When General Nathan Twining, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1957, called the Boeing B-52 โthe long rifle of the air ageโ shortly after it entered service on June 29, 1955, no one imagined that the eight-engine, 390,000-pound bomber would still be operational 60 years later.
Had he a crystal ball, General Twining would have been able to add that the nationโs new โlong rifleโ would go on to become the longest-serving military aircraft in American history. Continually upgraded, modified and adapted to new missions, the amazing B-52 is far from being finished after six decades; in fact, the Air Force plans to fly it until 2040.
Thatโs astounding longevity for any vehicle, particularly a weapon with an expected service life of just a few years, whose origins date back to the years immediately following World War Two.
Employed as a high-altitude nuclear delivery vehicle, low-level penetrator (to evade surface-to-air missiles), conventional bomber, flight test asset and foil for popular music, the Stratofortress is a military and cultural fixture.
The saying โthe last B-52 pilot has yet to bornโ may no longer hold true, but there are still plenty of grandfathers and grandsons โ and in at least one case, three generations of a single family โ who
have both served as Stratofortress aircrew. Since the last months of the Vietnam War, the B-52 community has affectionately referred to the big bomber as the โBUFFโ (Big Ugly Fat Fellow); that conflict marked the first use of the BUFF in combat. Since then, the B-52 has been engaged in nearly every action the U.S. has entered, from Desert Storm and Operation Allied Force (Kosovo) to operations Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Iraqi Freedom.