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The two B-52 tail gunner kills were not confirmed by VPAF, and they admitted to the loss of only three MiGs, all by F-4s. [182] Vietnamese sources have attributed a third air-to-air victory to a B-52, a MiG-21 shot down on 16 April 1972. [183] These victories make the B-52 the largest aircraft credited with air-to-air kills.
The pilot ejected but was hit by a falling hatch after he ejected and fatally injured. The tail gunner bailed out too low and hit the ground before his parachute opened. [59] [60] [61] Among the dead was a lieutenant colonel just days from retirement, and the squadron clerk, on his first B-52 orientation ride. [62] B-52 crash site at Kadena AFB.
May 2007 photo of the Boeing RB-52B-5-BO Stratofortress 52–005 with tail colour for the Yellowtails Squadron – 330th BS/93rd BW. Initially retired to Davis-Monthan AFB in February 1966, was used as a maintenance trainer at Lowry Technical Training Center until April 1982.
U.S. forces claimed eight MiGs were shot down during the operation, including two by B-52 tail gunners. [ 102 ] [ 103 ] The two B-52 tail gunner kills were not confirmed by VPAF, and they admitted to the loss of only three MiGs.
The B-52 was not designed for this kind of operation. 56-0591, a B-52D, took off from Larson AFB, Washington, on 23 June 1959 and experienced a horizontal stabilizer turbulence-induced failure at low level and crashed. The modification process of the B-52 series began in 1961. [5]
Fortunately, the B-52 has multiple engines, but it’s a reminder that the US military is still relying on an aircraft first flown in the 1950s that has outlasted the Cold War by more than 30 years.
Low-level B-52 missions were typically flown at 300 to 500 ft (91 to 152 m) above ground level. Some of the aircraft stationed at Westover were loaned to other bases during the late 1960s and early 1970s, due to SAC use of later model B-52s in combat in Southeast Asia, beginning with Operation Rolling Thunder in March 1965.
Nicholas Stephen Alkemade (10 December 1922 – 22 June 1987) was a British tail gunner in the Royal Air Force during World War II who survived a freefall of 18,000 feet (5,490 m) without a parachute after abandoning his out-of-control, burning Avro Lancaster heavy bomber over Germany.