B52s still flying

Boeing Co.’s B-52 bomber plane, which first flew in 1952, is still flying missions for the Air Force. There are 76 B-52s in the U.S. arsenal – down from 744 in the plane’s heyday – with plans for them to keep flying until 2040. Now engineers and technicians are working on a contract worth up to $11.9 billion to bring the B-52 fleet into the 21st century. The most recent variant of the plane, built from 1960 to 1962, has undergone more than 30 major modifications. A sampling: