Posted on 03/02/2023 1:17:24 PM PST by Red Badger
The F130 engines in dual-pod configurationRolls-Royce VIEW 1 IMAGES
At NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Rolls-Royce has begun testing of the F130 jet dual-engine pods that will power the US Air Force's B-52H Stratofortress heavy bomber fleet for the remainder of its service life into the 2050s.
Entering service in 1955, The B-52 is so venerable that the grandchildren of the original pilots may now be serving aboard the same aircraft. It's a testament to over-engineering that the 76 remaining B-52Hs and the 12 held in reserve will continue to serve for another 30 years until their basic airframe becomes too fatigued to remain flightworthy.
However, like the Ship of Theseus thought experiment, the B-52s have had so many bits and pieces replaced that the question arises of whether they're still the same aircraft. They have been serviced and upgraded so many times that not much beyond the original airframe remains.
The new F130 engines being developed by the Rolls-Royce US division in Indianapolis, Indiana, will be the last engines to be fitted to the B-52 fleet. Under a US Air Force contract, Rolls-Royce is building 608 engines, which is eight per aircraft, and 42 spares. To speed up the refit, the company derived the F130 from its commercial BR725 engine that has already clocked up 30 million hours of flight time in the Gulfstream G650 business jet and other civilian and military transports.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
MORE INFO HERE:
AVIAION PING!...................
Should have made new (as in redesigned, not just proverbial “new old stock”) engines decades ago.
I first read an article about reengining the B52 fleet and how much money it would save in the early 1980’s. Had they done it then it would have saved billions of dollars. But Congress wouldn’t spend the money because the plane was so old. They put it off and put it off thus spending a huge amount of money over time that they could have saved by spending a medium amount of money in the eighties. Congress is horrible about managing money.
They going all electric then? 🤔😂👍
Seems to me thought should be made to just build new replacement airframes
Unless they are technologically obsolete..: building new airframes certainly will be cheaper than designing and building an entirely new plane
Damn fine airplane.
> They going all electric then? <
They had better. Good thing there’s room on the top of those engines for solar panels.
Stand off weapons make it viable. It can attack any point on earth without any danger of being intercepted. If we were to get into a war with China, they know that we can attack their mainland without ballistic missiles. They cannot. If they go ballistic against the U.S. the results might be catastrophic for the United States, but an extinction level event for China.
B-52s have had so many bits and pieces replaced that the question arises of whether they’re still the same aircraft.
long as the original wing spars are there, sure...
.
It just won’t be the same without that classic B-52 whine...
(And that was scary enough)
Yup. Used to live just outside the Stennis buffer zone. Loved to hear the engine tests.
I keep wondering if there is a BUFF around that has some of its ORIGINALmetal in it.
China could attack with ballistic missiles launched from cargo/container ships. And we’d never see it coming.
I think the original B52 engine put out 12,000 lbs of thrust.
Is the “airframe” just the fuselage, or does it include the wings, too?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.