Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (AFR61017)

One ginor.ous can of woop a$$! Great shot Ken. Wish i made it up to OSH more often.

Always Impressive

Thanks John & James...........

Hope we get some heavy bomber aircraft at Oshkosh '24. So far not in the schedule.

Nice picture, I love the B52, hopefully it will fly for a long time.

greetings from Germany

I used to work with B-52s as a tower controller in California then later as a Center controller in Houston. The crews I dealt with in California were a pain in the *ss... The ones out of Barksdale, LA were the cream of the crop. I worked one mission where they were orbiting at FL430. I had no idea that machine could go that high, but it sure did, and they were always gracious and flexible as conditions permitted. I also served as a C-130 loadmaster at Dyess AFB in the 80s back when B-52s ruled the roost, so I saw plenty of them back then. It's still an impressive aircraft, especially given the service life. I wouldn't want to crew one though, I'll tell you that much! Cramped quarters and long hours, and always vulnerable to missiles. My hat's off to those guys even if they did annoy me once in a while, lol.

Thanks for the great shot. Brings back a lot of memories...3000 hours in that beast as navigator and radar navigator (if you're not familiar with that designation it's basically the bombardier). Cold War era, 70s-80s, at Barksdale and Wurtrsmith, crew dog, instructor, Stan/Eval. A real love/hate relationship with that old dog but wouldn't trade my time in the BUFF for anything. I would really love to know what the mission is like today as all my experience and training were focused on a nuclear mission.

Keith & Neil.........

Thank you for your very interesting commentary. Guys like you add a lot to the photo pics on Flightaware.

Neil, thank you for your service in the BUFF and Keith your time as a Loadmaster.

5*

Nothing like standing in a field in east central Tennessee looking over your shoulder and see a BUFF fly over you at 500 feet. On one of the old Oil Burner training routes.