George Schairer and Team

Boeing began designing a new strategic bomber for the United States Air Force in 1946. 2 years later, after many design changes to accommodate evolving performance requirements, Boeing’s aerodynamics chief, George Schairer, and fellow engineers Art Carlsen, Vaughn Blumenthal, Ed Wells, Bob Withington and Maynard Pennell, produced the near-final design of the B-52 in a 5-day marathon session at the Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton Ohio.

 Boeing B-52 Stratofortress Camouflage

Nearly 70 years after its first flight, the B-52 Stratofortress continues to fly with the USAF, the only air force ever to operate it. Originally designed as a strategic nuclear bomber, the B-52 was employed during the Vietnam War as a conventional bomb platform. Flying from bases in Thailand and Guam, and over jungle terrain, the “BUFF” received the standard USAF Southeast Asia camouflage. In the Vietnam War, the B-52 became both an American political hammer and a symbol of North Vietnamese defiance.

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