How a B-52 bomber lost its entire tail in mid-air and somehow still landed

On January 10, 1964, a B-52H Stratofortress on a Wichita test flight experienced an extraordinary tail loss. The bomber, serial 61-0023, carried 20 accelerometers and 200 sensors, but its vertical stabilizer, weighing about 2,000 pounds, tore away at 14,300 feet and 345 knots. The crew feared an unrecoverable loss, yet the pilot Chuck Fisher found partial control and continued, defying expectations. A nearby KC-135 escorted the damaged aircraft while Boeing engineers guided a real-time landing plan. Fisher landed at Blytheville Air Force Base in Arkansas after five hours aloft without a tail. The airframe was repaired, returned to service, and retired in 2008; it now sits on Davis-Monthan's celebrity row.