Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Грузовик для бомб

Video from the channel Авиасмотр about Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 12:55. Video type: Documentary.

Russian-language documentary from the Авиасмотр channel about the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress: its origins, design, armament, combat use and best-known accidents.

Work began in early 1946, when neither the B-29 and its derivative the B-50 nor the Convair B-36 offered the range, speed and payload required of a strategic nuclear bomber. Drawing on experience with the B-47 Stratojet, Boeing proposed a swept-wing aircraft with eight turbojets. By late 1951 two prototypes were ready. The XB-52 was damaged during ground testing, and the YB-52 made its first flight on April 15, 1952. Series production began in 1954, and the first B-52B units arrived in 1955. A total of 744 were built, the last of the H series in 1962.

The video describes the bicycle-type landing gear with outrigger wheels at the wingtips, whose main legs can pivot up to 20 degrees for crosswind landings, and the original crew of six, which included a tail gunner later removed. Early series carried J57 engines, while the H model used TF33 turbofans. In the 1990s Boeing proposed replacing the eight TF33s with four Rolls-Royce RB211 engines, an idea dropped due to cost. In Vietnam, between June 1965 and August 1973, it flew more than 120,000 sorties, and more than 700 during Operation Linebacker II. It covers the nuclear accidents at Palomares (January 17, 1966) and Thule (January 21, 1968), and the Fairchild base crash of June 24, 1994, with Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Holland at the controls, which led to stricter rules for air show displays in the United States.