Boeing B-52C Stratofortress - First production B-52C-1-BO (U .S.A.F. serial 53-400) banks over to show off the new 40-ft. long auxiliary fuel tanks which are in keeping with the giant proportions of the Stratofortress. Span is 185 ft.; length 156 ft. 6 in . ; and wing area, 4,000 sq. ft. The loaded weight is over 400,000 lb., and the eight 10,900-lb. S.t . P. & W. J57-P15s permit a maximum speed of 650 m.p.h. and cruising altitude in excess of 50,000 ft . To date the U.S.A.F. Strategic Air Command has received some eighty of the 500 Stratofortresses scheduled to be built before the close of 1957. The first S.A.C. Combat Wing to be equipped' with B-52s (B-52As and B-52Bs) is the 93rd Bombardment Wing (Heavy). Many of the B-series will operate as reconnaissance-bomber RB-52Bs. Current production is concentrated on the longer range B-52C-BO (BO - Boeing, Seattle) and the similar B-52D-BW (BW - Boeing, Wichita, Kansas). Range varies from 3,000 miles with 75,000-lb. bomb load (6,000 miles with 25.000 lb.) to the RB-52's 8,500 miles. First flight (YB-52 - seriaI 49-231) was on 15th April , 1952. Present cost of a B-52 is in excess of ?2 1/4 million.
Latest Canberra to go into squadron service is the B(I)6; this production example, WT314, is one of the machines issued to No. 213 Squadron.
For its appearance at the First Round national air races, held at Yeadon during May, the little Chilton monoplane G-AFSV had been re-engined with a 60-h .p. Mikron engine, instead of a 44-h.p. Train.
