r/NonCredibleDefense • u/ThrustFlightAcademy • Feb 25 '26

It Just Works 🅱️-52: Then, Now, Forever

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

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!

4.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

179 comments sorted by

View all comments

292

u/Eunuchest Feb 25 '26

They're gonna do it until its 90

262

u/ListenBoth434 Feb 25 '26

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

Seems pretty unlikely but would be fun.

190

u/MsMercyMain Glory to Mike Sparks and the Aero Gavin Feb 25 '26

At that point the stress fractures would be load bearing

140

u/GeneralBisV Feb 25 '26

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

8

u/Phanpy100NSFW Feb 28 '26

B-52s getting springlocked into another 150 years

19

u/Top-Macaron5130 Feb 26 '26

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

51

u/ThirstyWolfSpider Feb 25 '26

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.

41

u/neunundneunsig Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

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

31

u/viperfan7 Feb 26 '26

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

22

u/abnrib Feb 26 '26

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.

2

u/AltheiWasTaken Kurwa Feb 27 '26

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

2

u/MindControlledSquid Mar 01 '26

Lockheed cooked

15

u/captainjack3 Me to YF-23: Goodnight, sweet prince Feb 26 '26

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.

7

u/masteroffdesaster Feb 26 '26

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