The B-52 Ghost Rider’s refurbishment, modernization, and restoration work were finished in 272 calendar days by Tinker’s 565th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.
The rare photos in this post showcase the first B-52H Stratofortress that the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) successfully recovered from long-term storage so that it could rejoin the fleet of operational strategic bombers.
The historic flight of tail number 61-0007 (referred to as “Ghost Rider” on its nose art), which took place at Tinker Air Force Base (AFB), on September 27, 2016, marked the end of the warbird’s 19-month transformation from a mothballed, 55-year-old, eight-engine jet parked in the Arizona desert to a fully updated conventional- and nuclear-capable aircraft. This information was provided by John Parker, 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs in the article ‘Ghost Rider’ in the sky: B-52 departs Tinker in historic flight.
The 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group at Tinker delivered the aircraft to Air Force Global Strike Command 90 days earlier than expected. At Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, Ghost Rider joined the 5th Bomb Wing.
“I am extremely proud of the team that was able to deliver Ghost Rider back to Air Force Global Strike Command,” said Brig. Gen. Mark Johnson, the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex commander. “This is really a testament to accomplishing the art of the possible. It shows that when there is a common goal, team members from across multiple organizations can rally behind the objective and deliver their team’s full impact to the project.”
In 272 calendar days, Tinker’s 565th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron finished the overhaul, modernization, and restoration work. In order to get Ghost Rider back into combat condition, maintainers, engineers, and support teams put in about 45,000 man-hours, according to Charles Alley, the 565th AMXS director at the time.
Before declaring the B-52 ready for delivery on September 13, 2016, Alley said Tinker’s 10th Flight Test Squadron pilots flew it six times to check system functionality and ensure a safe and reliable aircraft.
The jet required 7,000 more hours of maintenance than was typically planned to “get it up to speed with all the other B-52s in the fleet,” Alley said.
“I told people during a test flight that because the aircraft sat in the desert so long, we’re knocking all the ghosts out of it,” he said. “It seemed like every time it came back it had two or three different things wrong with it.”
In February 2015, B-52 flight commander Lt. Col. Darrel Hines of the 10th FTS flew the aircraft from Arizona to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, and participated in some of the final six functional test flights. The aircraft arrived at Tinker AFB on December 14, 2015, and maintenance and overhaul work started on December 31, 2015. The plane was supposed to be delivered on December 23, but it arrived 90 days earlier. The 309th AMARG, the OC-ALC, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and above all the maintainers, whose expert hands-on labor made the difference, were all lauded by Hines for their contributions to the restoration.
“This was a great team effort from multiple commands and it was a great success,” Hines said. “Now this plane is going to come out of Tinker back to the warfighter, and it’s going to be a huge asset to the guys going out in combat.”
Ghost Rider joined 75 other B-52Hs in the Air Force’s operational bomber fleet.
Photo by Kelly White and Greg L. Davis, / U.S. Air Force