This Is The Most Incredible Tour Of A B-52 Stratofortress We Have Ever Seen
A highly experienced B-52 crew gives a very detailed tour of the inside and outside of the iconic Cold War-era jet.
By Tyler Rogoway October 10, 2021
The War Zone
B52H Tour
Erik Johnston/Youtube
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It may be an overused axiom, but the B-52 is truly like a fine wine, it just keeps getting better with age. With the Stratofortress—the youngest of which will hit 60 years old next year—finally getting new engines, the type will have more range and better field performance, payload, maintainability, and economy. This, combined with significant sensor, avionics, survivability, weapons, and networking upgrades, as well as its new internal smart bomb racks, will see the 'BUFF' through to the second half of this century and probably beyond. Yes, 100-year-old B-52s flying in active service isn't just possible, it is becoming more probable with each passing day.
Being such an iconic Cold War-era air combat system, I have discussed the B-52 with those who flew and maintained it, regularly written about it at length, and just generally never stopped learning about it year after year. Yet the video below, posted on aviation photographer Erik Johnston's fabulous Youtube channel, is the most comprehensive tour of a B-52 I have ever seen.
Running nearly two hours in length, the video goes into so many tiny details about the aircraft, which exists today as a hodgepodge of early Cold War engineering and retrofitted modern technology. The tour is led by Lt. Col. Aaron Bohl and his highly experienced crew, based out of Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, as well as a Crew Chief for the B-52 being examined, which carries the nickname "Politically Incorrect" embossed below mushroom cloud nose art. The B-52 community retains its nuclear mission, of course, albeit without nuclear gravity bombs—just nuclear-tipped cruise missiles are used these days. Also, just the idea of being a B-52 Crew Chief sounds overwhelming, doesn't it?
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42703/this-is-the-most-incredible-tour-of-a-b-52-stratofortress-we-have-ever-seen
