Detailed tour through a B-52 Stratofortress

Walk-around tour of BUFF, a USAF Boeing B52 G strategic nuclear bomber including the cockpit, bombay, defence station, offence station and more. This SAC (Strategic Air Command) B52 is based at the Darwin Aviation Museum and on display to the public.

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All footage is © Copyright 2021 Paul Stewart

#buff #boeing #b52 #usaf

0:00 intro
0:41 aircraft history
1:04 Electronic Counter Measures (ECM)
1:50 low level vision including infrared
2:40 pitot tubes
2:50 downward ejection seat panel
3:12 more ECM equipment
3:36 forward landing gear bay
4:30 weapons bay and cat walk
5:00 aft landing gear
5:46 tail section, weapons, countermeasures and tail art
7:40 wings and turbojet engines
10:00 external pylon mount
10:29 entry hatch
10:40 offence compartment and ejection seats (radar navigator/bombardier and navigator)
11:56 ECM equipment
12:05 defence station (electronic warfare officer and remote gunner)
12:57 toilet
13:08 periscope sextant
13:15 in-air refueling system
13:44 flightdeck
17:30 catwalk

[raypeters]

JUST TO THINK, THIS AIRCRAFT WAS FLYING 2 YRS. BEFORE I GRADUATED HI SCHOOL, I AM NOW 83 YRS. OLD ! AMAZING !!!! MADE OF THE RIGHT STUFF !

[Shadowfax-]

This is the most comprehensive and straightforward tour of a B-52 I’ve ever seen.

[roadkill]

MY dad flew one of these in the VIETNAM war. I still remember us going on base and him letting me see all of the planes. I sure do miss him and his stories!!

[TheHomeExpert]

So, when the B-52 is finally retired, it will have flown for over a 100 years. That is crazy crazy crazy incredible! What a plane!

[gdaeagle]

Really enjoyed the tour. I was the co-pilot on this particular tail number "596" on 1Apr73 on a night bombing mission from Guam to Vietnam. Brings back lots of memories.

[kimchi]

"This is a Boeing B-52 lets take a look at its quirks and features and then we'll give it a Doug Score."

[noelht]

This one was built in 1959 and it still looks futuristic now. Incredible plane.

[maryrafuse]

As a child my husband was inside one of these at the airshow in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. It was returning to America from Vietnam and the crew took a side trip to the airshow. He remembers the USAF crew being very friendly and kind with children. They made a big positive impression on my husband who was 12 years old at the time. God bless America, NORAD, Canada and NATO.

[marks]

Been there, done that, tail number 2596 was one of the BUFF's I worked. Spend several years of my young life crawling through every inch of B-52G's. It's amazing where they used to stick Electronic Countermeasures Equipment on BUFF's. Everything from the nose to the top of the tail. We had to fix it all and fix all RF paths and electrical wiring (including the Chaff Dispensers in the Wing and Flare Dispensers in the Rear). It was a great job, though sometimes stinky, dirty, cold/hot, and everything in between.

[adamdubin]

The Bell X-1 precedes the B-52 by about 6 years and was dropped from the bomb bay of a modified B-29 and later a B-50. You might be thinking of the North American X-15 which was released from a hardpoint mounted on the aircraft's wing between 1959 and 1968.

[johnyoung]

Former B-52 EWO here. Wanted to correct a few misunderstandings. Regarding your story about ECM and ATC, no... just, no. First, during peacetime, we're squawking via an IFF transponder, so we wouldn't be invisible to air traffic control. We also don't fly around actively jamming or doing so indiscriminately because if we were jamming an airport surveillance radar, it's not only not seeing us, it's not seeing anyone else. Also, there is no radar absorbent material on a B-52, or at least not for the purpose of rendering the aircraft less visible on radar. While serrations are used to scatter incoming RF on some aircraft, those on the B-52 tail wouldn't have that effect. That said, given the proximity of the ALQ-153 TWS on the vertical stabilizer, it might be related to it (although having spent 8 years and 2000+ hours in the B-52, no one has ever mentioned that, so...). Fun fact: Going to the "loo, " aka "honey bucket" is taboo for the obvious issue of aroma. Having flown a Global Power mission, we carried a chemical camp toilet. Also, the urinal is close to very hot electronic equipment, so it tends to simmer, which lends to the distinctive aroma inside the cockpit. Good times.

[jobellecollie]

Thank you for the guided tour of my old office. I was a member of The Strategic Air Command and began flying F-111's. When my Aardvark was retired, I got the "keys" to my very own BUFF! My late father was an Admiral in the US Navy and was not pleased when I decided to enlist into the US Air Force vs US Navy. He worked on General Electric jet engine designs in the 1950's and 1960's. He had taught me how to fly many years before I learned how to drive a car. I prefer flying, less traffic! The only saving Grace my father allowed was I at "least" I would use engines he had designed. The US Navy had nixed the F-111 so my father was unsure of its air worthiness. I no longer fly because I am a terrible back seat driver!

[simonjamesdean]

You should have crawled down the back end. The one at Duxford in UK had graffiti from the Vietnam war era scratched into the main bulkhead, including mission dates and bomb tallys. Very cool.

[msantifort]

As a former taingunner we only used the water injection on take off for extra thrust. You could actually feel it when it kicked in. Great video, brings back a lot of memories.

[richardmartin]

As a Crew member in the 70s, we did occasional static display days where the public climbed stairs to look in the cockpit. My all-time favorite question was, "Now, does this thing have one key to start, or eight?" Nice tour and great memories. Built with slide rules.

[Joel-ewzm]

A testament to the insane longevity of this platform. My Uncle entered the Air Force 50 years ago as a pilot during Vietnam and flew the F4 Phantom (B52 had already been in service for years at this point). He stayed in the Air Force long enough to fly in the Gulf War as an A10 pilot some 20 years later before retiring as a Brigadier General (B52 still in service). After retiring, he stayed involved as a civilian contractor / advisor involved in the mid 90's study of re-engining the B52 to 4 modern turbofans. He passed away a few years ago, and the Air Force is FINALLY moving forward with re-engining the B52 in earnest with the CERP program and the platform will be in service for decades to come.

[krazmokramer]

Fabulous video! When my family moved to Wichita Kansas in 1962, our next door neighbor was Boeing's chief test pilot for the B-52 program. Our home was due north of the runway and B-52s flew over all day long. Test B-52s had fluorescent orange paint on the fuselage and the vertical stabilizer. If we were in the yard playing and our neighbor flew overhead as he was about to land, he would wag the wings at us to wave. It was so cool! Thanks for this interesting video!!

[williamepstein]

I was a crew chief on the B52G from 83 to 87 assigned to the 379th OMS Wurtsmith AFB. MI. I was on flight status and loved to sit in the IP seat between the pilot and co-pilot. Working on the BUFF was the best time of my life.

[jgarner]

When I was a small child, my kindergarten teacher was married to a B-52 pilot. For our field trip we were allowed on a USAF base and were allowed to crawl through the B-52 and the KC-135. The B-52 variant we were in still had the crew station in the rear with the quad .50's and it was tiny there. The coolest part of the trip though was the large matted surface in the KC-135 where the crewmember laid and looked out the windows to fly the boom.

[samuelweir]

I actually crawled through the detached tail end of a B-52 bomber in a jungle on Guam when I was a kid back around 1976 or so. I was surprised to see that the electronics in the tail there utilized small vacuum tubes. Such was the state-of-the-art in electronics back in those days.
How did the tail end of a B-52 end up in a jungle on Guam? That particular B-52 was actually out-of-service as a bomber and was used for firefighting practice at Andersen AFB on Guam while I was an AF brat there. Typhoon Pamela hit the base in 1976 and, along with other damage, blew the tail end of the old B-52 over the airfield fence and into the nearby jungle. I came across the tail end when I noticed it while biking on a nearby road and went to investigate it.