Lot #46: Vintage Handcrafted All Wood USA B-52 Stratofortress

The B-52, also called Stratofortress, is a U.S. long-range heavy bomber designed by the Boeing Company in 1948, first flown in 1952, and first delivered for military service in 1955. Though originally intended to be an atomic-bomb carrier capable of reaching the Soviet Union, it has proved adaptable to a number of missions, and some B-52s are expected to remain in service well into the 21st century. The B-52 has a wingspan of 185 feet (56 meters) and a length of 160 feet 10.9 inches (49 meters). It is powered by eight jet engines mounted under the wings in four twin pods. The planes maximum speed at 55,000 feet (17,000 meters) is Mach 0.9 (595 miles per hour, or 960 km/hr); at only a few hundred feet above the ground, it can fly at Mach 0.5 (375 miles per hour, or 600 km/hr). It originally carried a crew of six, its sole defensive armament being a remotely controlled gun turret in the tail. In 1991 the gun was eliminated and the crew reduced to five.The huge airframe of the B-52 earned it the nickname Big Ugly Fat Fellow (BUFF), but it also allowed the plane to be retrofitted with highly sophisticated navigational, weapons-control, and electronic countermeasures systems. More than 70 B-52s