Shows That You Don't Fly A B-52 You Wrestle It Around The Sky

I've never had the privilege of seeing a B52 in flight, but will one day! I believe that we had one at a local air show a few years back, on static display with no admittance to the inside (classified), but I missed it arriving and departing.

A truly remarkable aircraft and a tribute to it's design and maintenance.

I've only ever seen one and it was taxi-ing out for take off. It was at of duty and around 9/11. I think we saw o e in Oshgosh at the EAA, but I can't remember. That was when I was a small kiddo.

When we first moved to Omaha in 1968, we were on one of the flight paths to Offutt Air Force Base. Although Buffs weren't based there, we occasionally saw one on landing approach. I saw them in overflights at the Offutt airshow in NE, the Richards-Gebaur airshow while in KCMO, and the Oceana airshow while in VA Beach. I also toured the Strategic Air and Space Museum just outside Omaha at Ashland NE. They have a B-52 and a B-36 INSIDE the same building, along with a bunch of other planes. (Did I mention that it's a very LARGE building?) For BIG bomber fans, they also have a B-29 and a B-47. All you ex Airdales need to go there if you have a chance. This is the link to their website. Click on "Exhibits" for a list of the planes in inventory.

They also have a B-52 cockpit on display. It has ALL of the controls and gauges. This is a photo of me and my son-in-law at the controls. I'm in the right seat.

B52.jpg

A long time ago, I was the mechanical engineer on a project to integrate a laser designator into a B52 bomb sight so we could drop laser guided bombs and designate from the same aircraft......something about internal AF struggles regarding who works for who..... We were installing the system on a B52 at Carswell....they told us stories of the ejection seat spitting people out onto the runway....I was sitting in the nav seat and pulled my foot back and CLANK.....something tried to grab my ankle. I had instant thoughts of going out the bottom onto the runway at high speed....fortunately the seat was secured and I didnt eject.

Crikey!
I'd wager good money that that frightened ten years off your life!

Here's a thought experiment; just over a decade ago we celebrated 100 years of manned flight. The enormous advancements from that first rickety aircraft of the Wright Bros. to what is designed to that day are mind boggling. Overlay the notion of the B52 planning to be in service for nearly that same amount of time........................amazing!

Watching a 52 takeoff and the incredible amount of wing movement evident just blows my mind when I wonder about airframe integrity and lifespan of the bird. She's a tough ol' lady.

I was at Edwards Airplane Patch(mid Mojave Desert) '61 to '64 where I was involved in working on the "H" model tail # 006 of the BUFF running the 1000 hour flight test. They took off from Edwards, flew down over Eglin, refueled midair,then up along the Canadian border to Washington State,refueled again and back to Edwards for maintenance checks. Over and over for 1000 hard hours. The only airplane I liked more was the XB-70 and they crashed all 3 (that they made)at Edwards.

Heck when I got out of Air Force back in 1980 they had a bunch of the B52's loaded and taxi ready for a one time flight, then off to the bone yards. Cant even imagine where they would use them today? With the stealth bombers, pulse jet technology, and who knows what they have been working on since the sr71? I dont think I would want to be in one of those things in a modern battle... not with lasers and some of the sophisticated anti aircraft weapons scattered around the world these days. Cool ride though...

Interesting story about re-commissioning one: From Boneyard to Barksdale, a mothballed B-52 Stratofortress flies again.
Thanks Mike.

Well I have to agree that this ol’ gal has turned a few tricks, but my nostalgic side still love this plane. Of the nearly 750 produced, only 85 still remain active - all H models and they’re assigned to Air Force Global Strike Command. But as Uncle Bob’s link attests, there’s some still waiting at Davis-Monthan AFB that can be brought back to operational status fairly quickly.

I know that currently, as part of joint service efforts with the US Navy, the B-52 is used for ocean surveillance. As per the B-52 Fact Sheet, “Two B-52s, in two hours, can monitor 140,000 square miles of ocean surface.”

Combat ready the B-52 can fly over 8,000 miles at 650 miles per hour without refueling. With inflight refueling, the range is limited only by crew endurance. During Desert Storm, B-52s launched from Barksdale AFB and clobbered the living hell out of the bad guys with cruise missiles and returned to base for a non-stop 35 hour mission.

And then there’s the 70,000 pound bomb load – that’s a lotta boom.

BUFF is an appropriate moniker – but if the US Government would let me and a couple dozen other old guys I know loose with a dozen of these bad-ass birds we could wrap ISIS mess up real quick – jus’ sayin’…. Anyone else game?

Originally Posted by glennsexton

..........– but if the US Government would let me and a couple dozen other old guys I know loose with a dozen of these bad-ass birds we could wrap ISIS mess up real quick – jus’ sayin’…. Anyone else game?

What Glenn? You don't have faith in the newest solution..................."Jobs for Jihadis"? THEY know it's a winner........................don't they?

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

What Glenn? You don't have faith in the newest solution..................."Jobs for Jihadis"? THEY know it's a winner........................don't they?

So is that a "Yes" from you Bob? I'll put you on the list. Do you want drive the plane or drop the bombs??

Put me on the list----------
sorta straight east til we see Portugal/Spain/Straits of Gibralar-then spread out to the right/south a few degrees-get some of North Hemispere of Africa, Somlia,Yemen, Syria/Iraq, Iran, Afganistan----------a couple can go north to Ukraine-widen Suez canal----etc, etc


Last time I flew trip over there was gone from home 5 days----------