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

quote:

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I guess I should have said avionics. It’s the same air frame for the most part with spare parts being replaced but the entire fleet has had their airframes/avionics packages upgraded to include newer technologies mostly in the 70s with the addition of the TV/IR sensors under the nose which aren’t even used anymore.

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I think that they have all been "harvested" from the B52 boneyard, but, for the first years of those old avionics platforms sitting in storage, they housed a plethora of very high quality vacuum tubes that are very usable in a number of audio equipment modes. Some folks made good money re-selling these tubes. I think that the useful tubes are mostly gone from surplus now.

Well:

Produced 1952–1962
Number built 441
Unit cost
B-52B: US$14.43 million (1956); ($99.9 million in 2016)
[B-g52H: US$9.28M (1962);[$57.8 million in 2016)

The B-21 will be $550 million each

Ride that 52 pony as long as you can!