TODAY IN AVIATION HISTORY - NOVEMBER 16, 2004 - Boeing NB-52B “mothership”

During its final flight, Balls 8, the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center's Boeing NB-52B "mothership" (based at Edwards Air Force Base, California), makes a farewell flyover. 52-008 was the oldest B-52 Stratofortress in the US Air Force inventory, as well as the B-52 Stratofortress with the shortest operational time.

(Boeing RB-52B-10-BO) The Stratofortress 52-008 was manufactured in Seattle, Washington, and took to the skies for the first time on June 11, 1955. It was given to NASA on June 8, 1959, to be used as a launch vehicle for the X-15 rocketplane.

On January 23, 1960, 52-008 flew an X-15 for the first time. Balls 8 hauled the X-15s aloft on 159 flights, dropping them 106 times, sharing the mothership duties with the previous NB-52A 52-003.