SOUTHWEST OKLAHOMA (KFOR) – An antique, dismantled aircraft made for an interesting landing spot on this cold, windy morning south of Mountain View, Okla.
But it didn’t fly here.
In fact, it hasn’t flown since 2008 when the ‘Damage Inc. II’ retired to Davis-Mantham Air Force Base in Arizona.
“Oversize, overweight, over everything,” one transportation crew member remarked.
On January 4, 2022, the old jet began a strange odyssey, headed for Oklahoma and Tinker Air Force Base.
“Up through Arizona and New Mexico,” he continues.
“We stopped by Roswell, N.M. and picked up a couple of visitors,” he smiles, pointing to a couple of space alien mannequins inside the cockpit.
Crews with a handful of different hauling companies have been slowly and quietly making their way across the country ever since, through small towns and quiet turnouts for good reason.
“All of that has to do with obtaining permits from states, cities and counties.”
Even stripped down, this fuselage is 190 feet long and 16 feet wide, making turns especially slow.
Trip planners don’t even call the thing that carries this cargo a trailer.
“The landing gear was removed and a cradle was built into the aircraft underneath it.”
Despite avoiding publicity, the ‘Damage Inc. II’ picked it up anyway.
Photos popped up on social media drawing occasional crowds, and even former crew members who served on her when she flew.
“Built in 1961,” our host tells us.
Once safely inside the Boeing facility at Tinker AFB, this old bird will become what company spokespeople call ‘a test prototype for modernization efforts.’
“It’s going to be a research platform in a climate-controlled facility,” he says.
Passing through Apache, Okla., on a Thursday morning when few were willing to venture outside for a look, an iconic aircraft made its way quietly through town.
The Air Force would like to keep its fleet of B-52s in the air for the next 30 years.
This one is destined to help from the ground up.
The Damage Inc. II was scheduled to arrive at Tinker sometime Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.
