Posted on 09/06/2009 9:33:49 AM PDT by em2vn
For the third time in the last decade, the U.S. Air Force is looking at using commercial aircraft as bombers. This time around, it's mainly a matter of cost, with the next generation heavy bomber likely to cost over a billion dollars each, and only carry 30 tons of bombs or missiles. The idea of militarizing 747s first started gaining traction three decades ago, as cruise missiles showed up and many air force analysts did the math and realized that it would be a lot cheaper to launch these missiles from a militarized Boeing 747. The freighter version of the latest 747model, the 747-8F, can carry 140 tons of cargo. After militarizing the aircraft, you would still be able to carry about a hundred tons of missiles and bombs.
Sure, because IFF transponders can't be reprogrammed or anything...
Self-protection systems, bomb-nav radar, crew stations, weapons systems, radios, EMP hardening, plumbing for aerial refueling, etc.
The list goes on and on.
It is a great idea - for desperate times should they ever arrive.
Although they would probably work better as Spectre gunships.
Good idea: I’m usually bombed when I fly business class on them anyway...
The 747 is an over-engineered beast.
We've used Boeing 707s for decades and have thrown them around pretty good.
I have thousands of hours on military 707s and am continually surprised at how much punishment they can take.
The Russians don't care 'bout no steekin' transponder codes. KAL 007 was squawking a civilian ATC code when it was shot down, the Russians knew it and they shot it down, anyway......
What would probably be the cheapest of all is to just build more B-52s. I have heard that the production line is mothballed somethere. We have all the training, parts, and avionics for this aircraft. Is it stealth, no? But we don’t need stealth in all cases and its has a very mature EW system.
It will never happen, however.
> NO! Doesn’t anyone remember KAL007? How many more 747’s are we willing to to see shot out of the sky because there would be no way to determine one from the other? Are we really that desiress to get our security that much on the cheap?
It wouldn’t be the first time a superb civilian aeroplane also served as a superb military aeroplane, contemporaneously.
The Douglas Dakota / DC3 is one aeroplane that leaps immediately to mind. I bet if I thought long and hard enough I could find others. Like the Piper Cub, for instance...
...I’m sure the Luftwaffe would have done it, too. The Soviets are sure to have done it.
Looks like you beat me to it.
The problem, as intimated in the article, is MINDSET. The whole thinking of the Air Force bomber institution would have to be changed. Well, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe not. But at 1/10th the cost per unit and vastly increased load capacity, why not at least do a real-world feasibility study and see what works and what doesn't?
There's a bunch of them sitting in the desert in AZ waiting to be scrapped....
Replace 50-yr.-old bombers with 30-yr.-old bombers? Even refurbished, you would have many of the same fatigue issues unless you scrap 90% of the airframe and rebuild from scratch. Even a 747 cargo variant would need extensive modifications - hard points, electronics, hydraulics, plumbing for midair refueling. IMO a refurbished 747 would cost nearly as much or more as a NEW a/c.
The Valkyrie was a beautiful bird. When I was a kid growing up near Wright-Patterson AFB my dad and I watched it fly over our house once.
That and the SR-71
My 2 all time favorites on my wish list to see.
No need to refurb old aircraft. Boing is still building new ones.
The excuse was the 747 was mistaken for a C141 because of the bulge on top of the plane over the cockpit even though the two are nowhere nearly alike other than the fact that each had wings. The point is if they used that as an excuse then, that provides them more of an excuse to do it over and over.
NO! Doesn’t anyone remember KAL007? How many more 747’s are we willing to to see shot out of the sky because there would be no way to determine one from the other? Are we really that desiress to get our security that much on the cheap?Missing a /sarc tag?
I was in the Air Force and got to see the Blackbird a few times. It was usually after an air show and the pilots always loved to show off when they left. The Blackbird with those two huge engines would take off then climb straight up until you simply couldn’t see it. It was amazing.
We know you need the jobs, its just the business climate there is not conducive to any business in their right mind to go back especially when they could not keep Toyota there considering as desperate that Cal is for keeping what they have.
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