Posted on 08/06/2021 9:04:22 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
The Air Force has set an ambitious goal for the B-52 Stratofortress: Update the aircraft for the modern battlefield so the legendary bomber can continue flying combat missions at least 100 years after its first flight.
Re-engining the venerable B-52 Stratofortress could keep the legendary bomber flying into the 2060s, and possibly beyond. New engines, such as Pratt & Whitney's PW800 commercial engine, promise greater reliability, fuel efficiency, and power.
Today’s B-52 is a lot like the one Air Force Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, the director of strategic plans at the Air Force Global Strike Command, piloted early in his career. But once new engines are on board it will be “a very different B-52 than what I flew as a lieutenant.”
(Excerpt) Read more at airforcemag.com ...
Holy Crap!!!
With some old cars, it was jack up the air cleaner and replace the rest?
Why don’t they just build some new ones?............
This is assuming there will be a USA in 2060, or at least a USA worth fighting for.
Anyone who has read a lot of Dale Brown novels knows this has already been done. ;o)~
Look at what happened to the F-35: Late, massively overbudget, and with questions about its effectiveness. Politicians divvied it up to make sure that every district or state got part of the contract.
No translate that to something like a B-52 replacement!
That is why the BUF is still in service after 66 years. It’s here. It works. It’s paid for.
They make engines, not planes.
Sometime back in the ‘90s, there was an airshow at Andrews AFB, and they had a B-52 on display. Its bomb bays were open, and as I walked underneath I looked up and saw motors with aluminum name plates and a crinkled black finish and bundles of wires with cloth covering. I guess it all worked fine, but it was definitely from the ‘50s.
Those airframes have got to be fatigued...
This reads like a PW ad...
—”less stress on an old airframe is probably a good idea. “
A neighbor keeps his older cars in a tent purged with dry nitrogen.
I have seen some old convertibles that look great, but the doors are stuck because the frame is flexed.
How do BUF airframes manage to hold up for so long?
—”This reads like a PW ad...”
I suspect it is in fact, an advert for P&W?
Not bad, still a fun read and discussion?
B-52’s don’t actually fly that much. Take any airliner that’s been in service for a few years and compare flight logs with any of the remaining BUFF’s.
That said, I was reading an analysis piece on potential modifications to the B-52 fleet just last year. They said that (another) re-engining probably would not happen. My guess is that somebody in the USAF will suddenly start totaling the numbers and comparing with other budget priorities and then they’ll reconsider.
How do BUF airframes manage to hold up for so long?
Because they were built like tanks!
In the fwiw department, I’m older than the BUFF (deployment date).
There is a high probability that that wonderful big ugly fat fu@k** plane will outlive me.
5.56mm
Not redesigned, just built new....................
“Because The Pentagon is cost conscious.”
They are because the socialists keep cutting their defense budget.
“President Biden’s defense budget request is wholly inadequate — it’s nowhere near enough to give our service members the resources, equipment and training they need,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and his House counterpart, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said in a statement. “It’s disingenuous to call this request an increase because it doesn’t even keep up with inflation — it’s a cut.”
The $715 billion Pentagon request for fiscal 2022 sent to Congress represents an $11 billion increase and trails the rate of inflation, and procurement funding, the purchasing accounts used to buy new equipment, would fall nearly 6 percent.
The budget is giving out raises at 2.7% to military and civilian employees, but lacks the fund so our military trails the improvement to stay up with the world.
You’re right. The Pentagon is cost conscious...in self defense.
wy69
—”Those airframes have got to be fatigued...”
AF lab investigating microscopic crack formations, metal fatigue
“Our team is using a novel methodology in SEM to quantify, non-destructively, the cracking mechanisms during early stages of fatigue. The information from these characterizations can help reduce sustainment costs and improve fleet readiness, without compromising safety,”
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/933237/af-lab-investigating-microscopic-crack-formations-metal-fatigue/
More here:
“The design life goal of this modified wing and body structure was 12,000 flight hours, and it was fatigue tested to 72,000 cyclic test hours or six lifetimes during the 1960s. “
https://www.nap.edu/read/5917/chapter/6#92
That must be some vacuum chamber to contain a B-52 for that SEM?
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