Boeing b-52

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is one of the most reliable warplanes in the United States arsenal. It has been in front-line service ever since its introduction in 1955 to the US Strategic Air Command as a nuclear deterrent to the USSR. Nuclear-armed B-52s would take off from Washington State at the height of the Cold War. They would fly over the US-Canadian border, refuelling over Newfoundland, fly along the edge of Baffin Island and turn around at 89 degrees north. Sealed in each cockpit was information need in case of a retalitory nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. The B-52s would refuel again over Alaska and head south along the Pacific Ocean/Canadian border. 24 hours after taking off, the bombers would land in Washington State. Fortunately the call never came for the B-52s to turn towards the Soviet Union to deliver the weapons of mass destruction. But in the 1960s, ICBMs and submarine launched ballistic missiles replaced the B-52 as a nuclear deterrent.