The B-52 is a jet powered, long range bomber which saw its maiden flight in 1952! 1952! That's just 49 years after the Wright Brothers first flew their little bi-plane and here it still flying 65 years later! The design is older than me - not by much though hahahahaha, I do like these big, bad, lumbering beasts and as you can see by Bettina's photos below, we see them here every so often flying right over the house. The photos are un-cropped and un-edited.
When I started collecting toys I began buying vintage tin-litho and plastic USAF aircraft and thought that would be it for me. However, of late it became apparent that if I wanted a representative sampling of USAF aircraft then 'vintage' was not always possible mostly because of costs or availability or simply because there are much newer aircraft in the inventory and they're certainly not old enough to be classified as 'vintage'. There are in fact some vintage B-52 toys out there but not that many it seems. Marx made a nice plastic one for their Strategic Air Command playset but they are very hard to find and pricey when you do. Soooo, the next best option is to find a modern era toy. Today's market has gone bat-shit crazy over high priced 'limited edition collectibles' so I was lucky enough to latch on to this diecast B-52 from China. It's just what I wanted. With that big 'ol clunky friction drive underneath and the loose fitting vertical stabilizer it is clearly a toy, not a highly detailed, über accurate collectible You can however tell just by looking at it that it's a Stratofortress and that works for me. It measures 7 1/2" (19.05cm) L x 8 1/2" (21.59cm) wingspan x 1 3/4" (4.44cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz an Oma Bettina
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