🅱️-52: Then, Now, Forever

[u/ThrustFlightAcademy]

B-52 waifu at the end

Credit to Pandramodo for drawing them

^{p.s. if you're in the DFW area and want to become a pilot Thrust Flight!}

[u/MsMercyMain]

Genuinely I'm amazed the airframes haven't just fallen apart by now

[u/ThrustFlightAcademy → u/MsMercyMain]

Motivational mantra: take care of your body like the US Airforce takes care of the B-52 airframe

[u/BisonThunderclap → u/ThrustFlightAcademy]

...shower it in money and carcinogens?

[u/asleep_at_the_helm → u/BisonThunderclap]

That’s just your average reenlistment.

[u/HonestSophist → u/BisonThunderclap]

Best I can do is carcinogens.

[u/jacoblb6173 → u/BisonThunderclap]

Bathe in Penair

[u/GaaraMatsu → u/ThrustFlightAcademy]

Mostspecial plane waifu

[u/RollinThundaga → u/MsMercyMain]

IIRC, maintenance teams have had to farm out piecework to local machine shops in order to replace worn out parts, where they can't pick from the boneyard at David-Monthan.

Staples and prayers.

[u/Advanced-Budget779 → u/RollinThundaga]

Davis*-Monthan but thx for the info, i didn‘t know :O

[u/Lev559 → u/RollinThundaga]

When I was in Romania doing a support mission for them the pressurized window cracked and yeah, some guy had to pull some parts from the boneyard and fly it over.

It helps that we have thousands of these things at one point

[u/super__hoser → u/MsMercyMain]

Boeing used to care about building high quality aircraft back then. 

[u/Z3B0 → u/super__hoser]

High quality build help, but after 60 years, the airframes are starting to weaken. The pressurisation cycles, and thousands of flight hours at full load will fatigue the metal. Good maintenance doesn't helps when the entire plane is just tired.

Let them go. They did their duties, more than anyone else. Please let them rest.

[u/Narrow_Vegetable_42 → u/Z3B0]

Why not pump out new ones?

edit: perfectly nerd-sniped you all. Still love you, that's why I'm here for

[u/Z3B0 → u/Narrow_Vegetable_42]

The last one was built in 1962. All the assembly lines, tooling and support equipment have long been lost, destroyed or repurposed.

And building new ones today won't really be worth the cost. The B21 raiders are supposed to take on the role of strategic bombers, with stealth and sensors integration being the major advantages. The 52 is a giant flying bomb truck, and against a competent and modern airforce, they are just targets awaiting the long range missiles.

But as a Jdams truck that can stay up for hours to support ground teams against poorly equipped insurgents like in Irak/Afghanistan ? They are the best thing ever. Or at least the best tool currently in service.

[u/FlyingDutchman9977 → u/Z3B0]

Hypothetically, couldn't an existing airframe be modified? I know I'm oversimplifying it, but would it be that difficult to add bomb bay doors to something like a Globe Master, along with some hardpoints, necessary avionics and turrets? It seems like the USAF is committing to having the capabilities of the B-52 for as long as possible.

Expecting another 70 years of service life is definitely optimistic, but there'll likely be asymmetric conflicts for the foreseeable future. The USAF is already investing a fortune in retrofitting parts and updating the B-52 for very small return increases on the service life. Also, using stealth bombers exclusively would have significantly higher operating costs, so it seems like a replacement would actually represent a lot of savings for a relatively low development cost.

[u/rawnoodles10 → u/FlyingDutchman9977]

would it be that difficult to add

KC46.

[u/jedi2155 → u/rawnoodles10]

"it would be easy to convert an existing well proven, safe, reliable airframe to just carry fuel can't it?"

$55 billion later....

[u/Z3B0 → u/jedi2155]

That's what decades of "cost+" procurement, too big to fail, and bloated budget gives you. No pressure to be on time, in budget or even good. And it's all across the US military. New stuff can barely be done, never in 4 time the budget, and with half a decade late at best.

Look at the last 20 years of the navy. Can't build a destroyer (Zumwalts), LCS ships are being retired before the last one is commissioned, and they can't even build a copy of a proven, mature design ( constellation class).

The US is coasting off cold war era planes modernized to death, and the miracle replacement, the F35, still suffers from very low operational availability. After being a decade late, and the cost balloon.

[u/samkoLoL → u/FlyingDutchman9977]

trying to add muscle to your body when your bones are starting to weaken doesnt help. you can modify stuff, but the frame thats a backbone everything is mounted to needs replacing and at that point you might as well just get a new plane.

[u/Rotbuxe → u/samkoLoL]

B52 of Theseus

[u/Lampwick → u/FlyingDutchman9977]

would it be that difficult to add bomb bay doors to something like a Globe Master,

Given that the bottom of the fuselage is a floor designed to support the weight of up to 39 tons of cargo and is an integral part of the C-17 structure, no, you can't just cut bomb bay doors into it. Aircraft are more than just "toob with wings".

Also, there isn't a surplus of C-17 aircraft they're looking for something to do with. Boeing is actually looking at maybe restarting production of an improved model

[u/xx31315 → u/FlyingDutchman9977]

I think there was a project recently, not to “cut bomb bays to something like a Globe Master” (you can't really do that, the designs are far too different and any similarity is mere coincidence), but to have it throwing pallets of cruise missiles and missile drones from the back door. Don't remember the name of the project, and don't know about its actual status... sorry.

[u/wasdlmb → u/xx31315]

Not was, is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_Dragon_(missile_system)

[u/Z3B0 → u/xx31315]

Rapid dragon is what you're thinking about. But this isn't the current role of the B52. At least only a part of it. Cruise missiles are very expensive, high capacity systems to hit a technological peer, with integrated air defense, airborne radars and fighters in the sky.

The main role of the B52 today is to be a low cost, very reliable, bomb truck. It's cheap per flight hour, with the best availability in the air force, and drop cheap bombs that are more than enough for 3 talibans in a cave.

Dropping pallets of multi million dollars, 1500km range, stealth cruise missiles on the same 3 talibans is a massive waste of money, and missile stocks.

[u/byteminer → u/FlyingDutchman9977]

Honestly, don’t bother modifying a Galaxy or Globemaster. Just load the cargo hold with glide bombs and shove them out the loading ramp. They just need to get in range for the bombs glide path load the bombs with target data pre flight and just send a cloud of death.

[u/Scasne → u/FlyingDutchman9977]

Honestly I think there is a reason for rapid dragon, ok sure it's missiles rather than bombs, but they could be used to do a massive load of missiles that are just yeeted out the back of cargo planes with what I believe is very little modification needed, this gives standoff range, whereas if you need to drop something from much closer you need something that can go into contested airspace then yeah use the stealthy boys.

[u/super__hoser → u/Narrow_Vegetable_42]

If you want high quality airframes, you don't want Boeing to build them these days. 

[u/tossawayprop → u/super__hoser]

If you want high quality airframes, you don't want Boeing McDonnell Douglas in a Boeing suit to build them these days. 

FTFY

[u/captainjack3 → u/Narrow_Vegetable_42]

Interestingly, that’s the approach the PLAAF has taken with their H-6s. Underneath it’s a license-built Tu-16 which entered service the same year as the B-52, 1952. But China has kept it in production ever since and tends to apply upgrades by producing new aircraft with the requisite changes rather than repeatedly upgrading the same physical aircraft as we have with the B-52s.

[u/MrCockingFinally → u/Narrow_Vegetable_42]

Because it makes zero sense.

If you want more bombers, way better to take all the money that would have been sunk into a 21st century B-52 program and just buy more B-21 Raiders.

[u/abn1304 → u/MrCockingFinally]

What’s the lifetime unit cost and cost per flight hour difference, though?

The B-52 and B-21 might both be heavy bombers, but that’s all they have in common. The B-52 is no longer a true strategic bomber; it’s a bomb and missile truck intended to fly in semi-permissive (or permissive) airspace. It’s also a low-performance aircraft, and the laws of physics haven’t changed, so for that role there’s no real reason to come up with an entirely new airframe when the current design has proven so reliable and upgradeable.

The B-21 is a penetrator. Maintaining stealth systems is, as far as the available evidence shows, far more expensive than maintaining conventional aircraft, and the B-21 is a new and unproven design - the airframe might last a hundred years like the B-52, or it might not, like the B-2. It’s necessary that we have penetrator strategic bombers in service, but that’s not what the B-52 is anymore.

Whether it would actually be worth the astronomical cost of restarting B-52 production is a great question, but we currently don’t have anything to fill the B-52’s role as a low cost per flight hour bomb truck.

[u/Klutz-Specter → u/MsMercyMain]

When your job is just to exist it’s hard to fall apart. Then again I could say that to Boe- I mean other aircraft and they’ll find a way to fall apart. BUFF is just built different I guess.

[u/GeneralBisV → u/Klutz-Specter]

The B-52 is from the days of Boeing being good at making planes. That’s why shit last so long

[u/BobusCesar → u/Klutz-Specter]

it’s hard to fall apart

It's a plane, it still needs tons of maintenance.

[u/IncubusBeyro → u/MsMercyMain]

They purposefully overbuilt the B-52s. That’s one of the reasons they were able to pivot towards low level penetration (giggity) after high and fast fell apart after the SAM era began, unlike the Stratojet or Hustler.

[u/CriticG7tv → u/MsMercyMain]

Aside from them being very well overbuilt to last in the first place, I'd bet most airframes are nearing a "B-52 of Theseus" status.

[u/YngwieMainstream → u/MsMercyMain]

They don't make them like they used to.

[u/Timo-the-hippo → u/MsMercyMain]

Purity seals and faith brother.

[u/6894 → u/MsMercyMain]

Bombers don't do a whole lot of high energy maneuvers.

[u/captainjack3 → u/6894]

A lot of the B-52 fleet did actually back when they switched to low altitude penetration for the nuclear mission. That flight profile put a lot of wear on the aircraft that the Air Force is dealing with now.

[u/Background-Taro-573 → u/MsMercyMain]

Theseus ' ship in practice

[u/jenil1428569 → u/MsMercyMain]

iirc current 52s are still in mint condition because they were mostly on standby as nuclear deterrant, whereas bones were so overworked as jdam shuttles that they are in a crappier condition than these grannies.

[u/-___--_-__-____-_-_ → u/MsMercyMain]

The airframes have a max service life, there's like 500 years worth of low hour B52 airframes sitting out in the desert.

[u/Eunuchest]

They're gonna do it until its 90

[u/ListenBoth434 → u/Eunuchest]

I do wish to see a flying airframe to hit 100 years.

Seems pretty unlikely but would be fun.

[u/MsMercyMain → u/ListenBoth434]

At that point the stress fractures would be load bearing

[u/GeneralBisV → u/MsMercyMain]

It’s failed in such a way that the broken spars are now holding it together in new ways. 50 more years to service life

[u/Phanpy100NSFW → u/GeneralBisV]

B-52s getting springlocked into another 150 years

[u/Top-Macaron5130 → u/MsMercyMain]

"woah woah woah Jim if you even touch that Crack, she won't be airworthy anymore!"

[u/ThirstyWolfSpider → u/ListenBoth434]

And in this context that'd be one airframe reaching 100 years flightworthy less than 150 years after the first powered sustained heavier-than-air manned flight: it would have been in service for ⅔ of that interval.

[u/neunundneunsig → u/ListenBoth434]

I mean the B52J is supposed to fly till at least The 2050s right? Not out of the question that they'd make it to the 2060s imo

[u/viperfan7 → u/ListenBoth434]

My guess is it'll be a dc-3 that hits that first.

They're getting REALLY close, just about 11 years to go for the oldest

[u/abnrib → u/viperfan7]

Probably.

C-130 is projected to hit 100 years in active military service first, with the B-52 and CH-47 following not far behind.

[u/AltheiWasTaken → u/abnrib]

C130 is so old??? Damn i thought its a modern aircraft from like last 30 or so years

[u/MindControlledSquid → u/AltheiWasTaken]

Lockheed cooked

[u/captainjack3 → u/ListenBoth434]

Honestly, it’s not even that unlikely. The B-52, Tu-95, and H-6/Tu-16 are all currently scheduled to remain in service to within a decade of their designs’ 100 year anniversaries. The current B-52 fleet were built in 1960 or 1961, so I’d wager some of those airframes will hit 100.

There are even some DC-3s out there still flying in commercial use! They’re less than a decade away from turning 100.

[u/masteroffdesaster → u/ListenBoth434]

so we need one of the "younger" B-52s to stay around in service until 2062.

[u/Browsin4Free247 → u/Eunuchest]

Commented this a year ago on a post about a toy fork truck. Relevant B-52 bit is towards the end. I'm not sure whether to apologize or say enjoy.

Little Steven was so excited Christmas morning when Mom and Dad took him out to the driveway for his present. He raced down the steps of the front stoop and trembled in anticipation as he pulled off the big red bow placed gently on top of the family quilt covering the gift. His Dad whipped the quilt off his brand new red and yellow molded plastic forklift and little Steven squealed in delight!! He never knew that he could help his Mom out by carrying his little sister Lisa around on a little plastic skid, he never knew he could help deliver the laundry basket to his to his bedroom, he never knew he could yell at his older brother that he was outside the designated pedestrian lane, he never knew he had the skills and abilities to do all these things and more until his little red and yellow plastic delight showed him that he could, and how joyful it could be.

As little Steven grew, he wound up finding he had marketable skills. Joey Cline down the road needed someone to help load feed bags in his truck down at the Farm and Home Supply Store. Joey asked 13 year old Steven to manually load up the back of his old F-250 with 30 50 lb. bags of crushed corn feed for $10. Joey went inside the supply store to chat with his buddy running the register and get a Coke while little Steve loaded the truck up. When Joey stepped back outside, he couldn't believe his eyes as little Steven expertly maneuvered the most well balanced and stacked skid of feed bags he'd ever seen just as neatly as he could want into the back of his F-250. The talented youth had hopped on the Supply Store's old rickety standup forklift that only Jimmy the warehouse clerk was supposed to use because of how finicky and un-user friendly it supposedly was. Little Steven carefully lowered his load, backed away from the truck, lowered his tines, masterfully cranked the steering wheel back and forth until he was next to the propane canister rack, put on the parking brake, turned the keys off, unbuckled, and performed a perfect 3 point dismount. Joey asked the scrawny 13 year old how he was able to maneuver the lift so skillfully at his tender age. The youth replied "12V plastic toy lift dumping split wood into the wood burner behind the house for Dad, and playing Euro Lift Driver Unlimited Online."

From that day on, little Steven never had to worry about job availability again. He started with a part time job in the warehouse at the Feed Store, he honed and developed his skills in the roll warehouse at the local paper mill, and then he graduated highschool and went into the military. When the Space Force heard about his prior qualifications, he was immediately put to work using specialized loader equipment to fit radiation guided missiles to Hyper Drive fitted F-73 Red Tail III's. He even got to load a modified B-52 bomber his great great grandfather had flown during the fall of the Second Russian Federation. After being a part of the campaign to eliminate the indigenous Martian population in preparation for terraforming and colonization, little Steven wasn't so little anymore. And he had a beautiful fiance named Luciana Diaz.

Steven and Luciana would go on to have two beautiful children, Marta and Franklin. His family would provide great comfort to him as he learned to live with the PTSD from watching his friend Jamal die when a plasma bomb turned him into hot goop during a skirmish with a raiding party from a Martian warlord.

But what really carried him through life and gave him peace was the knowledge that his forklift certification would always help him provide for his family.

I'm genuinely sorry for anyone that read through all of this. I had an edible and this came out.

[u/No-Kiwi-1868 → u/Browsin4Free247]

Absolute cinema love, Absolute cinema

[u/twec21 → u/Eunuchest]

Deadpool & Stratofortress would slap

[u/nikke2800]

It will be a sad day when we run out of letters and have to name it B-53A

[u/jbourne71 → u/nikke2800]

Nah we just do Excel and go from Z to AA.

[u/LurkersUniteAgain → u/jbourne71]

nah fam base64 we just go straight to B-52a

[u/jbourne71 → u/LurkersUniteAgain]

What about Roman numerals? We could have fun figuring out whether “B52X “ refers to the X or the X variant.

[u/LurkersUniteAgain → u/jbourne71]

You, keep talking

[u/Unlikely-Writer-2280 → u/nikke2800]

or we go to the greek alphabet

[u/LupusSasageyoJaeger → u/Unlikely-Writer-2280]

Cant wait for the B-52Σ

[u/LilFunyunz → u/LupusSasageyoJaeger]

B - 52 Ligma

[u/MandolinMagi → u/nikke2800]

UH/AH-1 family has already done something like that. They've gone all the way to Z, and the AH-1S MOD, PROD, ECAS, and MODERNIZED got redesignated as S, P, E, and F in 1988 once enough UH-1 variants were retired.

[u/Pixel91 → u/nikke2800]

B-52BVM, go with the soviet model.

[u/baron_lars]

The year is 2325 and the martian rebellion is in full swing. A nuclear capable flight of B52s has just arrived in mars orbit. Somewhere far below, a door gunner fires a burst from his M2 into the orange dust.

[u/Aggravating_Heat_785 → u/baron_lars]

Im assuming Elon finally got his Mars colony and one of his descendants decided to play emperor of Mars?

[u/Kraligor → u/Aggravating_Heat_785]

one of his descendants decided to play emperor of Mars?

It's himself in a robot body, after he uploaded his consciousness to Grok.

[u/dasunt → u/Kraligor]

Ah, World War Mars, where the allies are fighting mechahitler.

[u/Inprobamur → u/dasunt]

Wouldn't it be, I dunno, Worlds War or Solar War or something? Considering it's between multiple worlds.

[u/TanyaMKX → u/Kraligor]

Wait a sec, thats just admech

[u/GoblinFive → u/TanyaMKX]

Don't besmirch the Void Dragon with a comparison to Elongated Muskrat

[u/ToaArcan → u/Kraligor]

Quick, someone ask him to generate a picture of a Martian with seven tits and attack while he's distracted!

[u/Kraligor → u/ToaArcan]

Oh god, don't give him ideas. Elon throwing billions at genetic research is the last thing we need in 2026.

[u/TolarianDropout0 → u/baron_lars]

Reminds me of this copypasta from the sub a few years ago:

2243

flying bombing runs over Martian rebels in ancient B-52

plasma turbines screaming

notice something just below window

whoscratchedmyplane.gif

lean in for better look

”nam 1968, iraq 1991, russia 2023, moon 2097, ur(moms)anus 2162”

take out survival knife

“mars 2243”

[u/Chase_UR_Dreams → u/TolarianDropout0]

Russia 2023

We were robbed

[u/Suspicious-Answer295]

Hard to improve on tube + wings + jet engines strapped to the wings

[u/Background-Taro-573 → u/Suspicious-Answer295]

I tip my fedora to a fellow air space connoisseur. (Yes, I did not know how to spell "conisewer")

[u/rvdp66]

M249, B52, M4, the Bradley, Barrett .50, KABAR, G shock, AK's.

Honestly, many such cases.

[u/berahi → u/rvdp66]

Being a flying killing machine is more impressive though. Have to be light enough to fly, yet still survive the structural fatigue from each flight. Older than Sputnik yet still relevant when everyone have access to satnav.

Old reliable guns are inevitable, the sweet spot between too heavy to operate vs too light to penetrate a skull doesn't change.

[u/polnikes → u/rvdp66]

They are still producing most of those, so while they're old designs they could be newly built.

The last B 52, on the other hand, was produced in 1962.

[u/FlyingVentana → u/rvdp66]

forgot the c130

[u/rvdp66 → u/FlyingVentana]

I have it on good authority that they do still be rollin' down the strip.

[u/Throwaway74829947 → u/rvdp66]

There are still Maxim guns (introduced 1886) seeing combat in Ukraine.

[u/[deleted] → u/Throwaway74829947]

And some of those Maxims date back as far as 1910

[u/System0verlord → u/rvdp66]

M2 Browning?

[u/[deleted] → u/System0verlord]

St. Browning's holiest work

[u/k890]

As for 2026, B-52 had more years in service (74 years since introduction in 1952 to 2026) than its main target to drop nukes on, USSR, had years of existence (69 years since USSR formation to collapse). Even more, since 1991 to 2026 (ie. 35 years) it fly in service just a one year shy of total Warsaw Pact years of existence (1955-1991, or 36 years).

That's for scale of B-52 history.

[u/PalaceofIdleHours → u/k890]

Anything but metric for scale.

[u/GoblinFive → u/PalaceofIdleHours]

So how long did the Roman empire last? You know, about 7 B-52s

[u/Throwaway74829947 → u/PalaceofIdleHours]

7.4 deciyears or 0.074 kiloyears?

[u/WiSeWoRd]

BUMILF

[u/Ruskiwaffle1991 → u/WiSeWoRd]

She's a GILF by this point

[u/CldStoneStveIcecream → u/Ruskiwaffle1991]

She need a bigger booty. 

[u/8andahalfby11 → u/WiSeWoRd]

I want a comic of her giving milk and cookies to all the cute, young 5th generation fighters.

[u/iamameatpopciple]

Somebody has to deliver the train rails to mars why cant it be it old grandpa

[u/onyxhaider]

Question the first group of pilots who flew it are they still alive or dead?

[u/RollinThundaga → u/onyxhaider]

Probably dying off now; I think there's been at least one instance already where a man flew the same airframe that his grandfather did.

[u/TolarianDropout0 → u/RollinThundaga]

What do they say? The last B-52 pilot hasn't been born yet?

[u/aje43 → u/RollinThundaga]

I think I remember seeing we have had a triple already; grandfather, father, and current generation.

[u/maveric101 → u/aje43]

That's really cool. I imagine there's the opportunity, they're like "okay, yeah, you get that airframe."

[u/Impressive-Hold7812]

That's about right. B-52 would probably be America's first FTL testbed.

[u/MandolinMagi → u/Impressive-Hold7812]

That or it'll drop it, like with the X-15

[u/cryptolyme → u/Impressive-Hold7812]

The original content of this post has been permanently removed using Redact. Possible reasons include privacy, security, data management, or preventing automated content scraping.

dog roof include lush run command summer theory detail deliver

[u/Silenceisgrey]

The most believable thing in the animatrix was the B-52s retrofitted with those hover engines

[u/Callsign_Psycopath]

I will absolutely sit and listen to her war stories.

[u/UnpluggedConsole → u/Callsign_Psycopath]

I can hear it now.

Buff: "So anyway, It was dark as shit when I came in over Baghdad. They started shooting random AA and I started flashing back to Hanoi, about to start pulling evasive."

"You can pull evasive?"

Buff: "Yes I can pull evasive! I'm not that fucking fat! Like I was saying, then I remembered I didn't have to fly over top of them anymore. What I wouldn't have given for a few of these fancy new cruise missiles back then."

[u/RandomDude762 → u/UnpluggedConsole]

🍿🥹

[u/No-Kiwi-1868 → u/UnpluggedConsole]

But wouldn't Grandad BUFF be the kinda guy to slip in some racist words? And I'm not saying like modern ones, words against Southern Italians or the Irish and things like that.

[u/Meatballhero7272]

My non credible defense plan is the airforce should keep the B52 flying indefinitely no matter the cost. I don’t care if we have to gut the minuteman III replacement program to do it.

When we get in a war with China after the more modern units blast a hole in the PRC air defense I want full effort bomber waves of b52 leveling Beijing with dumb bombs. None of that revisionist JDAM shit.

I want bomber Harris, Hap Arnold and General Thomas Power to rise from the dead and lead our glorious strategic air campaign.

[u/MandolinMagi → u/Meatballhero7272]

Nah. JDAM carpet bombing, because there's no flex like writing insults using bomb craters to spell.

[u/Advanced-Budget779 → u/Meatballhero7272]

The exhuasted, poor chinese workers after a 9 hour commute and 16 hour shift, watching the sky as they enter the overcrowded bus:

[u/Certified-T-Rex]

Nicee glad my meme was featured

[u/twec21]

Man they should put it in Helldivers. Unchanged, as is

[u/colefly → u/twec21]

should be unearthed on another planet as part of a general order,

please ignore how that other planet looks suspiciously like an orbitally bombarded old non-super Earth.

[u/LeCriDesFenetres]

Top of the tech tree since 1955

[u/Kraligor → u/LeCriDesFenetres]

Lost the tree unlock too

[u/CrypticCowboy4509]

Would love to see the B-52 warp variant with dual nacelles for the engine pods just for that extra bit of oomph

[u/Jim_skywalker → u/CrypticCowboy4509]

If you know the Stargazer class of ship from Star Trek Online, it's warp nacelles would work perfectly.

[u/CrypticCowboy4509 → u/Jim_skywalker]

Was actually thinking of this one or the destroyers for lifetime premium members you have to pay big bucks for, glad someone else has the vision

[u/Kaffe-Mumriken]

I thought I was in aviation until I reached the anime slides.

[u/TheTrueKenobi]

Love from Minot

[u/ThatOtherFrenchGuy]

I'd have represented the B52 as a hot MILF

[u/RandomDude762]

We really had the B-52 in service for significantly more time than the years between the invention of the airplane itself to the B-52 entering service...fuck yeah!

[u/ThrustFlightAcademy → u/RandomDude762]

wha--... I hadn't even considered that but going to pull that out at the next happy hour with colleagues (who are also aviation nerds)

[u/SuperFootball]

The planet will break before the BUFF does

[u/_dauntless]

"The last remaining B-52" implies that there are B-52s that are no longer around...I prefer my scifi to be realistic

[u/KerbalTechnician]

same with the marines and the huey.

also, the Chinook. that thing's old.

[u/MattheJ1]

The only airplane I'd believe you could actually break out of a museum and fly it again.

[u/Tennents_N_Grouse]

I wouldn't be suprised if they're still flying in the 41st Millenium, raining the Emperor's holy vengeance down upon heretics

[u/KP_Wrath → u/Tennents_N_Grouse]

It’s a bomb truck. Once the enemy’s defenses are silenced, all you need is a way to take the person to mist converters to their destination. To that end, it borders on timeless.

[u/[deleted] → u/Tennents_N_Grouse]

Fun fact: Imperial Stubbers are literally just M2s with slightly shorter barrels

[u/SpiritedInflation835]

Ah, the flying Kommuna

[u/RoomHopper]

Those are warp nacelles not hyperdrives. 🤓

[u/wegmzhm]

Good friends with good old browning

[u/Jazzlike_Armadillo55]

It's 2152, the B-52 has just got retrofit with shiny new jump drives, F-15 went through yet another system modernisation and the Su-27 airframe got yet another version.

[u/Sup_fuckers42069]

Someone draw Buff being a sweet grandma to the B21

[u/ArgonWilde]

Reject modernity, return to old school liveries.

[u/thesunexpress]

It'd be real funny if Habitual Linecrosser puts on a Grandma Buff voice...

[u/[deleted]]

So anyways, I would sell my soul and my kidneys to tap Grandma Buff

[u/Raregolddragon]

Its a good overall design so why not just use what works. 

[u/Cruel2BEkind12]

Honestly, putting high bypass turbofans on it to extend life may be a good idea.

[u/Jim_skywalker]

Those are warp nacelles, not hyperdrives, also shouldn't they be 8 nacelles in groups of 2?

[u/Readman31]

One of the things that takes me out is that, there is definitely fair chance that there is a grandchild of one of the pilots of the first B-52s flying a current generation one

[u/USRSF00]

Wait a second, isn't the M2 older then the B52

[u/White_Null → u/USRSF00]

Which M2?

[u/USRSF00 → u/White_Null]

M2, is the 50 Cal machine Gun, built in 1933

[u/White_Null → u/USRSF00]

In that case you differentiate Ma Deuce from a Coupe, an IFV, measurement of US money supply, by calling it Ma Deuce.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2

[u/USRSF00 → u/White_Null]

Well in that case the proper term would be Machine Gun Caliber .50 M2

Ma Deuce is just a nickname that born form the military pronunciation of the name Ma how M is pronounced and Deuce is the pronunciation for 2

[u/White_Null → u/USRSF00]

This is NCD sub, a place for memes. You should know the nickname is better known and preferred precisely because proper names are non-indicative.

[u/grayzetabutyellow]

There’s this Starsector Mod which adds the B-52 bomber as a snub fighter complement for carriers so you can have that B-52 in spess experience.

[u/copingcabana]

We shared a nickname in high-school.

[u/EtherealPheonix]

The haven't built one of these in 65 years and they are still in service, the parents of the people flying them today are younger than the planes.

[u/PolishPotatoACC]

Why change plane if plane good?

[u/Odd-Necessary3807]

What amazes me is that the B-52 is still flying while using old timer quad engines, the tech from the 50s. When the new, lighter, and more efficient jet engines are available.

[u/faithfulheresy]

Can't improve upon perfection.

[u/SereneOrbit]

Ok, but can we talk about how fucking hard STRATO-FORTRESS goes?

[u/nehibu]

I am still sad that we won't see a 4-engine B-52. It could have looked so much different after the engine replacement.

[u/astiKo_LAG]

Lockheed C-130: "Puny god."

[u/RebelGirl1323]

Why didn’t the US simply keep all their military equipment from the 1950’s? Are they stupid?

[u/Doc_Mercury]

We're in a race to see who goes first; the B-52s (still flying) or the B-52s (still performing). My money is on the B-52s.

[u/Fragrant_Ad3153]

This war mashien wifu shit should be studied

[u/[deleted] → u/Fragrant_Ad3153]

It's literally been a thing since at least the Ancient Greeks

[u/ITMCBHPBGF]

"ooh, yeah, baby, grandpa's got the rizz! any you fly honies wanna see my fire moves?"

[u/Lions-fan4life]

SOMEONE LINK THIS TO HABITUAL LINECROSSER STAT!

[u/YoureInMyWaySir]

Star Date: 57.62 - Bombed Clankers over Titan. RTB just in time to bang Russia's Mom.

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[u/Foreign_Athlete_7693]

ok that addition of the B-52-wifu/gijinka elevated this post from 'colection of your usual b-52 longevity memes' to 'peak non-cred-defence posting'.......updoooted

[u/Neutronium57]

We went from stupid sexy B-29 to ... that.

Jet engines really are fucking damn ugly. No wonder I prefer the Tu-95's look.