Pratt & Whitney Outlines Vision for Renewing the B-52

Air Force Magazine ^ | 5 Aug 2021

[NCC-1701]

I keep wondering if there is any ORIGINAL metal left on any of the BUFFs now flying.

[nascarnation]

Designed with slide rules.
Drawn with pencil on mylar.
Manufactured by hand controlled machine tools.

Not bad, eh?

[SuperLuminal]

"Why don’t they just build some new ones?............"

We no longer have any manufacturing base, and China refused to do it for us...

[353FMG]

Will they be built by Tesla with a long extension chord? Is that not what “fly-by-wire” means?

[MercyFlush]

“This is also assuming that an aircraft like the B-52 will even have a role in future conflicts.”

Being able to deliver large amounts of ordnance to a general target area will always be necessary. Airborne bombers can also launch large ship killer missiles and that alone makes them extremely important.

That said, I would not want to send someone into battle in a sixty year old aircraft up against fifth and sixth generation fighters. We owe our aircrews better than this.

[MercyFlush]

“The tooling to build a new B-52 don’t exist any more, just like the F-22.”

95% of the F-22 tooling still exists.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20633/exclusive-heres-the-f-22-production-restart-study-the-usaf-has-kept-secret-for-over-a-year

[Scrambler Bob]

OK I want one.

Fill the bomb bay with fuel.

When SHTF, just keep flying.

Then wait.

Hey, they said we could land on freeways.

[GreyFriar]

Good question. Perhaps some of the internal fittings, such as racks for radios and other equipment, pilot/crew seats or brackets holding them.

[Little Ray]

That’s wonderful news!

[Semper Vigilantis]

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.

Heck, send one to china, they'll copy it, mass produce it, sell it on amazon and deliver it to your base in 3 days or less (If USAF signs up for prime).

Put me on record as saying the BUFF is a beautiful flying machine!

[ThunderSleeps]

I had a GMC pickup that the body mounts rusted on. Body shifted on the frame and bound up the steering... Kind of exciting that it happened on the move...

[DUMBGRUNT]

—” Kind of exciting that it happened on the move...”

Pls, do not be offended by my laughter.

I have heard similar accounts from other unfortunates.

Among my cohorts driving and maintaining an ancient pickup is some kind of status symbol.
Every one of them could pay cash for a new TEXAS BlackRock PLATINUM, or whatever.
But no, they gotta impress the group.

And Joe with an ancient 2-stroke diesel is hard to top.

[DUMBGRUNT]

—”Manufactured by hand controlled machine tools.”

We still have many who can do the work, fewer each year.

SURVIVAL OF HUMAN CRAFT
Could you become a Takumi? In Japan it takes 60,000 hours to reach the highest level of craftsmanship
– new documentary reveals

Will human craft disappear as artificial intelligence reaches beyond our limits? Or will this cornerstone of our culture survive and become more valuable than ever? This documentary looks at how to take the long road to excellence in a world that’s constantly striving for shortcuts.

https://newsroom.lexus.eu/documentary—takumi-—a-60000-hour-story-on-the-survival-of-human-craft/

A friend is so proud of his father that can weld Stellite!
He was called out of retirement $$$.
A MASTER of his craft.

[Chode]

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4452474-F-22A-Production-Restart-Assessment.html

[Verginius Rufus]

It means that kids born years from now will understand that classic American poem:

"Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
You have a nose
Like a B-52."

[ThunderSleeps]

Oh no, not offended. I laugh about it now too. For about 45 seconds or so there, and then for "a few minutes" after it was anything but funny. But now, just one of many close calls I've scraped through (a high percentage of which involve various gas/diesel powered vehicles or power tools) that upon reflection make me wonder how I'm still alive, and bring a smile to my face that I am.

Now that I think of it, oddly enough none of my close calls involved firearms. Worst accident I've ever had with a firearm was slipping handling a newly cleaned (and lubed) 1911 that I hadn't wiped down yet. When the slide catches your pinky in the ejection port, you invent a couple of new words.

[Mogger]

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.

The way things are going, should the Russians invade, we may be welcoming them as a liberating army.

[lepton]

Strength and relative simplicity. Crude tends to either tear itself apart, or is very tough and brute.

[lepton]

This is also assuming that an aircraft like the B-52 will even have a role in future conflicts.

---

As long as the opponent doesn’t have an air force, or reliable surviving ground-to-air weapons the B-52 will have a big role. So would barrage barges for the Navy - a cheap platform for mass attack. One doesn’t need a state of the art platform to pummel an enemy while staying out of range of that enemy’s attack, and there, a cheap platform with loiter is better.

[texas booster]

Pratt & Whitney PW800 Jet Engine

Here is the P&W marketing piece on the engine. Overall, it looks like a worthwhile investment for our government.

Much better than importing criminals to afflict the country.