Posted on 09/30/2010 11:13:09 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The US Air Force has awarded Boeing a potentially $11.9 billion contract to support weapon system modernisation of its B-52 bomber fleet.
"This contract will include several delivery orders over an eight-year period. This is a contracting vehicle that will allow engineering sustaining contracts, studies, production and other activities to occur in support of the B-52," says Boeing.
The company expects to receive its first funds in relation to the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity deal on 30 September, it says.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightglobal.com ...
Too bad Seattle had to chase most of Boeing out of Seattle with their Democrat anti-business policies.
Ping
I stay in love with that old B-52 since the days I walked around them for two years on an alert ramp at Whiteman AFB, Missouri in the early 70s. I’m happy to see them still in service.
Has any aircraft been designed since that can keep on and keep on being modernized? WOW! What an aircraft!
They are supposed to last until 2040 with the upgrades
Yeah, and that traitor Clinton had a bunch of them decommissioned and cut up when he was CIC. What a idiot, all lefties are idiots.
From what I understand, we haven’t built a new B-52 since the 70s. Do we still have the capacity to build new ones if any are lost?
Produced: 1952–1962
Number built: 744
Active: 68
Reserve: 9
When I was stationed at Ellsworth, I remember them landing and taking off. I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the BUFF. Incredible machine than IMHO should be labeled the best aircraft ever.
I used to fly on those things. Supposedly, Boeing scrapped the tooling for them in the late '60s or early '70s, when USAF decided it wasn't interested in buying the B-52J (four big engines instead of eight smaller ones). Because of Air Force numbering conventions, there never was a B-52I.
If we were ever to build another (non-stealth) heavy bomber, it'd probably look a lot more like the B-49 than the B-52. There are a lot of advantages to a flying wing design and the stability problem has long since been solved by computerized flight controls.
The B-52A first flew in 1954, and the B model entered service in 1955. A total of 744 B-52s were built with the last, a B-52H, delivered in October 1962. Only the H model is still in the Air Force inventory and is assigned to Air Combat Command and the Air Force Reserves.
The Aire Combat Command sheet on the B-52 shows
nventory: Active force, 85; ANG, 0; Reserve, 9
I can see some young (future) airman calling his grandfather “Hey, grampa - what was the tail number of the -52 you flew in Vietnam?”
Wiki failed me again. :(
The B-52 first came into service two years after my dad left the Air Force. I’m sure he never thought it would still be around when his son was over 50. Back in the ‘70s, when I came of age, we used to complain that our pilots were flying planes older than they were... little did we know. A great and durable aircraft, as it turned out. I’ve even got a little piece of a decommissioned BUFF embedded in the back of my wristwatch.
All of the current wing commanders for the B-52 were not yet born when the first one rolled off the production line.
The last B-52 pilot has not been born yet.
Assuming your O-6 Wing Commanders are around 45, they weren't yet born when the last one did.
Wiki - is Wiki.
A good place to start, but no longer good as rvrn a second reference.
Sources like the USAF .mil pages make for good sources as do original sources (where the story originated from)
Wikis can be fun, and for some things a good enough source.
THanks for reading & the reply
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