The US Air Force just resurrected a 55-year-old B-52 from the 'boneyard'
Airman Magazine/Flickr
After approximately 45,000 man-hours restoring a 55 year-old airframe, the US Air Force welcomes it's newest B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber, named "Ghost Rider," to the 5th Bomb Wing of the Air Force Global Strike Command, IHS Jane's reports.
Over 19 months the bomber underwent significant restoration as it transitioned from the "boneyard" or essentially a graveyard where old US military planes go when they've retired, to Minot Air Base, North Dakota as a fully operational nuclear-capable bomber.
"Ghost Rider" will help compensate for losses to the B-52 fleet in recent years, like the B-52 that exploded on the runway in Guam in May of this year.
The US has increasingly turned to salvaging once-scrapped planes from the boneyard, as tight budgets and overworked air crews struggle to make ends meet.
The US operates 76 B-52 bombers despite the aircraft being first introduced in the mid 1950s. The B-52s serve as a very visible element of the US's nuclear deterrence strategy.
US Air Force
- Love in the time of elections: Do politics spice up or spoil dating in India?
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus review – the best smartphone in the S24 lineup
- Household savings dip over Rs 9 lakh cr in 3 years to Rs 14.16 lakh cr in 2022-23
- Misleading ads: SC says public figures must act with responsibility while endorsing products
- Here’s what falling inside a black hole would look like, according to a NASA supercomputer simulation
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market