5 August 1954: The first production Boeing B-52A Stratofortress, B-52A-1-BO 52-001, made its first flight from Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington.
The B-52A differed from the XB-52 and YB-52 in that its cockpit was arranged for side-by-side seating, rather than the B-47-type tandem arrangement of the prototypes. It also had an inflight refueling system allowing it to receive fuel from an airborne KC-97 tanker.
52-001 was used as a service test aircraft along with sister ships 52-002 and 52-003. It was used to test the shorter vertical fin of the B-52G. It was permanently grounded at Chanute Air Force Base in the early 1960s.
© 2020, Bryan R. Swopes
What type and serial number was at Chanute AFB.
Ray: One source says B-52A-1-BO 52-001, another says B-52A-1-BO/XB-52G 52-002. It’s possible that both were there.
Brian: your info on the disposition of 52-0001 is wrong. It was not scrapped at Tinker in 1961. It was retired to Chanute AFB in 1959 and used as a maintenance trainer until it was purposely burned by the base fire department in a training exercise in the late 1960s. B-52A 52-0002 is the one scrapped at Tinker in 1961.
Thanks, Greg. I’ll correct the post.
The correct is B52 oo1 I worked on the the first 10 that came out at the Seattle plant I was on 002 for 5 years And worked on the rest when my 002 was flying.The X and Y were there also they had the B47 cock pit The Air force said no to that design the rest came out with the new cock pit we ejected dummy’s out of all the seats that is how the tail got cut off by 7 feet the E CM operator did not clear the tail on ejection I have lots of story’s to tell maybe another time
I thought the reason the vertical stabilizer was shortened on the G and H models was because of low level missions and wind shears related to it. I haven’t heard of the EWO ejection seats thing before.
So the BUFF can now receive full Social Security benefits, and still remain working for a living. For at least another 17 years, last I heard.
2050 is the most recent extension for G & H.
You have some good info on the planes that we didn’t know,sure was interesting to read about them.
Thank you, Joyce.
I loved watching these beautiful large beasts do touch and go’s on the flight-line while stationed at Mather AFB in the early 80s.