ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN, Maine (AP) â?? Flying low over snowy terrain on a Cold War training mission, Lt. Col. Dan Bulli's massive B-52 bomber hit turbulence that shook the plane so violently that he couldn't read the gauges. Pulling back on the yoke and pushing forward on the throttle, he tried to fly out of the severe wind. Then there was a loud bang.
Moving at about 325 mph, the unarmed bomber banked, nose down, toward the unforgiving winter wilderness below. Unable to control the plane, Bulli signaled for the crew to eject.
They had seconds to save themselves.
Today, the B-52 Stratofortress is a legendary aircraft, one of the longest-serving in U.S. military history, even flying missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The planes will remain in service for years to come. But it would not have become the workhorse it is without one disastrous flight 50 years ago next week, and a similar one six days later in New Mexico, that helped to underscore a deadly structural weakness.
"When you're flying combat aircraft, you're pushing your aircraft to the edge" to simulate combat, said Jeff Underwood, historian for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio. "It's very dangerous and the air crew knows it."
