B-52 Stratofortress
ICAO B52A bomber designed in the 1940s that will still be flying in the 2050s. Live B-52 Stratofortress positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No B-52 Stratofortress is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Boeing
- Role
- Strategic bomber
- Class
- L8J — Landplane, 8 jet engines
- Crew
- 5
- First flight
- 15 April 1952
- In service
- 1955
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the B-52 Stratofortress
The B-52 is the oldest aircraft design in front-line service anywhere and, extraordinarily, the one with the longest future ahead of it. The last airframe was built in 1962; the re-engined B-52J is planned to serve into the 2050s, which would give individual aircraft a century of service.
It appears on ADS-B more than most people expect. Bomber Task Force deployments send B-52s across the Atlantic and Pacific to exercise with allies, and those transits are flown through civil airspace with transponders on. A B-52 crossing the North Atlantic is usually visible for most of the way.
Once it arrives, visibility stops. Exercise sorties and anything operational are flown without ADS-B, so the type appears in bursts around deployments rather than continuously.
Callsign prefixes
- DOOM
- A long-standing B-52 block, frequently seen on transits
- JOLLY
- Another recurring bomber callsign
- RCH
- Reach — occasionally on Air Mobility Command-coordinated moves
How to recognise it
- —Eight engines in four underwing pairs. Nothing else flying has this.
- —An enormous swept wing that visibly droops on the ground and flexes upward in flight.
- —A tall fin and a bicycle undercarriage under the fuselage rather than under the wings.
Common questions
+ How old is the B-52?
The design first flew in 1952 and the last aircraft was delivered in 1962. Every B-52 flying today is over sixty years old, and the planned re-engining is intended to keep them in service into the 2050s.
+ Do B-52s show up on flight trackers?
On transits, often. Bomber Task Force deployments cross the Atlantic and Pacific through civil airspace with transponders on. Operational and exercise sorties generally do not transmit, so sightings come in bursts.
+ Why has the B-52 outlasted newer bombers?
It is cheap to fly, carries an enormous load a long way, and never needed to be stealthy for the missions it actually gets. The supersonic B-1 and stealthy B-2 are both more expensive per hour and both have smaller fleets.