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On this day in SAC aviation history …..

January 16, 2021

On 16 January 1957: Operation POWER FLITE. At 1:00 p.m. PST, five Boeing B-52B Stratofortress eight-engine jet bombers of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command, 93rd Bombardment Wing (Heavy), departed Castle Air Force Base, near Merced, California, on a non-stop around-the-world flight. 45 hours, 19 minutes later, three B-52s landed at March Air Force Base, Riverside, California, completing the 24,325 miles (39,147 kilometer) flight at an average speed of 534 miles per hour (859 kilometers per hour). Four inflight refuelings from piston-engine Boeing KC-97 Stratotankers were required and more than 100 KC-97s participated in Operation POWER FLITE.This record-breaking around the world flight was dramatized in the 1957 Warner Bros. movie “Bombers B-52,” which starred Natalie Wood, Karl Malden and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

Details

Date:
January 16, 2021
Series:

Venue

Wurtsmith Air Museum
4071 East Van Ettan Street
Oscoda, MI 48750 United States
Phone:
(989) 739-7555
View Venue Website