The B52 heavy bomber and me

The B-52 and me
My first job after graduating from engineering college in 1951, structures major, was with Boeing Airplane Company, in Seattle, Washington. Earlier that year Boeing received an order for the first production model and I was assigned to a squad working on the part of the fuselage that contained the forward wheel well and the bomb bay. Our first task was to convert drawings used to produce the XB and YB test planes. These drawings were rudimentary because those airplanes were essentially handmade. We didn’t do much with the wheel well but the bomb bay was different for each model. During the two years I was there we revised the bomb bay for several uses: the A-model was for training and as a test bed for equipment, the B-model was rigged for electronic countermeasures and photo reconnaissance, and the C-model was converted to hold four hydrogen bombs. After that I was off to the Army for my two-year hitch, then marriage, fatherhood, and a career in design of buildings and bridges.

A few months after I arrived at Seattle I saw the first flight of that program, made by the YB, and it was really impressive. The actual time of the flight was officially a secret, but it seems everyone at that plant knew when to go out to the parking lot or, the best spot, to the roof of the engineering building. It was exciting, and very noisy. None of us ever thought that old war horse would still be on call during this century. As I recall, here were about 200 engineers working on plans for the production models and I was part of an eight-man structural group (no females in the mix then). My immediate supervisor had flown missions out of England as a side gunner in B-17’s and would comment that he hoped the 52 would be as tough as the 17. (I like to think it proved to be.)

USAF Boeing B-52 Stratofortress long range Bomber

A school friend of mine flew B-52’s from Guam to bombing runs over Vietnam and claimed that as hazardous as those missions were, they were not as scary as his interdiction flights into Russion at an altitude of 500 feet, always on the lookout for MIGs. That airplane was designed for high altitude flight to deliver nuclear bombs, not for hot-dogging up and down hilly terrain, so structural changes had to be made. He asked me once if a little more attention could have been given to crew comfort and I told him there was no way in hell Boeing was going to sacrifice 100 pounds of fuel so he could take a cozier nap.

I only know what I read and have heard about the low-level capabilities of the B-52, but I understand that later models were equipped with advanced radar systems for terrain avoidance, anti-jamming, and low-level mapping. The object of these missions was to evaluate radar and missile air-defense systems on Russia’s border, and to do this properly it was necessary to penetrate the border, not to just fly along it on the safe side.

I suspect the cost of constantly improving their extensive (expensive) air-defense system contributed to Russia’s collapse. The US has always been poor with international relations and foreign policy, but we knew how to bankrupt those guys. This was a high-stakes poker game and the trick was not to blink, so we kept sending in those B-52s. In retrospect, the cold war was pretty straight forward compared to the quagmire in which we now find ourselves. The White House has not called for my opinion of what should be done, so I might as well get ready to go fishing tomorrow. Greg Chacos 2013

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