Posted on 02/04/2016 1:18:48 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
I can imagine an A380 decked out like a Super Spooky C130, dozens of chain guns, rail guns, tens of thousands of mini drones, and several FAE’s.
Is there any non-fighter combat air job the B-52 can’t be adapted to do?
What an airplane
-Is there any non-fighter combat air job the B-52 can’t be adapted to do?-
When I worked at Honeywell in the eighties we had a contract to upgrade the nav sets on B-52-s. We used all the available design documentation but found that over the years people had made so many undocumented alterations that often we couldn’t plug in the equipment and make it work. Cables had been chopped off, repurposed, or eliminated. No records of the changes were available. The planes were a nightmare to work on. It is astonishing the planes are still flying. The cost of maintenance, upkeep and updating must be staggering.
You should watvh the Barret Jackson auctions, a very popular trend lately is taking any vlassic car, it can be a 1940 Cadillac, a 59 Corvette or even an old mail truck and retro modfing it with modern powerplants and electronics.
Who was that novelist, Tom Clancy? Wrote about a modified swept composite winged B52 Megafortress? About 15 years ago i think.
Dale brown wrote that in flight of the old dog.. And the cost to keep a buff flying is pretty cheap compared to other airframes and has a better mission capable rate
-You should watvh the Barret Jackson auctions, a very popular trend lately is taking any vlassic car, it can be a 1940 Cadillac, a 59 Corvette or even an old mail truck and retro modfing it with modern powerplants and electronics.-
The wiring on older planes can weigh hundreds of pounds and is built into the air frame. It is not replaceable without completely rebuilding the plane. You have to route a new wire.
I suspect that newer aircraft have a data bus and do not suffer from this issue.
Thats it, loved reading his novels.
Thing is could it be done?
Look at the 787, nice plane, i was on ohe for 10 hours from Honolulu to Sydney in december, very quiet and smooth.
Its composite of course, and the wings indeed looked like they were flapping.
But to build a new BUFF? Start with composite wings first? Then fuselage plugs? Dunno, its not my expertise.
wire harness on the buff is pretty simple it runs along the bulkheads and spares. Pretty simple to re string wires as they are numbered. most are coupled in groups. same within the wing leading edge panels. Have done many tcto mods while on them.
Sorry about the typos, i agree about wiring.
not gonna happen all the dies to build a new buff destroyed a long time ago. and It was just a book. not much in Dales books are remotely feasible.
-wire harness on the buff is pretty simple it runs along the bulkheads and spares.-
I never worked on the plane. I was in the plant listening to the field complain. Of course, they were always behind schedule and SAC didn’t like that. So, possibly blame got shifted.
Here’s a post where I was advocating for a “bomb truck” platform over a decade ago. “Arsenal aircraft” is just better marketing.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/984847/posts?page=21#21
Cool. Fig. 1 shows the airplane giving birth. The idea of self-replicating airplanes is neat, but how will it work in practice?
“I can imagine an A380 decked out like a Super Spooky C130, dozens of chain guns, rail guns, tens of thousands of mini drones, and several FAE’s.”
That sounds like the dreadnaught that was released in Deathrace.
How about an F22, but 10 times the size?
B-1's are still using analog?
The author was Dale Brown
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.