It was a beautiful airplane. The flew out of Barksdale AFB back in the day and split the air with their power on takeoff. It was one of the most earth shaking, heart pounding events of my youth to see them go out. Just can’t express how it felt to see and hear them.
A 52 is simply lumbering by comparison. A magnificent airplane in its own right but still a high speed truck.
The fuselage looks similar to a B1.
It was a product of the discovery of area ruling. Its sexy lines came from that. Its speed came from that. Its maintenance difficulties came from that.
There are those who assert that it never spent a total of 24 hours on cocked alert in its service.
Others disagree, citing that it could have been ready to fly, they just had a few things that had to get done first.