B-52

fr8tmastr

Senior
Aug 20, 2002
482
46
I was watching a tv show about the B-52 and I noticed the side of the fuselage had wavy skin just before the wing root. One of the pilots commented about it. My question is why are they their? is it desinged that way for some reason or was it just something going wrong during assembly? Any buff drivers out there know the answer?
 
The wrinkled skin near the wings is there by design. When the aircraft becomes airborne and the full weight of the BUFF is supported by the wings, they flex up to 18 feet upwards at the wing tips. This movement throughout the entire span will smooth out those wrinkles without putting excessive stress on the skin itself. A rather ingenious design when you consider that the original B-52 development plan was on the drawing board during the late 1940s. [:)]
 
speedbird, thanks for the info. Fascinating stuff, it is amazing how they did all that with a sliderule and ingenuity. not only that the Buff is still going strong.
 
Fascinating stuff, it is amazing how they did all that with a sliderule and ingenuity. not only that the Buff is still going strong.

What's even more amazing is that the "sliderule and ingenuity" gang came up with the SR-71.

I was in elementary school in Orlando during the Cuban Missle Crisis. The B52's were constantly flying out of McCoy AFB and the teachers pretty much could only talk in spurts since the planes flew over so frequently - they couldn't talk over the noise.
 
I miss The Buff's. Growing up in CNY we saw them all the time flying out of Griffiss. There was a radar test site a few miles from my house and they would do low passes making the whole house shake. Back when airplanes were LOUD.