Eli5 why does the US still use a bomber from the 1950s when they have built two newer ones since then?
In: 7
Cause it’s clearly still working?
It’s HUGE.
I was living in Vegas back in 1990 when Desert Storm was ramping up. A B52 would take off headed South every hour on the hour for days. Those suckers really know how to Roll Coal.
It’s the best bomb truck in existence. If you don’t need stealth or supersonic speed but you want to carry 70,000 pounds of anything from leaflets to canned sunshine, BUFF is the stuff.
The real truth: We can’t even build a god damn functional tanker; And that’s just a plane with a gas tank and a stick
Answer: Convenience, lack of actual war time use for the new stuff, (helps save funds on resources for new stuff in case the military has to actually use it) and, the most controversial fact: Profit
If you start with duplo Legos, you can continue buying more, thousands more. You could custom make 3D printed new ones now too. So in theory, you can make any large design item out of duplo Legos. You cantreally connect to big kid Legos, but you don’t need to because the big things you want to make are large enough the duplo size doesn’t make a difference. And from afar, the pics of the duplos 8ft away are the same as the pics of the smaller ones 4ft away. And you’ve invested in thousands of Duplos.
Changing airframes is like changing from duplos to smaller Legos. It is very expensive. As long as you can build the things you want with duplos, there’s no reason to change.
B1 = aluminium performance racecar
B2 = carbon composite performance racecar with ADHD
B52 = truck
Basically the USAF promised the B-52 would be kept in the air as long as possible as a respectful tribute to Major T.J. “King” Kong. RIP 🫡 We’ll have a good time in Dallas in your memory Sir. 🫡
The more complex the plumbing, the easier it is to stop the drain. Several great examples of simple aircraft being used even though they are outdated: B-52, A-10, F-16, F-22, KC-135, U-2
Reason? They can still operate if the computer goes out.
https://aerocorner.com/blog/oldest-military-planes-in-service/
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