Posted on 05/27/2014 9:08:32 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
Believe it or not, it’s a matter of cost. Boeing offered to re-wing and re-engine the B-52 fleet a few years, but the Air Force decied it would be cheaper (long term) to keep the Buff in its original, eight-engine configuration.
I was told the cost for the program would be $2-3 billion. However, there are still a lot of TF-33 engines on Buffs and C-141s in the boneyard. The Air Force has been canibalizing those for years, and it’s one reason they haven’t looked at the re-engine option very seriously.
However, the supply of engines/parts at the boneyard is not unlimited, and there would be tremendous savings in going to a four-engine model with better fuel efficiency and greater thrust.
My younger brother worked in those babies in the 1970s. They were already full of new wire with the original wire harnesses still in place. Pulling the original ones out would be too expensive. Not only that, there are many "stop drills" and pop-riveted plates to repair air frame cracks. This makes the craft a great deal heavier than it is supposed to be.
For the life of me, why don't they build new ones using upgraded designs to replace the dangerously aged hulks? It is a wonderful design that should be replicated in newly built aircraft.
Bwahahaha ... I can see it now, landing in the Steppes to gather enough Peat to get home ...
Had one of these fly over me “lo&slo” souht of Gilette, WY in Wyoming in the early 80s. They were dropping flour sacks from ~500 feet.
Since I was the only car on the road within 200 miles on a Sunday afternoon, I suppose they wanted to have some fun and “give me the willies!”.
They did.
If you look at the C5 Re-engining, it was pretty expensive and they’re only doing about half of the C5B fleet as a result.
Here’s a pretty good article that describes in detail the hurdles that are faced in upgrading aircraft built as recently as the ‘80s. One can only imagine the difficulties that would face the B52s.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/saving-the-galaxy-the-c-5-amprerp-program-03938/
>>> A military pilot called for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running “a bit peaked.” Air Traffic Control told the fighter pilot that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down. “Ah,” the fighter pilot remarked, “The dreaded seven-engine approach.” <<<
Have Spike get the PowerBlock boys to launch a new series call ‘C5 Overhaul’.
They could weld on some 787 engines with controls, and have it out the door in 6 months.
That guy who does Extreme Off Road can fabricate about anything except a good haircut. At least it seems that way.
Big Ugly Fat Fellow, right? Kinda like Rear Echelon Mortar Fixers?
Used to be a show called Junkyard Wars or some such...the teams had to build something out of stuff found in the yard...pretty damned ingenious in some cases.
I’ve seen that aircraft just aren’t as forgiving of such “ingenuity” at times...the Law of Physics and all that.
As Obama says, win some loose some...
Can’t we re-design this old ship? Use Turoprops like the Russian Bear? We need this sort of ship so why not build a B-54 or a B-59?
The two engine per pylon weighs X much, produces Y amount of thrust, D amount of drag, L amount of lift (yes the nacelle shape produces lift), M amount of yaw moment, and L amount of pitch moment. Any change needs to stay in an envelope around each of those quantities.
Any that fall outside that envelope and the structure reacts very differently. i.e. The wing can fatigue faster or flutter (BAD) can result.
On top of that, the cost of changing out the H engines would be more than the airframes are worth according to the last time re-engining was looked at... and we need those bombers.
So we're stuck with them as they are for now.
That help?
Feller, yeah...that’s it...feller!
Valerie jarret keeps 8 engins because two of them are homosexual engines....
I had a couple of A-10’s pretending (I assume) that I was an enemy vehicle on a back road near McGuire AFB in South Jersey back around then. Lined me up, popped up from the tree line about two miles ahead and made their runs. Neat to watch, and fun-scary.
Yes, they had to phase out the coal burners when they found out people were aborting all the midget babies that used to be squeezed into the wings to stoke the engines.
Now, thinking about that same thing as if you were a red-diaper liberal who hates the military.
Given the above description, you would have probably had you Senator on speed dial!
Can they still fry chickens in the barnyard?
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