I find the B-52s very attractive.
And no, I'm not talking about a dance band out of Athens, GA.
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 ...
This is also assuming that an aircraft like the B-52 will even have a role in future conflicts.
“Those airframes have got to be fatigued.”
The Air Force brings them to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio for Air Frame maintenance. Fatigued parts are removed and replaced.
Since when was Briggs & Stratton in this business!
100 years: Big Ugly Senile Plane.
“This is assuming there will be a USA in 2060”
China will be around, for sure. Russia will, if they can maintain a credible threat against China, given Russia’s huge nuke arsenal, and despite a declining number of Russians. Japan, maybe, if they can hold off China - but that gets harder year-by-year. Western Europe will be long dead, US will also be dead, although will hold out a bit longer than Western Europe. Eastern Europe will survive, providing they’re willing to join Russia in an alliance.
—” Big Ugly Senile Plane.”
Function over form.
Considering the age and the designers/engineers probably used wood slide rules! Adds luster to a work of art.
Not ugly in my view.
—”Eastern Europe will survive, providing they’re willing to join Russia in an alliance.”
A sharp old friend has maintained for over 50 years, when it comes it will be USA and Russia against China.
Mostly for reasons of religion and race.
???
Russia was saying the same to us back during the Cold War: “You know, it’s the Chinese we all have to really worry about”. We all laughed...back then.
The tooling to build a new B-52 don’t exist any more, just like the F-22.
The process tooling up a production line would be almost as bad designing and building a brand new bomber.
For many years I disagreed with my friend on this topic.
Now I see a push to remove religion from the USA.
Gotta have a “New Man” and the old religion will not work.
“I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit?”
Said a very early hippy.
Henry David Thoreau,
Robust and well engineered to begin with, surviving B-52 airframes have also benefitted from upgrades and repairs intended to extend service life by replacing fatigued structural elements and worn out components. The cost benefit case for doing so is compelling due to the B-52’s low operating costs.
I wonder what percentage of the airframe is original?
“bundles of wires with cloth covering”
That’s not exactly cloth. Has to do with EMP sheilding.
I’ve always seen that about the buff. It would cost less to build a new one. The new designs are with just 4 engines. Wait around long enough and they’ll only need two.
“Considering the age and the designers/engineers probably used wood slide rules!”
While the designers of the way over budget F-35 had all the computing power they could ask for.
Give me a William Boeing or Donald Douglas and a bunch of slide rule engineers who love their work any day.
It ain’t enough to know the theory, ya gotta be able to work the problem...on PAPER, WITH A PENCIL.
Can you imagine how that would go? By the time the AF generals got their say-so, then the house and senate to approve the funding, it would cost 10’s of billion$ per plane and then they would scrap it because it wasn’t all electric to meet the green goals of Congress
Do they have to disassemble the entire plane to get to the frame?
I find the B-52s very attractive.
And no, I'm not talking about a dance band out of Athens, GA.
8^)
5.56mm
cmon
soviet diversion/deflection is just that
shoulda let patton dealmwith soviets then
and then dealt with china
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