Test pilot Charles F. “Chuck” Fisher flew the B-52 to Blytheville AFB, Arkansas, where the wind was straight down the runway, and an approach could be made over an unpopulated area
Since entering service in 1955, the B-52 Stratofortress has served as the primary long-range heavy bomber for the Strategic Air Command. Its first flight took place on April 15, 1952, and by the time production stopped in October 1963, nearly 750 aircraft had been built.
Over more than five decades of service, the B-52 has set numerous records. On January 18, 1957, three B-52Bs completed the first non-stop, around-the-world jet flight, a 45-hour-and-19-minute mission that required only three aerial refuelings. A B-52 was also the aircraft used for the first air-dropped hydrogen bomb test over Bikini Atoll on May 21, 1956.
As shown in the photos and video in this post, a B-52 has even managed to land without its tail.
On January 10, 1964, a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress equipped with test instruments by Boeing-Wichita was being flown to study the effects of buffeting turbulence on aircraft.
The crew, led by test pilot Charles F. “Chuck” Fisher, was on an eight-hour test flight, checking indicated airspeeds of 280, 350, and 400 knots while flying over mountainous terrain at just 500 feet above the ground.
As turbulence intensified during the mission, they decided to abort the test and climb to 14,000 feet. At that altitude, a sudden five-second burst of clear air turbulence violently shoved the aircraft to the right and sideways, tearing off the vertical fin. As told by Walter J. Boyne in his book Boeing B-52: A Documentary History, Fisher said it felt like a sharp, heavy blow, followed by several more impacts. The aircraft immediately snapped into a rapid roll to the left, with the nose pitching up and swinging quickly to the right. Fisher pulled the power back to idle, and the B-52 pitched nose-down.
He then applied full opposite control inputs, but nothing happened because the rudder pedals were jammed. By deploying the airbrakes, Fisher managed to slow the aircraft to 210 knots. With 80 degrees of wheel deflection, he was finally able to hold the bomber in a roughly level flight.
The next three hours required extremely delicate flying. Although the crew understood how critical it was to bring the instrumented aircraft back intact—so the data from an incident that had already caused other crashes could be recovered—they didn’t know whether the damage might worsen at any moment and cause them to lose control entirely.
Veteran test pilot Dale Felix took off in a North American F-100 to serve as the chase plane. After joining up with the B-52 and examining the damage, he heard Fisher say, “We’ve slowed down to 220 knots, we’re stable, and I’m going to handle it pretty carefully.” Felix responded, “Chuck, that’s a good idea,” and then informed him, “All of your rudder and most of your vertical fin are gone.”
According to Boyne, there was a brief pause before Fisher asked, “Don’t I even have 50%?” Felix answered, “No, you don’t have 50%.” In reality, only about 15% of the fin was still there.
The aft main landing gear was extended to help regain some lateral directional stability.
The crew prepared to eject, but Fisher and co-pilot Dick Curry decided they would attempt to land the bomber. They carefully flew it to Blytheville Air Force Base (AFB) in Arkansas, where the wind aligned with the runway and the approach path passed over an unpopulated area. Fisher landed with the flaps up. He later recalled, “The landing was not my best one, but the airplane was drifting left off the runway, and the only way to stop it was to get it on the ground.”
Data recorded by the instrumented B-52 revealed that, while some structural refinements were possible, no aircraft could be guaranteed safe in the most extreme cases of clear air turbulence. The most effective safeguard was to plan flights in ways that avoided such conditions.
The video below is an Aerospace Flight Safety report produced by the US Air Force (USAF), presenting a detailed account of the incident, supported by footage from the chase aircraft and ground-based cameras.
Boeing B-52: A Documentary History is published by Schiffer Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo by U.S. Air Force
