Planning For 80-Year Old B-52s

Merry_B.Buck writes "The B-52 Stratofortress, famous for its carpet bombing (or, as the Pentagon prefers, "long sticking") was designed in the 1940s to carry boxcar-sized atomic bombs. This Fast Company analysis describes how the US plans to keep these planes -- the youngest of which was built in 1962 -- flying until 2040. "

Comments

NASA's B-52

[Mac Nazgul]

NASA uses a B-52 for high altitude drops of prototype flight models.
It was actually tail number "008" making it the oldest operational B-52.
It is also the lowest flight time operational B-52.

Good design

[forsaken33]

Obviously, if this plane has been flying and usable for the past forty years, the designers must have done something right. For the role it plays, its perfect. I think the role of strategic bomber has been relegated to such planes as the B-2. So, for carpet bombing, you want a plane thats big and has a long range. Screw the air defense because by now you should have air control. I'd hate to see what designing and the contract for a new plane would be just because this is "too old"

If you think about it, there really wouldn't be that much needed to make these planes more modern. Yes the computer upgrade would be necessary in my mind. Add the new navigation and targeting radar systems, if that hasn't been done already. I suppose the radar jammers, (if they have them?) would be good enough. The um....idea that they're working off of now is fighting third-world countries. They'll be using old radar. So the old jammers are what you need. If newer ones are needed, use the pod (forget the name off the top of my head).

And this thing is IMPRESSIVE. If you've seen one, its hard to imagine it flying, even more so with the amount of ordinance it can carry. And what's more demoralizing that being carpet-bombed by one of these old big planes? Well maybe beign hit by a bomb.......but thats besides the point.

So maybe what needs to be the area of concern is not the age, but the capacity and reliability of these planes.

" Slobodan Milosevic's capital, Kosovo" ????

[Anonymous Coward]

What since when? I had the feeling the capital of serbia was named BELGRADE. I also use to thought that Kosovo was a REGION not a city. A region that wanted to separate from the rest of the country! Now if this guy got all his fact as straight as is understanding of a RECENT war, I'm sure we can trust him.

Trust me, I'm a reporter!

Re:Re-engined B-52s

[mikefoley]

The "newer" B-52's use the P&W TF-33 fanjet engines. Another old workhorse, the KC-135 Stratotanker is about as old as the B-52 and is predicted to fly until 2040 also. It originally came with J-57 engines and was known as the KC-135A. It was re-engined in the 80's with fans (similar to the TF-33's) from old Boeing 707 airliners. This resulted in the KC-135E model. Many have since been re-engined with CFM56 high bypass fans. These are KC-135R models. With the E and R models, the KC135 also got thrust reversers and did away with the water injection of the A models. I remember flying out of Hickam in Hawaii one afternoon. Water injection gave you an extra 2000lbs of thrust per engine for 2 minutes. After the 2 minutes when the water ran out, you lost 8000lbs of thrust. That was a fun moment in the back when we almost lost our lunches. :) I was a jet mechanic on A and E models in the Air Guard from 80 to 87.

Re:No longer a svelte youngster?

[Manuka]

The F-16 lineage is basically:

A/B: Analog Fly-by-wire
C/D: Digital Fly-by-wire

A/C: single-seat
B/D: two-seater.

the C/D F-16 has seen about 10 major revisions, and then there are beasts like the F-16CG, and F-16CJ, and all the various block numbers. The Viper is one versatile little airplane.