The concept has been studied many, many times over the decades. Each time, the Air Force decided that the B-52 was going to be replaced "soon," so there wouldn't be any cost savings by re-engining.
Posted on 09/25/2021 8:26:23 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Rolls-Royce (OTCPK:RYCEY, OTCPK:RYCEF) is awarded a contract to provide upgraded engines for the U.S. Air Force's B-52 bomber fleet in an award that could grow to $2.6B, the Department of Defense announces, beating out General Electric (NYSE:GE) and incumbent Pratt & Whitney (NYSE:RTX).
Rolls-Royce was given an initial six-year $501M base contract to supply 608 engines for installation on the Air Force's 76 active-duty and reserve B-52s, which could grow to $2.6B if all options are exercised
(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...
B-52’S are an old design. 8-engines per plane. For redundancy reasons it isn’t practical to cut that to say 4-engines. If you lost 1/8th of your thrust on takeoff while fully loaded, it’s manageable. Lose 25%... all on 1 side... and the biggest rudder in the world won’t save you.
Eight engines. Four “pods” two engines each.
See Australian sub deal.
“Methinks the B-52 has 8 engines per aircraft.”
WOW! Correct! I thought 4, because it has 4 engine mounting pods. (nacelles?) (not an airplane guy)
BUT, there are TWO engines per pod instead of the usual one. Making it 8 engines per plane. OUCH! (fuel bill).
What’s wrong with the old engines? They’re only 60 yrs old, barely used.
The concept has been studied many, many times over the decades. Each time, the Air Force decided that the B-52 was going to be replaced "soon," so there wouldn't be any cost savings by re-engining.
“I don’t know if they’re going to find too many 8 fingered pilots.”
I think the requirement was “a wide right hand.”
No one expects the dreaded 7 engine approach!
IIRC a B52 has 8 engines.
I watched a documentary on the process they went through. There are structural issues than ground clearance issues with larger diameter engines. They needed the engine size to stay about the same and there are not many engines that would do.
They couldn’t replace two engines with one larger one because the single engine would drag the ground
Four engines - on each wing.
Was the thrust per engine later tweaked up to 12000 lbs per engine where it stands now or am I mistaken?
Awesome, just freaking awesome!!
Back in the mid to late eighties, I worked on the production line for the new FLIR systems for that BUFF....
The expectation is that these engines will not need overhaul during the service life of the airframe.
They’ve got outrigger wheels out toward the end of each wing to prevent that sort of thing, since the “mains” are all fuselage-mounted.
The TF-33 is rated at 17000 lbs thrust.
How I learned to LOVE the bomb!
Hey, maybe someone answered this already.....how many engines do the 52 take? :)
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