The YB-52 Stratofortress bomber prototype makes its maiden flight from a Boeing facility in Seattle. Company pilot A.M. “Tex” Johnston is at the controls. Seventy-three years later, the aircraft is still flying and projected to stay in service for more than a century.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.