The iconic and much-loved B-52H 'BUFF' Stratofortress is receiving its most significant upgrade in more than 50 years of operation with new engines, radar, sensors, and instrumentation. With the coming technology leap she's also going from a five to four-person crew. Bob Dylan told us: "The times they are a-changin'," and the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fella) is a poster child for the legendary lyrics. This is the inside story of how the mother of all heavy bombers will remain lethal for another 50 years even as it heads towards 100 years of service, and what it's like to fly her. The secret - one that has proven amazingly serendipitous for the US Air Force - is found in the annals of Cold War history. As the US and the USSR inched closer to nuclear confrontation in the aftermath of World War Two, the need to carry very large, very heavy nuclear weapons thousands of miles into enemy territory became paramount. These were the days before intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) existed and aircraft engineers on both sides of the Iron Curtain began to design fancifully huge bombers to carry fancifully huge atomic weapons.
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