Boeing B-52H-175-BW Stratofortress
     61-0040
     c/n 464467
 
Alive and kicking Air Force's youngest B-52 Stratofortress turns 50 this year
http://airman.dodlive.mil/2012/04/alive-and-kicking/

Slide Show - http://www.flickr.com/photos/airmanmagazine/sets/72157629323755404/show/
50 Years of Service for the B-52

I don't know why I get teary eyed when I read about these aircraft, possibly because as a child of the Cold War they are indelibly etched into my soul.  The noise, the size of the aircraft, and SAC (Strategic Air Command).

My first gas stop on my way out west two years ago was in Frostburg, MD at a Sheetz.  While I was fueling an individual about my age came up to me at pointed at my SAC sticker on the front of the windshield and then pointed at himself.  He was deaf but had a paper and pencil with him.  He could read lips as well.  Between that and writing he told me his dad was a BUFF pilot in the early 70's at Minot, ND.  At the end of the conversation we were both crying...

For those of you that wouldn't understand, it's like how we feel riding our bikes.  You can't explain it to someone who's never been there, at least not adequately.

Thanks for sharing the video. I had never got a good look at a B52 until last year while TDY in Guam. That sound shrieking down the runway was unmistakeable!  That enormous payload capacity makes them still an intimidating force. And with another impressive Boeing airframe from the same time period (KC 135 ), they have the reach as well. Pretty sure we were there to remind Kimmy to play nice......

I have a 1958 or so issue of Popular Mechanics around here somewhere that has the then brand new B-52 on the cover, along with a headline about the astounding sticker shock of an $8 million dollar airplane.
Heck, $8 million won't buy a year's worth of fuel...

Thanks Jim, very interesting.

astounding sticker shock of an $8 million dollar airplane.

Though I'm sure that number didn't hold up over the full build run of the B52s, (what gov't estimate ever does?) we got one HELL of a bargain since they're still in service.

$8,000,000 / 50 years = $160,000 / year.

That doesn't account for the prices on subsequent models nor does it account for upgrades and overhauls. Heck, upgrades now cost more than the original plane!

The best dollar for dollar purchase order EVER issued by the D.O.D.  Possibly the best weapon ever devised.

The best dollar for dollar purchase order EVER issued by the D.O.D.  Possibly the best weapon weapon's platform ever devised.

Fixed it for you...

Man did I ever have a different experience with B-52's!!! I was an FO with a recon platoon in Viet Nam. I watched and heard and felt the pee that a bunch of B52's could bring. You could see those Air Force zoomies WAY up there draggin' con trails at a zillion feet up. Three white lines going somewhere to ruin someone's day. But they had a bad side from my point of view - all them bombs didn't go off. Them Vietnamese soldiers LOVED those unexploded bombs! They used the stuffin' in them big 500 pounders to make booby traps (they were booby traps in those days - not IED's. They were crude but they would blow your joint into your watch pocket). If we found the damn things those STUPID grunts (I was an artilleryman with very delicate and refined sensibilities)  would blow the big bastards up with a stick of C4 and a WAY to short length of det cord. I HATED that! And if the god dam Infantry wasn't trying to blow me into the arms of Jesus , the Viet Cong or the NVA wanted to get in a fire fight over the dam things. I am tellin' you that thangs looked a lot different down there in the mud and the blood and the beer than they did up there with the clouds and the angles. Rock on zoomies! We still love ya even though you got to bathe too often.