I turn the page and see something new. America coming home!
The problem with going to four engines on the BUFF is that the control surfaces can’t handle the asymetric stresses of an engine out scenario.
That’ll put an end to the joke;
There’s a story about the military pilot calling for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running “a bit peaked.”
Air Traffic Control told the fighter jock that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down.
“Ah,” the fighter pilot remarked, “The dreaded seven-engine approach.”
You would think that by now metal fatigue would be an issue in the B-52 after 60 years. Too bad we don’t invest in building a new version heavy bomber without all the bells and whistles like stealth. Couldn’t a basic civilian plane like the Boeing 777 be adapted as a heavy hauler?
Having grown up on Barksdale AFB, a BUFF with 4 engines just wouldn’t look right. But I’d like to see it.
We should build a new B-52 type bomber. Essentially a bomb sled capable of delivering 50,000 lbs. of ordnance into an area where we have air supremacy and no advanced ground-to-air systems are present. It should be capable of a 5,000 mile unrefueled combat radius. Subsonic with efficient high-bypass engines. Forget about stealth and concentrate on aerodynamic efficiency. Integral electronic warfare with EO/IR, SAR, and laser targeting suites.
Not a strategic nuclear delivery platform, but rather a tactical heavy bomber. Of course, the USAF would have to call it an F-52 or whatnot in order to pretend that they don't fly attack missions.
Come on!! Aren’t the frames getting fatigued by now. B52s used to loiter outside Russia with nuclear weapons. Before we had our extensive missile defense set up. That was wear and tear on the frame
I know many who will never go to the Daily Beast. Here is extreme detail.
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/ADA428790.pdf
B-52 ping.
The truth is that compared to more advanced bombers, the B-52 is like a diesel semi-truck bomber. However, in howsoever long, what the Air Force has *needed* more than advanced bombers, are diesel semi-truck bombers.
Sure, having some advanced bombers is hunky-dory. But more importantly, the Air Force needs work horses. Cargo aircraft that carry bombs.
So instead of perpetually refitting B-52s, we should have a whole new production line of workhorse, lower tech bombers, to be produced at a quarter of the cost and four times the number.