B-52B test plane flies final mission

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The record-setting speed by the X-43A experimental scramjet engine on Tuesday marked the final operational mission for NASA's B-52B test aircraft.

"This was the last research mission for NASA's B-52," said X-43A project manager Joel Sitz. "It's been a great airplane. I couldn't think of a better airplane to carry us for our final mission."

Former astronaut Gordon Fullerton, who commanded the final research flight, said, "It was a very smooth operation. The airplane was flawless -- the experiment and the rocket. [I] just went down the checklist all the way to throwing the switch.

"Bittersweet's the word," Mr. Fullerton said of piloting the last flight. "It's been [the carrier for] a lot of different projects in the years I've been here. Very satisfying to be able to support them, but to realize that there aren't anymore is sad."

The B-52B was built in 1952, one of the first B-52 bombers off the assembly line, but has never dropped a bomb on any enemy target. Instead, it has been used as a research aircraft carrying a variety of test aircraft, prototype spacecraft and operational air-launched vehicles.

The Air Force used the B-52B for tests for several years, then turned it over to NASA in 1959.

Although it's the oldest B-52 still flying, it has been flown the least because it was used only for test flights. The aircraft has clocked only 2,450 flight hours in its 52 years in operation. Including checkout flights, it has made only about 1,050 takeoffs and landings -- an average of just one two-hour flight every two weeks over its five decades in use. Though it's rarely flown, those flights are important engineering tests.

The main modification to the B-52 is a pylon under its right wing, where the test aircraft is mounted, and a V-shaped notch in the wing to provide enough room for the tails of the test aircraft.

NASA's first use for the B-52 was the X-15 rocket plane program, the only time a winged rocket with a pilot aboard has ever reached hypersonic speeds and, until recently, the only rocket plane to reach high enough altitude for its pilots to qualify for astronaut wings.

The B-52 has been used as the carrier aircraft for a variety of experimental aircraft drop tests to check out parachutes for the shuttle's solid-fuel rocket boosters, unmanned drones and other vehicles.