X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Boeing B-52 Stratofortress


CFB Shearwater

Beginning in the 1970s, CFB Shearwater began hosting an Armed Forces Day every fall, typically on the weekend following Labour Day, and included an air show where the long and wide runways at Shearwater hosted some of the largest aircraft in the world, including the U.S. Air Force's C-5 Galaxy transport planes and B-52 Stratofortress bombers.

Laos Site 85

The central then automatically transmitted guidance commands to the aircraft (lead aircraft for multi-ship formations, e.g., 3 Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses) to adjust the bomb run toward an eventual release point for the actual bomb(s).


22d Air Refueling Wing

The wing was not tactically operational 11 March 1963 – 15 September 1963, while converting to B-52D bombers and KC-135A tankers.

305th Air Mobility Wing

McNamara further proposed that a SAC variant of the new F-111, to be designated FB-111A, along with improvements in the Air Force Minuteman and Navy Polaris missile systems and modernization of the subsonic Boeing B-52, would enhance strategic deterrence and make the B-58 superfluous to the needs of the USAF.

318th Fighter Group

At the completion of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign the 72nd FS was transferred to the newly activated 21st Fighter Group to prepare for the job of escorting the Boeing B-29 Superfortresses over Japan.

427th Air Refueling Squadron

The unit re-equipped with Boeing KB-50 Superfortresses in 1959, which provided greater speed to refuel jet aircraft.

429th Air Refueling Squadron

The 429th was re-equipped with Boeing KB-50 Superfortresses in 1958.

44th Bombardment Squadron

There the unit transitioned onto Boeing B-17E Flying Fortresses and, following familiarization with the much larger and complex aircraft, were almost immediately tasked with antisubmarine patrols duties between Guatemala City and the Galapagos Islands, the third-longest patrol route ever assigned any unit of the Air Corps to that time.

91st Missile Wing LGM-30 Minuteman Missile Launch Sites

The senior 91st SMW had organizational roots dating from World War II and had been deployed from Glasgow AFB to Southeast Asia, where it had been flying combat missions with the B-52 Stratofortress during the Vietnam War.

Boeing B-50 Superfortress

The B-50 was nicknamed "Andy Gump" because the redesigned engine nacelles reminded aircrew of the chinless newspaper comic character popular at the time.

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

The time in which this adaption is set is somewhere between the late 1940s and the early 1950s, but unclear and slightly inconsistent: a US B-17 (which left the UK soon after the war and was out of US service by 1949) overflies the village, yet US airmen wear the blue USAF uniform introduced in 1949, and there is also a 1951 Festival of Britain poster in the village shop.

Edward A. Gisburne

The older son, Edward Jr., fought in the Pacific theater with the 40th Bombardment Group and earned the Air Medal for his actions in aerial combat with the Japanese; he was killed in action at age 29 on May 26, 1945, when his B-29 Superfortress went down.

Ekkehard Tichy

Ekkehard Tichy was killed on 16 August 1944 after ramming a B-17 with his Fw 190 over Hannoversch Münden, Germany.

Homer Bigart

On one such mission to Wilhelmshaven in March 1943, the B-17 bomber formation in which he and reporters Walter Cronkite and Gladwyn Hill were flying suffered heavy losses to enemy fighters.

Hurel-Dubois HD.31

None were actually built for Air France or Aigle Azer but the IGN continued to be interested in an aerial photography variant to replace the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress the company was then using.

John Everingham

During the Vietnam War he received acclaim from the mainstream media, and disdain from the American military, for his reporting on the effects of B-52 dumping runs on their way back to bases in Udon Thani, Thailand — when bombers didn't drop all their payload over Hanoi, they dumped their bombs in Laos to cut the risk of accidents on landing, which led to innocent rural Lao and Hmong being killed.

Loring Air Force Base Alert Area

The Loring Air Force Base Alert Area is a former alert area for B-52 Stratofortress aircraft of the 42d Bombardment Wing situated at the former Loring Air Force Base at Limestone, Maine.

Minimum Interval Takeoff

The scene involves Colonels James Caldwell (played by Rock Hudson) and Hollis Farr (played by Rod Taylor) standing a few thousand feet down the runway, and watching B-52 Stratofortresses take off at fifteen second intervals.

Niigata, Niigata

Poor weather conditions and its distance from B-29 bases in the Mariana Islands meant that it was removed from the list of targets during deliberations; Nagasaki was bombed instead.

Operation Anaconda

Throughout the day, the TACP forward air controllers and Special Forces recce teams that had infiltrated into the area the previous day called in airstrikes from B-1, B-52, F-15, F-18 and F-16 aircraft, inflicting heavy casualties on the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, but by no means silencing them.

Orlando International Airport

The base later was home to the 306th Bombardment Wing operating the B-52 Stratofortress and the KC-135 Stratotanker.

Philip J. Crowley

His father, William C. Crowley, was a vice president for public relations with the Boston Red Sox, and a former U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 pilot, who spent two years as a POW in a German POW camp.

Puerto Ricans in the Vietnam War

Brigadier General Antonio Maldonado, who in 1967 became the youngest pilot and Aircraft Commander of a B-52 Stratofortress nuclear bomber, was assigned in January 1971 to the 432nd Tactical Fighter Reconnaissance Wing, Udon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand.

RAF Cluntoe

No. 4 Combat Crew Replacement Center was opened during November 1943 which trained Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crews with additional Consolidated B-24 Liberators being added during February 1944.

Robert M. Polich, Sr.

Lt. Polich and his crew flew many missions in their B-17 Flying Fortress based at the RAF Chelveston being assigned to the 8th Air Force, 365th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Air Mobility Wing - then called the 305th Bomb Group (Heavy).

Sandia Base

The aircraft used for these practice missions were Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers similar to the ones that flew the first atomic missions over Japan in 1945.

Stillwater Regional Airport

One of the aircraft processed through Stillwater - and eventually purchased by Mantz - was B-17 41-24577 "Hells Angels," which was the first B-17 to complete 25 missions (even before the Memphis Belle).

United States aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union

In 1952 a modified B-47B bomber made the first deep-penetration U.S. overflight of Soviet territory to photograph Soviet bombers in Siberia.

Yielden

Later in 1942, following the entry of the United States into the war, it eventually became the home of the United States Army Air Forces 305th Bombardment Group (Heavy), which had four squadrons of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses pioneering the daylight formation and bombing procedures of the time.


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