Maiden flight of B-52 bomber

In 1945 the United States decisively proved the next generation of weapons will not be conventional, but nuclear. Two Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers delivered two nuclear bombs over two cities of Japan, and it became obvious to everyone a new type of bomber was needed to fly across the oceans, at high altitudes, carrying just a few highly explosive bombs. The US Air Force turned for design to the aircraft manufacturer that developed most of their bombers in WW I and II, Boeing.

On this day, April 15, in 1952, the B-52 Stratofortress made its first experimental flight, from Boeing Field over Seattle, Washington. The pilot and co-pilot kept the plane airborne for 40 minutes, checking wings, flaps and landing gear before landing at Larson Air Force Base at Moses Lake, Washington.

Although designed to carry nuclear bombs and missiles, the B-52s achieved its ubiquity precisely for the opposite: its flexibility carrying many conventional munitions. Eight different versions the B-52 were built in all, with the last one, the B-52H, being the only one in use today. No new B-52s have been manufactured for well over half a century now, but they were in use as recently as the 2003 Iraq invasion, and still fly in with cruise missiles in support of Allied troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.