US Air Force On January 10, 1964, a B-52H bomber with the serial number 61-0023 took off from Kansas on a test mission to examine the effects of turbulence at varying altitudes and airspeeds. By the time the bomber landed in Arkansas hours later, its vertical stabilizer had been shorn off, and the Air Force had learned a lot more about what the B-52 could take. On January 10, 1964, Boeing civilian test pilot Chuck Fisher and his three man crew launched from Wichita, Kansas, for a mission aboard B-52H serial number 61-0023. The aircraft was involved in a test mission whose purpose was to examine the effects of turbulence at varying altitudes and airspeeds. In other words the aircrew would shake, rattle and roll the Stratofortress bomber at high speed and low altitude to record sensor data on how such conditions could affect the plane's airframe.