Flight Craft 31: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress

First flown in 1952, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress became the ultimate expression of Cold War very heavy bomber design. The last of the famous -Fortress- series of aircraft produced by the legendary Seattle-based company, the B-52 was created over a weekend in a hotel suite in Ohio, resulting in a design that gave America-s post-war Strategic Air Command, led by General Curtis Le May, an additional nuclear-capable edge. The B-52 was almost as big as Convair-s B-36 Peacemaker, the largest serial-produced piston-powered aircraft ever built. The B-52 could carry a very similar bomb load, but flew it further, higher and faster. The turbojet-powered B-52 utilized techniques Boeing had learned from the Model 450 B-47 Stratojet and was designed to meet the Strategic Air Command-s ever-changing needs in the nuclear age. Like its predecessors, Boeing-s B-52 proved to be a highly flexible aircraft, capable of carrying increasing payloads, meaning it has remained in service well beyond its expec