VIVAERO

B-52 Emerges In Striking Retro Orange Paint Scheme

Oklahoma aviation photographer Rob Stephens recently captured some great images of a B-52H Stratofortress with the tail number 61-0028 as it was leaving Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma bound for Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. But this was not your ordinary ‘BUFF.’

Instead of the typical gray paint scheme, the jet, nicknamed “Wolfpack,” sported DayGlo orange highlights on its forward fuselage, towards its wingtips, on its engine nacelles, and its vertical stabilizer. This striking paint scheme was done as a nod to the days when B-52A and B variants served as motherships for the North American X-15 experimental hypersonic rocket plane that the U.S. Air Force and NASA used for research purposes during the 1960s, among other mothership testing, Stephens told us.

The B-52 “arrived at Tinker in early 2024 for Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM) at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center,” said Stephens, whose Redhome Aviation page features some stunning aircraft photos, including of the retro-painted Stratofortress. 

Tinker is where the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group paint shop removed the old paint “before the 565th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron performed detailed inspections and repairs to the 1960s-era bomber,” Stephens explained.

After the PDM was completed, the B-52 “was flown on Aug. 26 by the 10th Flight Test Squadron, 413th Test Group, Air Force Reserve Command on a functional check flight lacking most of her paint,” according to the photographer.

As of 2021, each one of the service’s 76 B-52s was typically scheduled to undergo the months-long PDM process every four years. This scheduling is, of course, staggered to keep a certain number of bombers on active duty at any one time.

Early indications of Wolfpack’s new paint scheme “was her DayGlo orange rudder on her test flight, before the 76th AMXG repainted the aircraft in the standard gray with the DayGlo orange highlights” you see in the photo. 

The airframe was first flown with the new paint on Sept. 30 as “Lobo49” and “returned to the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Barksdale, where she will receive her ‘OT’ and ‘49 TES’ tail markings, as well as an arrow on the tail and ‘U.S Air Force’ on her forward fuselage,” Stephens added.