The Cold War-era deterrence strategy. The plane has the longest range of any contemporary bomber and is capable of carrying up to 70,000 pounds of conventional or nuclear weapons.Air Force Link: Factsheets : B-52 StratofortressFederation of American Scientists: B-52 StratofortressBoeing: B-52 Stratofortress

The original B-52, designed in 1946, was planned to be a six-engine propeller plane. On October 21, 1948, the U.S. Air Force instructed the design team to redesign the plane as a jet. They reportedly closeted themselves in a hotel room in Dayton, Ohio over the next weekend and produced a balsa model of an eight-engine jet, which became the basis for the production model of the B-52.Boeing History: B-52 Stratofortress

A B-52 participating in Guam's Liberation Day celebration crashed in the Pacific on Monday, July 21, 2008.Radio Australia: Confirmation Three Killed in Military Crash off Guam (July 22, 2008) The search switched from rescue to recovery on July 23, when the U.S. military recovered two bodies, and announced that they did not expect that any of the six crew members had survived.Radio Australia: US Military Abandons Search for Guam Crash Survivors (July 23, 2008)/ref