Size Matters

Boeing B-52D 'Stratofortress' inside one of the three identical hangers of the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

Like I said in an earlier post, the USAFM has a lot of planes, missles and spacecraft. Some of them very small and some of them - like the B-52D above - are huge. I am shoiwng you this photo to give you a sense of the size and scale of this place. As you can see it's gigantic! If you look closely enough you will see some people below this beast of a bomber. Also note that the plane is up on pedestals! That must have been some job raising this 450,000 pound aircraft off of the floor. The wing span is sixty-one and a half yards. That's over half the length of a football field! At least six of these bombers could fit in the hanger.

The below is for the real aircraft geeks and tech heads that visit my site. Lynn, you might want to tell The Hub about it.

From the USAFM web site
Boeing B-52D 'Stratofortress'
Since it became operational in 1955, the B-52 has been the main long-range heavy bomber of the Strategic Air Command. It first flew on Apr. 15, 1952. Nearly 750 B-52s were built when production ended in Oct. 1963, of which 170 were -Ds. The -Ds were modified to carry conventional bombs and Quail decoy missiles.

The B-52 has set many records in its 25-plus years of service. On Jan. 18, 1957, three B-52Bs completed the world's first non-stop round-the-world flight by jet aircraft, lasting 45 hours and 19 minutes with only three aerial refuelings en route. It was also a B-52 that made the first airborne hydrogen bomb drop over Bikini Atoll on May 21, 1956. In June 1965, B-52s entered combat when they began flying missions in Southeast Asia (SEA). By Aug. 1973, they had flown 126,615 combat sorties with 17 B-52s lost to enemy action.

The aircraft on display saw extensive service in SEA and was severely damaged by an enemy surface-to-air missile (SAM) on April 9, 1972. In Dec. 1972, after being repaired, it flew four additional missions over North Vietnam. Transferred from the 97th Bomb Wing, Blytheville AFB, Ark., this aircraft was flown to the USAF Museum in Nov. 1978.

SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 185 ft.
Length: 156 ft. 6 in.
Height: 48 ft. 4 in.
Weight: 450,000 lbs. max.
Armament: Four .50-cal. machine guns in tail plus bombs--nuclear or up to 60,000 lbs. of conventional
Engines: Eight Pratt & Whitney J57s of 12,100 lbs. thrust ea. with water injection
Cost: $7,000,000

PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 638 mph.
Cruising speed: 526 mph.
Range: 8,338 miles unrefueled
Service Ceiling: 49,400 ft.