The need for the B-52 to be on duty in the air with atomic weapons was caused by the next exacerbation of the Cold War at the turn of the 50-60s, as well as the too long flight time of aircraft to the Union facilities.
The Americans had to keep planes with atomic weapons in the air in the event of a surprise Russian strike. The first such program was Head Start. General Thomas Powers proposed the program; he divided it into three phases.
In accordance with the first phase, the pilots were trained at home airfields. In the second phase, bombers were transferred to the Bergstom airfield in Texas in the hope that it was out of reach of Russian atomic weapons. In the final phase of operation, the B-52, equipped with thermonuclear weapons, flew again to the Loring airfield and left for a 20-hour flight over Northern Canada and Greenland.
The Head Start program ran from October to December 1958, during which time the planes took to the skies with a 6-hour break for rest and maintenance. Everything worked for wear: equipment, and airfield personnel, and bombers. After six such "expeditions", the B-52 had to be put on almost overhaul - all this resulted in serious expenses for the budget.
Nevertheless, the Americans resumed dangerous travel with thermonuclear weapons on board as early as 1960 as part of the Chrome Dome program. The operation was significantly expanded - by bribery and outright blackmail, it was possible to convince the leaders of Iceland, Portugal, Spain and Denmark (Greenland) to allow the flight of aircraft with atomic weapons on board over the territories of their countries. Moreover, at the airfields of these European countries, they placed flying tankers for refueling, and also prepared the infrastructure for emergency landings of the B-52.
B-52 flight routes involved in the "Chromed Dome"
In the new plan, the routes of the bombers' flights were changed - one of them began from air bases in the states of Oregon and Washington and passed along the Pacific coast of Canada to Alaska. In this square, the cars were refueled in the air with the help of KS-135A and went in the direction of the Arctic Ocean, closer to Russia. Then the planes maneuvered, turned around, refueled again over Alaska and went back to the airfields. The US Air Force made two such flights every day! There was a second route, which started from Maine or New York, ran in the Baffin Land (Canada), after which the B-52s turned around, poured fuel in flight south of the Great Lakes and headed towards the east coast of Greenland. Four planes in a row were sent on such duty every day!
Bombers came closest to the USSR along the southernmost route, which was the most dangerous. Every day, six B-52s rose from the Atlantic coast of the United States, entered the Mediterranean Sea through Gibraltar over Portugal or from the Bay of Biscay over Spain. Further, their work consisted of being on duty over the Adriatic in anticipation of an attack signal. At the end of 1964, the Americans did not think this was enough and they paved another route, which ran around Newfoundland, over the Sunderstorm and Thule airfields (Greenland), then turn to the west, around the Queen Elizabeth's skeleton, another maneuver south over Alaska, followed by a return to the airfield Sheppard.
The Americans' atomic weapons games aboard bombers eventually led to an incident dated January 23, 1961. Then the B-52G board # 58-187 went on the next watch.
For the first hours, everything went well until the bomber approached the KC-135 tanker for refueling over Canada. The refueling system operator notified the bomber crew that fuel was pouring from the right wing console. The tanker urgently undocked, and the commander of the B-52, Major Talloch, assessing the scale of the loss of fuel, decided to return to the home airfield. But due to the loss of 17 tons of kerosene from the right console, the plane began to roll perceptibly to the left side, and at an altitude of 2,700 meters, the commander ordered the crew to leave the falling vehicle. Co-pilot Adam Mattoks managed to get out through the top hatch and safely descended by parachute. But navigator Major Shelton, EW operator Major Richards and gunner Sergeant Barnish were unlucky, and they died along with the bomber, which carried two Mk.39 thermonuclear bombs, 2.5 megatons each.
Captain Talloch, obviously in panic, did not drop bombs in the "no explosion" mode, as required by the instructions, and two atomic babies fell near the town of Goldsboro, almost repeating the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on a multiple scale. In one, the parachute opened in flight and three out of four cocking stages worked. Sheer luck prevented the Mk.39 from detonating over North Carolina. The second bomb fell to the ground without a parachute (it did not work) and at a speed of more than 1000 km / h entered a deep swamp, in which it collapsed into separate fragments. They did not get it completely and left a small amount of radioactive materials at a depth of 6 meters. The most curious thing: according to one of the versions, the explosions did not occur due to the switched off circuit breaker for high-voltage ammunition circuits. That is, even in the case of the combat use of the Mk. 39 would have fallen to the ground like steel blanks.
Analysis of the wreckage with Boeing specialists revealed serious fatigue damage to the wing with a fairly modest bomber raid. And in other B-52Gs, experts found similar cracks, which forced the manufacturer to conduct an emergency "recall campaign." The wing consoles were replaced with reinforced versions, the flight range of the vehicle and the fuel reserve were reduced.
But such a catastrophe did not stop the Americans from their desire to keep their finger on the nuclear button - flights with dangerous cargo continued. Already on March 14, 1961, the second B-52F was killed while trying to refuel, "dropping" two thermonuclear bombs in California, 24 kilometers from the city of Yuba City. The entire crew escaped in this incident, but a firefighter died in the fire at the crash site. The bombs fell on the fuse, which saved California.
B-52 is the main character of the story
After a two-year lull, on January 13, 1964, B-52D # 55-060, following the southern route of the Chromed Dome, found itself in a zone of frenzied turbulence. As a result, the aircraft's keel collapsed and the aircraft fell into the snow on a meadow at Stonewell Green Farm (Myersdale, Pennsylvania) with two Mk.53s on board. Three crew members died on the spot, and the United States once again found itself on the brink of a new, already larger nuclear disaster. It is noteworthy that a test flight was carried out three days earlier to assess the strength of the B-52 structure in turbulence. And in this case, the keel of the bomber also fell off, but the test pilot managed to land the plane, in contrast to the combatant colleague.
Analyzing the scattered information, we can say that at the end of 1964, another B-52 with thermonuclear bombs crashed at Bunker Hill airbase in Indiana, but the US military does not confirm this information.
Flying tanker KC-135
But the disaster over the coast of Spain on June 18, 1966, when a bomb carrier collided with a tanker, is known to many. The B-52G aircraft under the command of Captain Charles Wendorf took to the skies on the night of June 17, hiding four thermonuclear Mk. 28RI. It was the usual, now routine, southern route of the Chromed Dome over Gibraltar and patrolling off the east coast of Italy. In case of war, the aircraft commander receives a coded signal, and the aircraft breaks through the air defense of the Soviet Union for a short time, dropping its cargo.
As in all previous missions, the signal did not arrive, and the B-52G went on a return course on the morning of 18 June. At 10:30 am, the KC-135A tanker approached it from the Spanish Moron airbase at an altitude of 9450 m. The bomber, as usual, settled down in the tail of the tanker and waited passively for the neck of the refueling rod to dock with the receiver behind the cockpit. However, the speeds were not synchronized, and the refueling operator in the KC-135A did not track the trajectory of the boom in time, and it cut the fuselage skin along with the wing spar. As a result, the fuel in the KC-135A tanks immediately flared up, and the tanker turned into a ball of fire, killing all four crew members. The bomber also fatally got it, but three crew members managed to eject (one of the parachute did not open), and two died along with the plane.
One of the lost "Spanish" atomic bombs, which was later found at a depth of 880 meters.
The remains of military equipment fell into the sea and on the coast of the town of Palomares in Andalusia. All surroundings were cordoned off, the code signal Broken Arrow sounded, and the American specialists began to search for the debris of the bombs. The first one was found intact by a local resident (!), And in two plutonium lenses were detonated, infecting an area of 2 square meters. km. The Americans removed the soil from this area and took it to them in barrels. The fourth bomb was found much later at a depth of 880 meters.
The “chrome dome” was dismantled a few months later, but not at all for fear of new losses. The United States has a global missile warning radar system. It detected the launch of any missile on the planet and gave the military leadership an almost forty-minute margin of time for a retaliatory strike.
According to the publication "Science and Technology"
