Posted on 05/08/2026 10:06:27 AM PDT by DFG
"A rendering of what the future B-52J configuration will look like. Boeing"
"A rendering of a blended wing body demonstrator aircraft already in development for the Air Force. USAF A rendering of the blended wing body demonstrator aircraft now in development for the Air Force. USAF"
"The US Air Force’s current bomber force, left to right, the B-1, B-2, and B-52. USAF"
Whatever the replacement is, it’ll needlessly over-complicated and so incredibly expensive that the USAF will only get 12 or 13 of them.
tO me the B52’s design is close to perfect. They can make some improvments with the external paint material, maybe some shark fins for reducing drag, maybe upgrade the engines, but the frame itself is close to the epitome.
Ask a bunch of folks outside the DOD and outside existing U.S. military aircraft manufacturers. The answer needs people with no vested interest in anything the U.S. Air Force is already doing or considering - in other words “outside the box” of anything being done now.
Uh, B53?
Time to break out the flying saucers?
Old B-52’s. This story was around when I served. A retired pilot whose son flew them had a problem with the planes being older than him. That was in the mid-70’s.
The first prototype B-52 Stratofortress (the XB-52) was rolled out of the Boeing Seattle plant in March 1952, with its maiden flight occurring on April 15, 1952. The first production B-52A followed in 1954, and the first operational B-52B was delivered in June 1955. It has been the workhorse for the US military since. But maintenance needs and a growing effort in the world to figure out ways to stop it has caused a need for change. They were great, but their white beard is showing.
wy69
There are some B-52s that have been flown by the grandfather, father and son.
The new one better have shark teeth or no sale.
I agree. Back in the day, I built houses. I quickly learned the savings involved in IR which stands for “Infinite Replication”. We built hundreds of 3 different plans with about 30 different fronts (facing street) on them. The AF should try to restrain their whims and egos and go find the plans for the B52, dust them off and start building them with “Minor” modifications.
2050? Will there even be a United States?
“Time to break out the flying saucers?”
One could hope our new alien overlord saucer buddies might have a few aerodynamic design tips for us.
My dad worked on some of the defensive countermeasure systems on the B1. Every time he returned from a trip to the facility, he looked concerned. After returning from one trip, I asked him what was wrong, he said “that thing should never fly”. There are too many examples of the design issues to go over. Once it was put into operation, you would see all those issues come to light (fuel leaking issue was one of them). Glad they worked out some of the issues. If you ever get a chance to get inside one, it is pretty cool.
They need to use slide rules instead of computers for the design. C-130s wouldn’t still be produced, and various C-135 and B-52s wouldn’t still be flying if they had been designed with computer tolerances instead of slide rule tolerances. I’m unsure if the 55 year old design of the A-10 was computer or slide rule driven.
The P-3s should still be flying as well, but naval aviation wanted jets and Boeing’s lobbyists managed to deliver politicians. The P-3s had real advantages over the 737s now in use.
Trivia - Sunday will be the 54th anniversary of the A-10 prototype’s first flight.
Easy - award Space-X $300K to envision some aircraft.
It’ll be better, cheaper, faster.
How about a composite fleet of a manned aircraft accompanied by X number of pilotless, low-observable CCAs - collaborative combat aircraft tasked withe different roles, like ISR/EW, SEAD, scout penetrator, AA truck, and several weapons ‘trucks’. Oh, and one or two tanker drones. That way, one crewed aircraft - CCAs = an entire mission. All interconnected by TTNT — the zippy new Tactical Targeting Network Technology, like a hive mind. Think Starship Trooper bugs, but for the good guys.
It might be shaped and sized differently, but yes.
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