The B-52 is celebrating a big birthday this year — 60 — but unlike humans who feel the aches and pains of aging, the aircraft remains a premiere bombing machine that is expected to continue giving bad guys a real bad day through the 2040s, thanks to yet another upgrade.
“It’s a purely awesome machine,” said Senior Master Sgt. Daniel Dutton, B-52 command fleet manager for Global Strike Command. “It’s hard to put into words how well this aircraft was built and how well it’s been maintained over the last 50 or 60 years by our guys — out here on the flight line or deployed, it doesn’t matter.”
The bomber can carry nukes or provide close-air support by obliterating anyone shooting at U.S. troops, as it has in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
“When people ask, ‘What kind of armament, what kind of weapons can this thing carry?’ we basically say, ‘Well, pretty much the U.S. arsenal’ — granted the air-to-air role isn’t quite there yet,” said Col. Russell Hart, chief of the bomber operations division at Global Strike Command.
Going forward, the B-52 will get an upgrade to its bomb bay allowing it to carry 40 percent more precision-guided bombs and new radar that can go more than 1,000 hours before it needs to be repaired, versus the current radar, which needs to be worked on after 30 to 50 hours, Global Strike Command officials said.
The B-52’s upgrades will also allow smart bombs to receive new targets while the bomber is in flight — a critical capability given the U.S. military’s focus on the Pacific region, which requires planes to travel long distances, said Jim Noetzel of Global Strike Command’s bomber requirements division.
In fiscal 2012, the mission-capable rate for the B-52H was 78.3 percent even though the bomber’s average age is 50.8 years — blowing the doors off the B-1B’s 56.8 percent mission-capable and the B-2A’s 51.3 percent mission-capable rate.
The venerable B-52 is turning 60 and is expected to continue to serve into the 2040′s.
Meanwhile, see the other iconic aircraft of the USAF, the F-15, it entered service in 1976 and is only expected to continue service until the mid 2020′s. The F-15 is an excellent air frame also, but I guess they just don’t make them last like they used to.
The B-52 is still just about the scariest aircraft to fly over the horizon as seen by our enemies.
My job when I served back in the late 70′s was to train B-52 and F-15E strike fighter pilots in Electronic countermeasures and radar bomb scoring.
H/T Bad Blue
Every year a couple or three B-52′s, flying out of Fairchild, open the Armed Forces Lilac Parade in Spokane by buzzing downtown. They fly so low you feel like you can almost touch them. They are HUGE when seen like that and it’s so exciting. Of course, one hot dogging pilot messed up really bad in 1994. It was a terrible crash and the reason I don’t go to the Fairchild air shows.
When just a little girl they had a stunt pilot at the Minnesota State Fair with a wing-walker. They entertained during the break in the auto races in the grandstand. The plane crashed in the center of the field and the wing walker was thrown 100′s of feet. I’ll never forget that she was wearing saddle shoes and the bi-plane was orange. It happened in 1951 so I was about 5 1/2 years old.
And guess what? I just found a picture of her and her name – Kitty Middleton. She was 17 years old. And she’s wearing saddle shoes and the plane is orange. I guess when something that traumatic happens, even if you’re 5 years old, you never forget.
Yes, air shows can be dangerous sometimes, although they do their best to mitigate the danger as best they can. Cool story about the wing walker. Hate that she was in a crash. There’s a you tube video of the Fairchild crash.
One of my eleven-year-old’s favorite planes.
I lost count of how many versions of it he has.
Glad to see that it’s still the wrecking-ball of pain that it was created to be.
Showed this to my sons last night.
Result?
My eleven-year-old is now re-reading (for the umpteenth time) his copy of “American Bomber Aircraft Development in World War 2″, and spouting off various measurements and payload capacities every few minutes.
Thanks, Mr G….
If memory serves, the Fairchild crash pilot was a pilot that had gotten away with dangerous flying for years …
Yes, he was a reckless pilot who’s recklessness finally caught up with him. Unfortunately, three other crew members died with him.