Two Near-Death Takeoffs in a B-52

By Jay Lacklen

By 1976, Air Force pilot Jay Lacklen had spent years flying one of the largest and most demanding aircraft in the U.S. inventory, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. In the excerpt below from his memoir Flying the Line: An Air Force Pilot’s Journey, he recalls two flights that nearly ended in disaster. One moment of danger occurred during takeoff from Loring Air Force Base in…