Friday, April 15, 2022

The B-52 history lesson

Ahead by a century
London, ON
September 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

#CovidDiary, Day 11 - Part 2

I got some sleep last night, so I’ve got a bit more energy and thought I’d go for two posts in one day. Radical, no?

Anyway, the calendar tells me today is an important day in aviation history, as it was 70 years ago today, April 15, 1952, that the B-52 Stratofortress first took to the skies.

I find it astounding that something designed so long ago continues to guard our skies, and with additional investments will be in the air for another 20 to 30 years. A century of flight is an unbelievable achievement, especially considering it will outlast the two aircraft - the supersonic B-1B Lancer and the stealth B-2A Spirit - that were intended to replace the BUFF*.

What’s notable - and a little sad - about the B-52 is that it was created in an era when Boeing could do no wrong. This company was once the very engineering standard of the world, an icon of the nation that set the tone for some of the most notable advancements in aviation technology for much of the century.

The BUFF established the groundwork for the podded-engined jetliners - think 707 and beyond - that have dominated the skies ever since. It’s no surprise why it’s lasted so long, and through so many different missions and iterations: its basic design was created within an organizational culture that we may never see again.

Contrast that with the Boeing of today, a culture that spawned the ill-starred 737 MAX, KC-46 Pegasus, and Starliner, among others, and reinforced just how significantly this once- bright-light has been diminished.

We got to see this leviathan in flight a couple of years back, and the moment sticks with me to this day. It was special then, and it’ll be special decades from now when it lands for the last time.

To some these are just machines, but we do ourselves a disservice if we ignore the stories they can tell about what mattered most when they were first designed and built.

* Every military airplane eventually gets a nickname, and the B-52’s is BUFF. We’ll say it stands for Big Ugly Fat Fella, because we’re family-friendly here.

#ldnont #CarmisCovidChronicles #covid19 #pandemic #dayeleven #throwback #airshowlondon

Previous COVID Series Entries:
COVID comes for me, April 4, 2022
Rail cop run-in, April 12, 2022
Duck, duck... April 13, 2022

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Warthog meets stuffie, September 2019
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