B-52 resurrected from desert Boneyard

[Road Guy]

hopefully headed over to drop some daisy cutters on some ISIS POS

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/21/us/arizona-b-52-restored/index.html

 

[mudpuppy]

That's awesome! I got to tour the Boneyard at Davis Monthan last year and it's almost surreal driving around among thousands of old military aircraft.

There's a B-52 at the Pima Air Museum across the street that you can walk around under--damn those things are huge!

 

[blybrook PE]

Thats great news! Better than buying a replacement

 

[Flyer_PE]

They have one in the hangar at Wright Patterson. The word "impressive" doesn't do it justice.

 

[SNAPE/SMOTT PE]

Would be cool to see one in person, as long as it's not coming for me, lol.

 

[Dleg]

"Better than buying a replacement" - Really?? The thing is over 50 years old. Remember your mechanics of materials class, and how fatigue affects aluminum? Here we have the backbone of the nation's heavy bombing force, the B-52, and all of them are well beyond the age any commercial heavy jet would have been retired by. Sure, they have all been re-built several times, but at what point do you just bite the bullet and pay for an entirely new plane? These things were originally designed in the late 1940s, ferchristsake.

 

[Road Guy]

I'm sure the DoD overpaid some consultant to make sure it's okay..

We should just vx ISIS anyways... Got a lot of that stuff laying around....

 

[Dleg]

One good nuke should do the trick. And it would also solve a few other problems as well, by sending a message to Iran and the other countries (Russia) that might be starting to feel like they can get away with grabbing neighboring territory.

(this is why I am not President)

 

[Supe]

And is also exactly why you SHOULD be.

 

[NJmike PE]

One good nuke should do the trick. And it would also solve a few other problems as well, by sending a message to Iran and the other countries (Russia) that might be starting to feel like they can get away with grabbing neighboring territory.

(this is why I am not President)

true, but Barry is a pu$$y and wouldn't do it.

 

[jeb6294]

They have one in the hangar at Wright Patterson. The word "impressive" doesn't do it justice.

Being in Cincinnati, I've taken the boys up there several times. When you can walk around looking at several planes and then look up and realize that you're still under one of the B-52 wings....

"Better than buying a replacement" - Really?? The thing is over 50 years old. Remember your mechanics of materials class, and how fatigue affects aluminum? Here we have the backbone of the nation's heavy bombing force, the B-52, and all of them are well beyond the age any commercial heavy jet would have been retired by. Sure, they have all been re-built several times, but at what point do you just bite the bullet and pay for an entirely new plane? These things were originally designed in the late 1940s, ferchristsake.

Who cares when it was designed, it still does the job and it does it well. The A-10 is ancient and the guys who do the actual flying are still fighting to keep it around because it works so well.

 

[Dleg]

^So build some new ones. My criticism is not at all to do with the design, but the age of the airframe. Again, remember back to your mechanics of materials class and what you learned about aluminum. (or was that only for us mechanical engineers?)

 

[Lumber Jim]

Not only does aluminum have a finite life span due to fatigue, it also age hardens over the course of it's life if I remember my strength of materials course correctly. when they re-certify air planes, do they pull material samples and send them out for metallurgical testing?

 

[Road Guy]

Well usually the military is not known as being cost-effective.

It does sound like some Air Force Gen. Maybe saw the light of day with how much money, tax payer money, was pissed away on developing new airplanes like the F-22 and said if we can refurbish old stuff that works let's do it

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Generally, high stress, high cycled parts are replaced at depot overhaul with new parts. The AF has rebuilding/restomodding airframes down to a science.

 

[kevo_55]

The "green" thing to do is to melt all of the aluminium down and make more B-52's!!!!

 

[csb]

Most the planes you see going in for fire fighting are old warplanes. Greybull, WY, is the locations of Hawkins and Powers, a plane restoration outfit and military plane authorized contractor.

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/greybull.htm

P.S. If you're an old plane buff headed to Yellowstone, Greybull is worth the detour.

 

[Lumber Jim]

Generally, high stress, high cycled parts are replaced at depot overhaul with new parts. The AF has rebuilding/restomodding airframes down to a science.

thanks Capt! I was hoping someone would say the wing parts get replaced on occasion. Although, I would think that even though the wings are high cycle, I would think it would be very low stress. To be more specific, the under side of the wing, motor mounts, hydraulics and linkages, etc probably gets the most attention? what's the design load on wings? extreme dynamic loading X 1.3?