Will the B-52 bomber live forever?

[Engineer1911]

There is an entire series of books by Dale Brown about the B52. I worked on B52 in Plattsburgh, NY from 1970 to 1971 when B52s all left. I think they went to Carswell AFB, TX and the FB-111A came to PBurgh. You haven't shovelled (pushed) snow until you have to clean off a B52. 187 foot wing span by 193 feet long. Four years and 3 months of AF was enough.

 

[timjake]

I worked on KC-135As '81-'84 across the ramp from the B-52Hs (Minot AFB, ND). The various versions of the C-135 are as old as the BUFF. The ones I worked on were predominantly '58-'60 models. The RC-135s we have here are some of the "newest" -135 airframes, built in 1964!

 

[BigBill]

There's no other country on this earth that can match the B52. The B1 & B2 are way ahead of everyone. I think these three shadows on the ground can spell doomsday anywhere in the world at anytime. My co-worker who was a guard on a air force base after nam told me what we see now is nothing for the next better thing is sitting in a hangar somewhere. This makes me wonder what is really in area 51? A death star? I think the ufos that are being spotted just maybe ours. A little at a time the info is being revealed to us more and more on the history channel. If we watch the same show again we see more info has been released. It just makes me wonder. I built a lathe for making the drill bits that bolt together to make the oil drilling bits but the hole they make is bigger than a 55 gallon drum.
I never seen drilling bits this big. I think there I a lot more than were being told.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

The B-52 was built when there were many aircraft companies competing for government contracts to build the latest and best planes. The B-52 design has withstood decades of new planes that have come and gone, as well as the companies that built them. Today we are down to three that I can think of: Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and Northrop. During WWII companies were able to build many planes in one day, now it takes months to build just one. When I was working and making deliveries to Northrop in El Segundo they were, and probably still are, building the rear half of the F-16. When it was completed it was put on a semi flatbed trailer and trucked to Lockheed-Martin in Marietta Georgia where it was mated to the front fuselage and completed. What a way to build a single plane!

I imagine the B-52 will be flying when most of us are long gone. It is a great plane, but it isn't invincible. We lost about 17 B-52's during Vietnam, mostly downed by SAM missiles. They became a valuable prize to the North Vietnamese who were eager to show of pieces of the planes and the crews who were killed or captured.

I would hope that there are plans in the works to replace the plane because nothing man-made lasts forever. Guess time will tell.

 

[zzzippper]

It has and still does work that way. The aft fuse of the AV8 and T45 were built by BaE in England and shipped to St Louis. The nose, engine pylons, landing gear pods are still built in St. Louis and shipped by train to Huntington Beach. They used to build the entire F15 in StL but now the aft fuse is built in South Korea.

When it was completed it was put on a semi flatbed trailer and trucked to Lockheed-Martin in Marietta Georgia where it was mated to the front fuselage and completed. What a way to build a single plane!


I would hope that there are plans in the works to replace the plane because nothing man-made lasts forever. Guess time will tell.

There are plans to build the B-3 but after seeing the cost of the B-2 and the current budget muck-up I don't think it will happen for quite some time.

 

[therevjay]

Some aircraft seem to keep flying forever. There are many DC3s still in service. More then a few Ford Tri motors. And most likely the Huey will be the DC3 of helicopters. It doesn't look like the Chinook will ever be allowed to retire either.

 

[shouldazagged]

Some aircraft seem to keep flying forever. There are many DC3s still in service. More then a few Ford Tri motors. And most likely the Huey will be the DC3 of helicopters. It doesn't look like the Chinook will ever be allowed to retire either.

Several years ago I spent money I couldn't spare to take a short flight in a Ford Tri-Motor built in 1929, eight years before I was born. And for a few minutes, when I was eighteen, I was allowed to take the controls of a C-47 for a few minutes. I treasure both memories.

 

[Mcwsky09]

What I have heard is that the B52s still in service are kept that way in part thanks to parts stripped from decommissioned B52s in the boneyard in Arizona and that many of the parts are not only no longer made but the tools to make them no longer exist and the personnel with the experience to operate those machines and tools for the more part have all passed away or at the very least are well into retirement years.

So in theory it is possible that a day will come when B52s in service will no longer be able to be kept that way - at least not using current methods to do so.

On the other hand with computer aided design and 3D printing I would think that when a given part is no longer available that it wouldn't be impossible to recreate it using modern techniques rather than the original tools or trying to recreate the original tools and methods.

 

[LVSteve]

The B-52 is a Godsend for the USAF budget team. When money gets tight they offer up the B-52 engine upgrade as a savings. They've done it three or four times to my knowledge.

Imagine a B-52 with four big really modern motors instead of eight old ones. Yes, even the upgraded engines are stone age by today's standards. New motors would mean better takeoff, better climb, better fuel consumption, more loiter time and more payload for range.

 

[thomasinaz]

Thanks for all that great information John. I used up a lot of hours walking around B52s at Carswell AFB and Griffiss AFB, between 1983 and 1991. They were big and ugly, and I'm sure the Soviet satellites of the cold war knew the distinctive outline of each and every one. I remember in 84 they towed a couple of D models to the other end of the base and they blew the wings and tails off of them. They sat out there for what seemed like a long time before they trucked the parts away. Part of a treaty verification was what we were told. The last D model flew off Carswell, to Tucson, shortly after that. The pilot did some amazing flying in his last flyover of the base.

During Desert Storm/Shield they loaded a buttload of conventional bombs into the bellies and under the wings of those big bombers and flew to the middle east. Watching those loaded bombers, with the GAFB Statue of Liberty on the tail, was an impressive sight to see as they took off to their targets. I never thought I'd miss them noisy things. I do miss seeing them taking off and landing in that strange, nose down position. I don't miss walking around them at all though...

 

[UncaGrunny]

Semi-related, there's an effort underway to replicate & improve upon the Rockwell F1 boosters used on the Saturn V moon rockets - - the most powerful engines ever built.

Even with full plans, much of the assembly process is a mystery today, as many of the builders are long gone, and improvements and frank improvisations were made in running changes sometimes carried by word of mouth.

The ongoing story of the reverse engineering being done to first fully understand the incredible success of these engines, before fully developing their replacements for the future NASA missions, makes for some amazing reading. All over the web, a Google away.

One of the better writeups:
How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 ?moon rocket? engine back to life | Ars Technica

 

[carpriver]

well over half of my air force career was spent on SAC bases. the most impressive sight is watching a 50 ship minimum interval mass takeover. I watched dozens when I was at Okinawa on a Arc Light tour.

 

[charlie sherrill]

Can you imagine what would have happened if we had these just a few years earlier during WWII? I recently looked at one on display on a trip to the USS Alabama and another at Egland AFB in Florida. These things could really chew up some ground. The C 130's are probably my favorite, simply because I got to hitch a ride home on them a couple of times when I was in the Navy. There are several C 17's stationed at nearby Camp Shelby. They fly over my house almost daily and do a flyover at Southern Miss football games at least once a year. Very impressive.

 

[Kanewpadle]

The BUFF has been around a long time. I worked on them for a short time and found them easy to maintain. Unbelievable how tough they are. With periodic maintenance, they will be around a bit longer.

But consider this, the SR-71 was on the drawing board in the late 50's and put into service in 1964. All without the use of computers!

There other aircraft that have been around almost as long. The KC-135, P3 Orion, Huey, C-130, U-2, T-33, T-38, and others.

 

[Squarebutt]

I grew up very near Westover AFB in Massachusetts, at the time a SAC base with B-52's coming and going by day and night, landing on one of the longest runways on the east coast. They sure enough rattled our windows, less than a mile from their flight path. Growing up I had a lot of friends whose fathers were crew and support folks with SAC. I can still picture those big birds struggling for altitude, leaving eight smoke trails as they took off, probably loaded with nukes.
Now they have a fleet of C5's. They are a sight to see doing touch-and-go maneuvers, so big they seem like they're not moving. Coast Guard C-130's are regular visitors, too.
A few miles away is Barnes Air Guard base, which hosts the F-15's that patrol the Northeast coast. A pair of them, wing-to-wing, flew over our place yesterday. They replaced the A-10 Warthogs that were fun to watch for over 20 years.
I consider us lucky to have them all as neighbors.

 

[Dutchs]

I hope it last forever...I worked on the TA-4J in the Navy and it is nearly obsolete now...It was a great little airplane but the B-52 is a true work of art! Maybe the most beautiful airplane ever IMO.....

 

[Thiokol]

I was assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Travis AFB in the late 60's. It was always a thrill watching them get airborne. If you've never seen a MITO exercise, here's a pretty good video.

B-52 MITO departure, Minot AFB, ND - YouTube

 

[chud333]

Great thread John.
I sure would'nt have wanted to be a NVA regular walking
the Ho Chi Mihn trail when these we're flying overhead.
I remember seeing footage from aerial cameras when they
dropped a line of the big ones down a road/trail. And with
B-52 help Khe Sahn was "not overrun". Some of the
Marines at the base said the Buffs we're carpet bombing so
close to their perimeter that it felt like an earthquake at times.
Same thing i think every time i see the "Blue Angels" fly at an
airshow. Sure are glad those are on (Our Side).

Chuck

 

[Farmer17]

There are bunch of B-52s at Tinker AFB along with B-1s and supposedly B-2s but I was on the base every day and never saw a B-2. One reason the airplanes last so long is because they would take them apart and strip them all the way down to a very basic skeleton and then rebuild them and put them back together and apply paint and coatings.

 

[BUFF]

America's bomber force is only a tiny, tiny shadow of what it used to be. Our most numerous bomber is the B-52. Lets look at the numbers:

There were 744 B-52's built originally, in several series: B-52A (testers) 3. B-52B, 50. B-52C, 35. B-52D, 170. B-52E, 100. B-52F, 89. B-52G, 193. B-52H, 102.

While all these weren't in service at the same time, most of them were. The only B-52's left in service now are 76 B-52H's. All the rest have been either chopped into scrap or otherwise demilitarized and what is left of the aircraft are displayed in museums.

We also had the B-47, built before the B-52. We had 2,032 of them made.

We had the B-58 Hustler, with 116 of them made.

We had the B-36, with 384 of them made.

For a long time, during the Cold War, the majority of all these were in service at the same time, along with a chunk of the 370 B-50's and a smattering of B-29's, although the latter 2 were no longer used much as combat bombers but as tankers and trainers and weather aircraft.

Think of that, 3,276 jet (and mix jet and prop-jet) bombers built and flying in a 20 year period, most of them available for nuke bomb dropping if called upon.

THAT is deterrence!

Here in 2013, we have 76 50 year old B-52's, 66 B-1's and 20 B-2's.