[First_Salute]

Do you know, did the Air Force ever consider outfitting a special B-52 for airshow maneuvers? Sans all the weighty wartime stuff?

While preferably the aircraft should remain in the hands of good airmanship, it occurs to me that a special ship might be worth the work.

Same for some other craft, too.

[Gunrunner2]

>>Do you know did the Air Force ever consider outfitting a special B-52 for airshow maneuvers? Sans all the weighty wartime stuff?. . . Same for some other craft, too.<<

Nice idea, but, no, we have not, and the reason’s are simple.

First off, it would make no economic sense to take a very expensive, fully fitted, operationally capable aircraft and transform it into nothing more than an airshow aircraft. This would not be a good use of a scarce asset—as we never have enough aircraft. In fact, years back when the USAF Thunderbirds transitioned from T-38’s to F-16’s, one of the “selling” points to congress was that the Thunderbird F-16’s remain fully functional combat aircraft and not merely a drain on valuable fighter assets. Having said that, each wing, however, usually has a dedicated aircraft for airshow demos, and that aircraft is pained a little different and may have a chrome gun barrel, but that is about all.

Second, changing the aircraft would actually invalidate the whole concept on why the services fly in air shows. We fly in air shows to show to the American people what their tax dollars are buying in terms of hardware and pilot training. (Your average pilot regularly performs everything you see performed in an airshow—fighters included— during an operational or training mission). In addition, we participate in air shows to demonstrate to our allies and our enemies what our men and machines are capable of—kind of like flashy deterrence. If we made an “airshow bird” then we would not be demonstrating to the tax-payers that they are buying the best aircraft for the bucks, and we would be telling our allies and enemies we can look good at air shows, that’s all.

Finally, our aircraft are the top performers in any airshow and don’t really need to be modified.

Best regards.