On Jan. 10, 1964, a B-52H flown by Boeing civilian test pilot Chuck Fisher and his three man crew lost its tail at about 14,000 ft over northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Christo Mountains.
The aircraft was involved in a test mission whose purpose was to shake, rattle and roll the Stratofortress bomber at high speed and low altitude to record sensor data on how such a profile could affected the plane’s airframe.
The crew did their job: the vertical stabilizer detached from the B-52.
Six hours later, with support from the ground, Fisher successfully performed the first and only Stratofortress‘s tailless landing!
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
The Jolly Green II was quietly deployed to the Horn of Africa immediately after reaching the Initial Operational Capability. Back in September 2022, the newest U.S. Air Force combat rescue helicopter, the HH-60W Jolly Green […]
The unusual Sunday exercise saw the participation of F-16s armed with live air-to-air weapons. The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy performed a joint exercise in the Black Sea on Aug. 2, 2020 focusing on […]
U.S. Air Force Capt. Spencer G. Weide and Capt. Justin J. Newman are the first USAF operational pilots to fly the Lightning II aboard an amphibious assault ship. While not operating the STOVL (Short Take […]
