The Air Force pulls a B-52 from the 'Boneyard,' and you won't believe what they did with it next

Plane to replace damaged bomber in Louisiana

For the first time in aircraft's history, the U.S. Air Force has brought a B-52 bomber back to life from the Boneyard of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Nicknamed "Ghost Rider," this 53-year-old bomber had sat in the Arizona desert since 2008, along with thousands of other retired aircraft that are stored there. The desert's dry climate helps preserve these planes, while some are used for replacement parts, others sit in storage until needed again.

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While Ghost Rider remains mostly active, the heat did damage to the tires and non-metal components of the fuel system. These were replaced completely, and the plane's engines were tested in earlier this year.

After 70 days of being worked on, the B-52 flew on February 13, just three hours to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, its new home.

Col. Keith Schultz, who has over 6,500 hours flying B-52s and is the most experienced active pilot for that aircraft in the Air Force, was in charge of the flight.

"I've been flying B-52s since the '80s and it surprised me that after almost seven years . she cranked up just fine and we had no issues with the flight control systems," he said.

Schultz flew with only two other people, a co-pilot and navigator, the minimum crew number, usually this heavy bomber has a crew of five.

For safety, Ghost Rider made the trip with its landing gear down, at a height of 23,000 feet and a speed of 288 miles-per-hour. Well under its ceiling of 50,000 feet and top speed of 650 miles-per-hour.

Having been recently brought from retirement, the plane lacked some equipment that modern pilots rely on.

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"We were fortunate to have had good weather the entire trip as the inertial and navigational equipment had not been installed," Schultz said.

An Air Force report released in May of 2014 showed that 76 Stratofortresses were operational in the United States military. Of these, 58 are in the Air Force, and another 18 are in the Air Force Reserve.

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