Air Force resurrects B-52 bomber from Arizona base
Feb 24, 2015, 9:04 AM | Updated: 10:27 am
The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz. houses more than 300 aircraft, but it lost one recently to a base in Louisiana.
The U.S. Air Force has resurrected a B-52 Bomber held there and moved it to Shreveport, La., CNN reported Monday.
Davis-Monthan is home to retired aircraft, such as a 1962 Stratofortress nicknamed “Ghost Rider.”
The Air Force uses the Boneyard for its dry desert air, which assists in preservation of the planes.
But Ghost Rider is back on duty.
Once that work was done, the plane’s engines were tested again in January. On February 13, Ghost Rider flew again, a three-hour flight from Davis-Monthan to its new home, Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The resurrection process took 70 days, according to the Air Force report
“I’ve been flying the B-52s since the ’80s and it surprised me that after almost seven years … she cranked up just fine and we had no issues with the flight control systems,” Col. Keith Schultz said in the Air Force report after piloting the eight-engine jet on the 1,000-mile flight.
Schultz, who with more than 6,500 hours flying B-52s is the most experienced active pilot of that aircraft in the service, led a co-pilot and a navigator, the minimum three-person crew, on the flight to Louisiana. The B-52 would normally fly with a crew of five.
Last year, the Air Force said nearly 80 Stratofortresses were in fleet, with nearly 60 active.
