Artist in Person The B-52 bomber is immense; its wingspan is as wide as a football field. The "Stratofortress," as it is also known, casts a comparable shadow across fifty years of American history. An engineering achievement, it was designed quickly in 1947 to carry nuclear bombs. For the military it has been unusually enduring, used for Cold War security missions and, more notoriously and horrifically, in Vietnam (and post this film, in Afghanistan). Hartmut Bitomsky, best known for his documentary essays examining such icons as the highway, here examines the costly bomber as both a historical object and a cultural symbol, drawing on archival footage and interviews with crew members who love it, artists who recycle it, and museum staff who display it. Referring to Bitomsky's representation, the B-52 has been described as "an almost exemplary metaphor for the productivity of a nation that puts most of the surplus yielded by its labor, intelligence and latest findings into military machinery." (Berlinale) While most B-52s now line an Arizona desert, destined for scrap, there are plans to redesign it for another thirty years' service.