NASA on Friday retired the B-52B jet that served as the "mothership" for a half-century of flight research projects ranging from the X-15 rocket planes of the 1960s to the X-43A hypersonic jet that flew at nearly 10 times the speed of sound last month. The eight-engine bomber, which spent most of its career dropping airplanes and rockets instead of explosives, was praised by its pilots during a ceremony at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. "This airplane has played a pivotal role, yet largely unsung role, in many significant aeronautics and space flight programs," said Ed Schneider, a retired NASA research pilot who flew the big jet, which was usually referred to by the last three digits of its tail number - 008. The ceremony returned the plane to the Air Force, which will put it on display at Edwards, home to the Air Force Flight Test Center.
For decades the B-52 carried cutting-edge research vehicles aloft, attached to a pylon beneath a wing, for launch over the desert or ocean. Now, there is no specific program in sight that needs the capability. The jet first flew on June 11, 1955. It was used for the X-15 program from 1959-68, carried wingless "lifting bodies" aloft from 1966-75 in research that led to the space shuttle, and dropped remotely piloted aircraft in the 1970s and '80s. It also tested the parachute recovery system for space shuttle solid-rocket boosters and the drogue chute used to slow shuttles during landing. Former astronaut Gordon Fullerton, also an Air Force and NASA research pilot, flew the B-52's last research mission, launching the X-43A "scramjet" on its record-setting flight to Mach 9.6 in November. "To me, it's really a sad day, more like a funeral than a celebration, to realize that I'm not likely to crawl in 008 and go out for another flight," he said. "If you were to get in the cockpit now, and wanted to taxi away, you've got to start up 22 pieces of rotating machinery before you're ready to go - eight engines, 10 air-driven hydraulic packs, and four alternators. That's different than any airplane built before or since," he said. In all, the plane logged 1,051 flights and released 405 payloads. |