That is not necessarily bad Jerry. the B52 skin locally buckles on
    the ground.
    The B52 is almost as old as I am :) You can stop the oil canning by
    gluing
    Styrofoam to the inner skins. The theory is; let the skin buckle in
    compression
    as it then takes the load in tension. Since the skin is the heaviest
    part of the
    structure it pays to use thin skins.

    Anybody know what the skin thickness is on the Zenair 801 in the
    cowl area?

    Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.



    Is that really a true photo of a normal B52 on the ground?  Or has it
fatigued due to stress and g's?  Can't imagine the AF flying them like
this.  Looks more like it may be an exhibit aircraft somewhere.  Taken
out of context.

Hal

Yes it is. No it is not fatigued.

There are many photos of B52's that look like that. It is easy to find them on the www.
Those are operational airplanes.

The structural theory is explained in the bible of aluminum aircraft structural design called
Analysis & Design of Flight Vehicle Structures by Bruhn. See page C11.7 shear load carried by web.

http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Design-Flight-Vehicle-Structures/dp/0961523409

In later years it acquired a name Pure Diagonal Tension or PDT.
This page from a tech paper is a good summary.