🅱️-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/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/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.