re: B-52 Stratofortress, how is it still in service?

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I talked to a B-52 pilot at the air show in NO last year from Barksdale and I think he said almost all or all the current B-52s flying are 1970s and later airframes. Still pretty old but it’s a lot better than 50s/60s lol.

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How can this be true if the last airframe for that aircraft rolled off of the factory assembly line in 1962 ?

I had a friend who did maintenance on them, (Carswell Ft. Worth) quite a few years bac. He said they liked to use RTV silicone caulk to set their repairs. He would laugh and say almost the entire wing of many B52s were silicone caulk with the skin over the stuff.

The pilot seats were leather, usually covered in wool and usually older than the pilots who flew the bombers.

He also said they could fly pretty nearly all the way to the other side of the globe, bomb third world enemies like crazy and then fly back. If our air defenses were in place it was just another day at the office for those who flew them.

In our days in Ft. Worth, we would drive over to Carswell and park on the road that borders the west runway. Would sit and let our two sons watch the B-52s take off. Along side the runways were the bunkers I always assumed were where the nukes were stored. Went out there on a public day and got to walk into one of the B-52s. Was awesome. Not so funny, they had nice warning signs 50 yards or so from the bunkers, saying the guards were to shoot you first and then worry about who you were, so you should, Stay the Hell on your side of this line. My wording, not theirs, but said the same thing.

Clip in rotary launcher for 8 Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCM)

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B-52 Stratofortress, how is it still in service?

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No one has built anything that is better/more cost effective.

Badass fricking maintainers, that's how

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The air-frame was over-engineered

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Too bad the brakes weren't

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Air Force baws, What makes the B-52 still viable as a military air craft? surely, we have better technology, materials, or designs by now, right?

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No. We'd use them if we had them. If you need to drop a lot of boom on someone's head and you've already sent in the stealth shite and the air superiority fighters to clear the path, there's nothing like a flying dump truck to bring some pain.

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I'm really blown away by this fact: The B-52 has been in service since 1955, 63 years. that is a longer period of time than from the first powered flight(1903) to the introduction of the B-52 to service, 52 years.

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The B-52 will be in service for about 100 years before it retires. The Air Force has no plans to replace it in its role in the near future. For what its job is in an air campaign, you can't get much more effective or as cheap as the existing B-52 fleet.

The CSRL also can carry 8 conventional missles as well. Most (if not all) of the airframes still flying are 60-61 models.

There is a third generation B-52 pilot that was flying them, and are programmed to put last the Bone and the B-2. Contingent on getting the B-21 on time...and we all know how the government procurement process goes....

I’m not an expert in military aviation, but B-52s bad mofos. They make things go boom boom from way up high. But nothing is as badass as the A-10 Warthog. Flys in low and delivers a fury of bullets so fast it sounds like God’s fart.

The BUFF is an amazing airframe and can haul a shite ton of payload pretty much anywhere in the world.

It has the ability to drop a GMU down a vent hole from Flt350 and do so it often.

Cheap to maintain and fairly easy to fly it is here to stay.