Boeing B-52 outlasts its replacements replacements replacement
Published 3:27 pm Monday, December 7, 2015
EVERETT — The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress has been flying for more than 60 years. It has survived faster, slicker, stealthier bombers. But none has proved as reliable and affordable as the BUFF — Big Ugly Fat Fellow. (That’s the cleaned up version of the acronym.)
Today, there is a B-52 pilot whose father and grandfather flew the intercontinental bomber, reports the New York Times in a great profile of the aging bomber.
Seventy-six B-52s make up the bulk of the U.S. Air Force’s long-range bomber force.
The Pentagon plans to replace the B-52 with the long-range strike bomber. Last month, the contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman. But the competing team — Boeing and Lockheed Martin — have contested the decision.
The Air Force expects the B-52 to still be flying until at least 2040. “By then, taking one into combat will be the equivalent of flying a World War I biplane during the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” Dave Philipps writes in the Times.
To be fair, that is as much a commentary on the BUFF’s enduring design as it is on how little aerospace has really changed since the modern jet era began after World War II.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
