'Ghost Rider': B-52 resurrected from desert Boneyard

Do you suppose it's because of all the increased Russian aircraft activity off our coasts?

http://us.cnn.com/2015/02/21/us/arizona-b-52-restored/index.html

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B52's are just plain awesome

Many years ago an airshow up here hired one to do a low and slow flypast .... a lady in the crowd behind me said it was like watching an earthquake in the sky

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That's just awesome thank goodness it never just went to scrap

You ought to watch them drop a load of bombs! That was the first time I could see air.
Never saw the plane or any vapor trail. The captains RTO said everyone take a look south and he started counting down.
It looked like the southern half of the country exploded....... and we were over 7 miles away.

I read somewhere the B-52's were slated to fly into the 2040's or 2050's... the airframes were built SOOO tuff... the AirForce decided they do not need to replace them.

Personally... I doubt TPTB will scrap any of them, other than some reason a specific airframe would cost too much to fix.

"As part of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Russia, 365 B-52s were flown to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. The bombers were stripped of all usable parts, then unceremoniously chopped into five pieces by a 13,000-pound steel blade dropped from a crane. The modern-day guillotine crashed down four times on each plane, severing the mammoth wings and leaving the fuselage in three pieces. The ruined B-52s remained in place for three months in order for orbiting Russian satellites to confirm the bombers had been destroyed, after which they were sold for scrap at 12 cents a pound."

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-52_Stratofortress

The United States only has 85 B-52's left in active service, all of the "H" model, with 9 reserve.

So in 1991... a bunch of B-52's were destroyed....

What I heard was a few years ago... and if memory serves... it was on a documentary on Smithsonian channel.

So while a bunch of B-52's were destroyed last century... as I read it the decision I mentioned was made in THIS century.

Kinda a different thing IMO.

I cant believe how many crashed whilst carrying up to 4 nuclear bombs a couple of times the regular bombs blew up and blew the nukes apart, scattering plutonium and uranium everywhere

I wonder if my Father In Law flew that BUFF .
I seen that it was back in service and I was going to show him the article .
He was a B-52 pilot from 1962 to 1968 .
Way too cool !

more

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-ghost-rider-b-52-rises-from-the-grave-to-ride-aga-1686588702