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B-52 bomber removed from 'boneyard' to return to service

Posted at 11:01 AM, May 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-16 14:01:36-04

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - A B-52H bomber built in the early 1960s and put into retirement in an U.S. Air Force "boneyard" in the Arizona desert over 10 years ago is returning to service.

A crew on Tuesday flew the plane nicknamed "Wise Guy" to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana from Tucson where it had been in a sprawling aircraft storage area at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

Officials said it was the bomber's first flight since 2008 and only the second time that a B-52H has taken from the storage area and returned to service.

It took months of work to make the bomber airworthy again, and additional restoration work is required to put it back in service.

The bomber will replace one destroyed in a 2016 fire at a base in Guam.