How Long Can the B-52 Continue in Service?
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- čas přidán 29. 09. 2020
- brilliant.org/CuriousDroid
The B-52 has been in service for nearly 60 years and yet with new upgrades, it could still here into the 2050s or beyond, that could be that it's in service for around 100 years, far longer than any other aircraft and possibly outliving the planes brought in to replace it, the B-1 and B-2.
So how and why will they do this and keep a very analogue aircraft relevant in the era of digital warfare.
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Written, Researched and Presented by Paul Shillito
Images and Footage : USAF, Boeing, US DoD, RAF, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, GE, Soltau Cruiser
, John Schlupp, The Museum of Flight
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Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner - Věda a technologie
B52 to F35: "Boy, I've been flying long before you were here and I'll still be flying long after you're gone."
@Boxghost102 “Listen to him son, he’s telling the truth.” ~ Uncle B1 Lancer.
Chit Stank A-10 WARTHOG: that’s right ya’ little bastard. Especially since ya thought you could take ma’ place eh? You little bastard? But eh, I still love ya’ sonny.
The "BUFF" is like the cockroaches from the 1996 movie "Joe's Apartment", whom brag (in song) that "we've been here for a hundred MILLION years, and we'll be here long after YOU!"
Tu-16 (Chinese H-6) enters the chat...
I have the feeling the F35 is going to be here for the next century until UAV's take over and war moves to space.
B-52 Stratofortress. The Colt 1911 of military aircraft.
Nope, the Ma Deuce M2 is the better comparison. Both are still active and unmatched adn with long careers ahead.
Roger that!!
@@jamesb4789 the same could also be said with the m14 or m16
Walther ppk
The weapon that was apparently used to stop my distant relatives, the Huk guerillas in the Philippines. I also heard they were wrapped in cloth like a mummy, like a body tourniquet in order to stop blood loss if they were hit by gunfire and they also ingested some sort of narcotic hanging from a pouch on their waist. This drove them into a higher aggressive state of mind. The .45 replaced the .38 because it had the knockdown power the .38 lacked against the Huks. It's ironic I carried the Colt .45 auto as my duty weapon when I served as a police officer. I knew the history of the weapon and actually, that was one reason why I chose it.
My father was a navigator on the B52s in the 1960s. I remember him saying “they were old then!”
How can a 58 year old airplane still be relevant in the age of stealth fighters?
How can a 10,000 year old flint knife still cut meat in the age of laser beams?
The answer to both is the same:
Because the original use-case hasn't changed very much, and new tech is overqualified for the job.
Not to mention, the U-2 still flies to this day.
The New tech Airplanes are developed for the Future of the Extreme case anyway.
It’s basically future proofing
It's because terrorists don't have radar.
@@Juno101 because it's the cheapest thing possible to get its purpose done. Its takeoff trainung wheels fall off and it literally doesn't even lands it more accurately gracefully glides down the runway until it unceremoniously slows down and tips to one side and stops. It's that simple, no unnecessary complexity, doesn't have landing gear other than two bicycle wheels, and most of it's weight (which is not much) is put into the engine which can get such a light object as high in the air as possible just to take pictures.
@@berkan5578 which is odd because there's lasers in position in space to hit any one of us they want
air force general in 2050: meh, slap an ion cannon on it and keep it flying! 🤠
space force general in 2050: meh, fit a fusion reactor to power 8 plasma thrusters and let's bring democracy to...
👁 👁
👄 U...R...A...N...U...S
@@PenisMcWhirtar "You're just going there to steal their space gas!"
Most likely that wouldn’t happen unless something fuels advance in a different way than in the last decades. But our world is based on fundamental physics one century old with barely nothing new since but bs that proves wrong again and again.
Air Force General from C&C Generals : “ wanna see an air show?”
@@iLikeRandomfacts best RTS ever
The year is 2100, the B-52 has been converted to a spacecraft, with a light speed drive recently being added
I very much hope this happens someday.
Expect it to drop bombs on Titan!
Capable of ludicrous speed
Warp nacelles instead of jet engines
imagine the b 52 in space battleship yamato
Imagine being able to say, you, your children, and your children's children, all flew one single aircraft.
“Grandpa! What is flying a B52 like?”
“Oh, you’ll see what it’s like when you get there.”
Far from unique to US airforce, thats pretty much been the case for majority personal aircraft all around the globe. Things like the Cessena 172 (1956) are a very common first aircraft to learn to fly, and indeed brand new airframes continue to be built, and while continuous upgrades have occured (both retrofitted to original planes, and implemented before manufacture on new ones) your an absolute plane spotter to tell a 2018 production year from 1968, and the latter is certainly common to still be used.
@@SheepInACart i was more referring to multiple generations having piloted a single unique model. As in, they all flew THAT tail number.
@@UpToSpeedOnJaguar Likewise the same exact air-frames of Cessena ect have been in the air for 60+ years now. It can have been bought brand new by your grandfather as his primary business, and still be the plane you learn to fly in. Indeed the military actually uses them as trainers, so many nations fighter pilots have gotten their start in whats been the same trainer cessena as their grandparents would have... despite going on to fly a supersonic jet in place of the last era of piston powered single seaters. The world of aviation just changes really, really slowly. Although I'm sure that those who drive battle tanks will be pretty quick to point out the M1 Abrams is already >40years old, and many generations of navy would crew the same ships, so its just all non-consumer feilds in general.
or paid for it
50's designers..."Make it to last 100 years."
2000's designers..."Make it as expensive as possible."
2000s Designers: And make it break down all the time so they have to keep coming back for service parts!
@@David-lr2vi
That's not how you spell "greedy company executives".
I'm sure the designers would love to build a proper, honest, cheap-yet-good, long-lasting design.
Gotta make Lockheed Martin rich
I mean how else are the looters of public monies going to get by?
The CEO wants that fat bonus...
Year 2340: The B-52-Z has retired.....welcome B-52-Z-A
Full impulse with antimatter bottles.
The B-52-AA
@@Eshanas Equipped with the latest space-to-ground missiles to be deployed from standoff distance in Mars orbit. Capable of unrefueled missons from Luna to as far as Ceres. Be aware of operational hazards caused by Saigon chicken bones becoming dislodged in zero G.
ekcookvids The L-4/L-19/L-21/U-6 beat them too it (and was in continuous production from 1930 to 1985 for military customers and you can still buy factory new ones).
The MK 52
Friend: Why haven't you bought a new car yet?
Me: Gonna run it til the wheels fall off.
Air Force: Say.. that's not a bad idea.
add to Air Force: we may even give it a new engine but give us some decades to decide on that.
Too bad they didn’t use the same ideology with the A-10C
Lawbringer they should have made it a STOVL and bam lifespan extended another 3 decades
Lol if you add up all the flying hours it’s probably be to Mars and back , it’s been going longer then Apollo missions and they went to the moon the b2 has gone passed it lol
I flew B-52s in the late 70's to mid-80s. And I actually did see the wheels fall off one of them! Well, one of the four landing gear collapsed as it was just beginning to taxi. I think it had just undergone some sort of gear refurbishment and had been reassembled improperly. (Or something like that.) The damage was minor, they got the needed parts from the boneyard, and it was soon back in the air. We were in another aircraft and had a better view of what was going on than the mishap crew did.
Year 2520:
Sir! Multiple enemy hovertanks approaching!
AF command: Send in the B-52s, they'll still work.
My Grandfather first flew B-47s then spent the majority of his career flying the B-52. R.I.P. Grandpa, and fly that eternal B.U.F.F. in the sky.
the B-47 is one modern looking bird; jet-age awesomeness. Funny how it went obsolete so quickly; a shame for something that appeared so sleek. Glad to hear your grandfather flew them both.
Your Grandfather was an honorable patriot and you are fortunate to have such a role model in your heritage. But flying for eternity? Give him a Phantom.
When I was in Guam, there was a B-52 there, piloted by a guy who's dad flew the very same plane out of the very same base back when he was in Vietnam.
Great to be in a nation which makes war in the complete world^^
Rainer Wahnsinn tf are you talking about
@@lawbringer8936 if the USA wouldn´t make war all the time(in the past) there wouldn´t be a reason to have the army everywhere in the world
Rainer Wahnsinn oh you’re one of those people
@@rainerwahnsinn9585 Always the USA's fault not the communists or the tyrants or the dictator it's the USA's fault.
Textbooks “BUFF: Big Ugly Fat Fellow”
B-52 pilots: “That’s not the F word we use”
Ah yes, ‘Fluffy’
Ah yes, 'Friend'
"Fellow" is the "Dress Blues" version...
Pisses me off when so called history channels tweak history so they don't get demonetised by advertisers.
Fake history.
@@Jin-Ro No; official policy always was "...fellow." Just like SNAFU is ...all fouled up" in the dictionary.
What you distribute for public consumption is one thing; what you do day-in and out is another. No more "fake news" than the average "Family Christmas card."
"Imagine if you can, a Sopwith Camel biplane..."
Snoopy: "Done!"
;-D
That's one highly skilled Beagle !
Snoopy SWORE, that'd he'd GET that man!
So he asked the great pumpkin for a new battle plan...
@@AC3handle He challenged the German to a real dogfight
if someone has one of those that still works that'd be a work of art.
"How Long Can the B-52 Continue in Service?"
"Yes."
The mystery about the long lasting Boeing aircraft is quite simple: rare use. B-52 and KC-135 are off very rare use. Civil aircraft like the 707 or A300 fly 7 days a week for 25 years. A KC-135 may fly once in two week from a fleet wide perspectiv.
Year 2070 , the B52 is expected to retire in 2100 , but I will be postponed to 2110.
call in the A-10 for close support and call in a b-52 for everything beyond short range.
Wikipedia: the last b-52Hs will serve into the 2050s
Iori: ayo ako told me the B-52H can be in service forever
Engineer: how long do you want these B-52 to last?
USAF: Yes
LOL!
@@88Mobius Mobius 8 on standby.
It's hard to improve upon the mousetrap, or the hammer.
i mean we could improve it easily, it would just cost more than the US is willing to pay at that is okay
Or the wheel
@@NerdyNEET The video literally just said the engines were designed in the 50s and last made in the 80s. It's definitely NOT the most efficient engine.
....and i've just had a great idea...The Hamtrap!
People have done both plenty. Especially mouse traps. Those little fuckers are way smarter than you think.
It amazes me that the planes I worked on fifty-five years ago are not only still flying but their as relevant today as they were then.
*Dance the Skies*
The oldest aircraft I worked on in the Air Force, C-130A models, built when I was two or three years old, sent to the bone yard eighteen years after being built. Some survived as gunships.
Back in the 80's I often heard this saying about the B-52 "if it's good enough for my father it's good enough for me" I guess they must include grandpa and great grandpa now.
Brazilians have a saying that goes like: “when the team is winning, you don’t change the players”... if it’s working, why bother
Similar expression in English. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Never change a running system
They should have changed before that FIFA World Cup final vs Germany !
depends on if the players are exhausted, lots of context required with this saying
@@colerambo3772 so train new players the same as the old, ie; build new B52s with updated tech, don't try to reinvent the damned airplane.
They're literally taking a working design, proven design, and scrapping it entirely for a new design that will probably be replaced in ten years.
Newer isn't always better.
The designs were done when slide rulers, log tables, rows of drafters, and human computers were a thing... a testament to good engineering as a team
Any aircraft can last forever if the flying hours or cycles are low.
Also remember that planes back in the day were not multi decade designs. They were engineered to that degree by people in shorter amounts of time. B52 was designed in 48, first flown in 52, and delivered in 55. The F-22 by comparison was first designed in 1987, first flown in 1990, delivered in 2005, almost 20 years.
@@scythelord to be fair...the f-22 is measures more complicated
yes you are right, Like the lunar module.. but tell that to military procurement
I lost my slide rule - I wanted to show it to my kids and grandkids - an amazing piece of kit.
You're 58 years old? You look great dude.
I saw the B-52's in concert. They were a lot of fun... :)
🪨🦞😁
They were *adjusts sunglasses* the bomb. (YEEEAHHHHH!)
Yeah.....that last F in B.U.F.F. Definitely stands for fellow. You are are classy dude Paul.
I prefer "Strategic/Tactical Opposition Removal Mechanism": STORM. But, BUFF is a tradition.
why doesn't anyone speak stratofortress? I think it's amazing
Giovanni Rodrigues da Silva US military aircraft usually have two names, the official US gov/company names and the names the pilots give them. For example, pilots call the “Super Hornet” the Rhino.
@@ronsmith4927 In Brazil we called the presidential plane "the big scrap"
@@giovannirodriguesdasilva646 Because the USAF, unlike the US Navy, hates the names of its own planes for some reason. The F-16 Falcon is called a "Viper", the A-10 Thunderbolt is called a "Warthog", and so on. To be fair, some of the official names of their aircraft are stupid and god only knows what Pentagon idiots chose them. The B-1 Lancer, for example. Or the B-2 Spirit. Seriously. The Navy and Marines, on the other hand get planes that mostly come with cool enough names to keep. Tomcat, Hornet, Harrier, etc.
Us airforce
“The a-10 is too old and outdated, GET RID OF IT”
Also Airforce “the b52 should stay for 100 years 😃”
libertarian4ever66 if humans use it over engineer it
If ever there was a plane that could and DID fight for it's place in the battlefield, it's the A-10.
Honestly, the U.S. Airforce hates the hog so much, they should lift the silly petty requirement that the army NOT operate fixed wing aircraft, and transfer the A-10 to them whole hog.(lol) The Army will likely not ever operate another fixed wing craft AFTER the A-10, unless it can do what the A-10 does so goddamn well: close air support saving the troops asses and going BRRRRRRT to any enemy bunker or mobile armour/artillery to make the grunt's life easier. It's fuckin win/win. The AF gets rid of the plane that make a mockery of the F-35 and the Army gets the close air support they need!
The airforce is stupid
@libertarian4ever66 the A-10 has already been replaced by F-16, Strike Eagles and B-1s.
@@exidy-yt it fought for dear life, back in 1991 it had to be pulled out due to excessive losses.
The B-52 is such a beast and an icon I personally don’t think it will be retired for at the *LEAST* another 100-150 years
God bless you mi Generál. May the thrown outs from helicopters burn in Hell for their communist subliminal activities.
A B-52 could still be useful in 100 years, but none of the planes in service right now will last that long, even if boneyard planes are cannibalized for parts.
@@Jake-rs9nq they would literally need to be taken down rivet by rivet - at which point it might be easier to toss the buff
_"How long can B-52 stay in service?"_
*B-52:* ...How long ya got?
Is that a "Wild One" reference?
We'll see if it outlives the Queen. Clash of the immortals.
Queen Liz, the B-52 and Betty White.... place your bets people, Keith Richards will keep track cause like hell he's going anywhere!
The Queen is alive ? I thought "The Queen is Dead" - The Smiths third album 16 June 1986.
impossible, THE SUN ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE NEVER SETS
Queen Hell. May it live as long as Keith Richards ...
We're unlikely to see the result. If life extensions technologies are improved, maybe our grandchildren would have a chance to see who won.
Who can last the longest.....
B-52: Yes
Tu-95: Yes
Haha we will find out in a few decades..
B52 "if it ain't broke don't fix it"
Tu95 "if it's broke, fly it anyway"
@@jimmyfreemantle879 in russia everything is broken, but just enough broken to keep functioning and NEVER breaks down
@@kartupelitish1903 that probably makes some form of sense..
Лол, Ту-95 помоложе будет вашей развалюхи
Stealing US bombers gave Russia a leg up
The fact that the TU-95 And B-52 are both still in service is insane
200 years from now, The Space Force will be flying B52s over enemy moon bases on Titan.
I've had this broom 60 years, it's had 409 heads and 100 handles.
Triggers Broom 😁
Theseus's Bomber
Sure, but its the design that counts.
'Ow the 'ell can it be the same bloody broom then?
Like rebuilding a wooden boat one piece at a time. Once ever piece of wood is replaced, is it really the same boat?
I have a sneaking suspicion that the last "F" in BUFF doesn't stand for "fellow". :p
Clearly stands for fun.
It doesn't, but you know those dreaded community standards.
Isn't it a sham that we can't tell it like it really is. Though they can't stop us (AI or algorithms) , cause you can not outsmart our clever witty brain power.
It is like "Trucker", only replace the "Tr" with an "F"...😊
@@Allan_aka_RocKITEman Thanks for proving my point.
B-52 Stratofortress is the equivalent to the Excelsior Class from Star Trek.
My father served as a B-52 maintainer during the Vietnam War. It's great to see these aircraft still going strong all these decades later.
I guess your dad was pretty good at his job.
Well, if this isn't the ultimate of the saying, "They don't make them like that anymore."
The spirit is still badass. Just not in the same way as the b-52.
@@DirectorBird yeah the B-52 just has this irreplaceable ominousness to it
@@casacara It's irreplaceable in the same way the USS Iowa is. Are we going to bring it back? No. Do we respect her power? Yes.
@@DirectorBird I mean unlike the Iowa, this thing is still useful
The term I've heard thrown around is "Century Bomber".
So that why CnC RA3 allied bomber called "Century Bomber"
@@wahyutriwibowo1803 Shit, that didn't even occur to me!
Speaking of age, I don't care how old I get but I'll never not sing "Kill the Wabbit!" whenever I hear Ride of the Valkyries
_"WHAT'S OPERA, DOC?"_ 👍👍
my late grandfather loved flight and airplanes so much, that be became a pilot (license signed by one of the wright brothers) an engineer and a patent attorney reviewing aircraft designs.
his leisure time was spent building and flying scale models and kites. he won the 1976 Smithsonian kite contest trophy for his revolutionary war kite.
i’m 54 now and still trying to find a passion like his. i love what he loved, but not like he loved it.
great channel. great stuff.
They’ll be a B52 flight at the dedication ceremony for the USS 1701 Enterprise. A, B, C and D
That sounds very likely at this point.
Excellent joke
It better damn be!
Same thing with the Russian TU-95. As it turns out, the technology for building a big truck full of bombs hasn't really improved since the 60's.
Why fix it when it ain't broke
*hasn't improved enough to warrant the cost of replacement over the cost of enhancement
Convert a modern 747 and you will get more range and payload.
@@MrMonkeybat not once you include armour armament and a variety of control and suppression and secondary suppression equipment your standard airframe is not as well built as most military aircraft. 1. You'd be lucky to get off the ground. 2. You'd be lucky if your wings don't snap on a turn. There's also the issue of engine strain. You'd be lucky not to burn out the engines. And if you modified a civilian airframe to fit military specs you might as well have just modified and altered old military frames with modern tech.
Bomber planes as a whole is incredibly obsolete in this day and age. They are big, heavy, slow, consume enormous amounts of fuel, and do not have a place in real combat except against 3rd world countries. Missiles have taken the spotlight, this plane can take 5 hours to fly to it's target just to drop let's say 15 megatons worth of explosives. While a singe missile can carry literally 100 megatons worth of explosives the same distance in just 20 minutes.
Outstanding. Great research. A lot of hard work was done to produce this video.
1:56 wow flying 24/7 for 8 years it's something
My immediate thought to the opening question: You can’t hack an analog plane with a computer virus.
Good point.
Although I dont think you can do it with normal digital aircraft either, the system is offline and extremely restricted.
libertarian4ever66 I’ll bet you that subminiature vacuum tubes are/were more common in aerospace than you might have thought. Especially at that time. Someone gave me a module off a decommissioned part of an American made plane, maybe part of electronic countermeasures, I don’t know. But it has here small vacuum tubes in it. Raytheon made iirc. I was told there were shotgun shells that would go off if parts of what this thing came from weren’t taken apart correctly.
@libertarian4ever66 didn't that plane encourage us to build a way better plane, and then it turned out that the russians had lied about its capabilities so we're just like way ahead of them now?
libertarian4ever66 Maybe..but, we re-tooled some of the framing and design for our F-15 because of that MiG..
It’s bedtime here in Australia, your timing couldn’t be better!
Here just having lunch - Sleep well.
Haha 🤣 so there are others. I like watching at bedtime too👍
@@davidskrinnikoff760 Hahaha how good is it to watch this right before bed 😂
I'm also Australian, nothing like a Curious Droid bedtime story 😌
I just woke up!
I didn’t know how to fly a B-52. Then I watched did a course on Brilliant and am now an RAF pilot. This comment is sponsored by Brilliant.
0:55 you see, in the age of digital warfare, those with less digital tech may actually have an advantage, as their stuff is harder to hack.
Or not even be able to hack
EMP: I wreck everything electronic
B-52: *laughs in analog*
And ancient EMP shielding
@@joshuacheung6518 And not alot of E to shield
@@davonmulder8458 actually there's plenty of E to shield. That said, most of the bare basics you need to run the engines (and therefore keep flying) can take an unshielded EMP strike just because they're so simple
The bombs are digital... B52 with no bombs is just a pice of paper on the air...
@@mr.crocket187 if it gets you away from what was probably a nuclear strike, that's a lot better than a paperweight hurtling towards Earth surrounded by enough fuel and ordinance that it won't matter if the electronics on the ordinance are fried.
The B-52’s wide wingspan makes it look so oddly proportioned and I love it.
@US Funny thing is, the Boeing 747 has a wingspan ten feet, and up to nearly forty feet wider, but the B-52 doesn’t have the fuselage of a wide body airliner. Everything is in the proportions.
A military historian once commented from a top view it looks very elegant..fragile,but from the sides or looking up to its belly iis pure power!
Wow, youtube has recommended me something that isn’t 11 years old
Technically it recommended you something 60 years old lol
Lest we forget that the wheel has been around for millenia
"the wheel" but there is not "one wheel"
if the wheel is so great why isn't there a wheel 2?
@@kenm3855 Wheel 2 is wing mate
@@ZaHandle what about wing 2 then? Checkmate atheist
Now, boys, we got three engines out; we got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule; the radio's gone and we're leakin' fuel, and if we's flying any lower, why, we'd need sleigh bells on this thing. But we got one little bulge on them Rooskies, at this height, why, they might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen.
- _Maj._ _King_ _Kong_
Too bad that the teleflex cable manual bomb bay door release was severed.
Loved Dr Strangelove. Great film.
The general flapping his arms talking about the B52 in the war room is a close second.
@@mgabrysSF A big plane like a '52... varrrooom! Its jet exhaust... frying chickens in the barnyard!
No fighting in the war room!
I wish more non military products were built as well as the B-52.
If you want to spend billions of dollars upgrading your 15" CRT TV you are more than welcome to. Most people would rather buy a new product with new features every few years.
@@r9bet CRT TVs are sough after by retrogamers especially the Sony Trinitrons. When you look at the picture image and "smoothness" of the scrolling/movement on it with retro system there is no comparsion. older restro system like NES/SNES/GENESIS/TG16/PSX looks amazing on CRT compared to stretchs off ratio HDTVs.
they used to be. you used to buy a kit to assemble a tv and it cost less then buying a brand new tv. same for cars. there was the King Midget which you bought a kit then had to source the materials for the doors etc but you could build a small car cheaper then buying a brand new one.
@@r9bet yeah new features that no one even uses and often has to change or disable because they render one unable to use the tv.
...in the days of disposable coffee makers.
FIA: Oh yeah let's make regulations to the Formula One to reduce emissions because of global warming.
B-52: Hold my rolling coal.
I was beginning to think I was the only one who noticed.
I worked on KC135's in the AF and those are just as old, made in the 50s and early 60s. the 135R model was the most recent upgraded version of the airframe. It is projected to be in service until at least the 2050s even with the new 46 models being produced right now. Amazing planes both by Boeing, they know how to engineer aircrafts
02:39
•B-52 crashes•
•Coughs•
“I was 10 years away from my 4th retirement”
My thoughts for the future:
Boeing Releases B52MAX
_[guiltylol]_
solving the spare parts issue by making them rain from the sky eh?
No NO No No, air war fare is dangerous enough, without having to deal with the MAX legacy.
I was on a max 8 2 days before they were grounded... and met a Boeing engineer on the way to my rescheduled return flight that joked to his wife that he might not have a job on return....
@@jamesjames3525 Bro MAX is just a name lmao no way it can affect the design of a new B-52
Dear Paul...to be able to watch the “ads” leading to your actual video...I want to share the experience of Okinawa with my wife. I was last in Okinawa in 2001, prior to 9/11. I have listened to your voice since coming into my current career field and I must say...in the dumpster fire that is 2020, truly, I have appreciated both the the Crown and your service to science. Please continue your videos...they truly are gems to be discovered. 🇬🇧
Retired USAF B-52 Com/Bomb Nav here...
BUFF still going strong, so are the tight spots behind those component racks and the LA heat. Hold the flashlight well boys.
Just when you thought your day couldn't get any better; a curious droid upload to top it all off.
Love your content mate.
When my air guard unit retired the old A -7, we had a little air show. Aircraft from all over came and you could look at the aircraft and get food, it was a great time. One of the visiting aircraft was a big old B52 painted black. The next day the aircraft began departing back to their home bases. I was assigned the task of checking out the after burner on an F16 for cracks another defects. As I crawled into the tailpipe of the airplane the B52 rumble down the track and lifted into the air. As the aircraft departed most of them buzzed the tower, a-la Top Gun style. I didn't know it because I was up in the tailpipe of the F16, but the B52 heeled around and headed straight for the field at low altitude. I remember hearing this horrific, rumbling sound, like satan's bowels ready to explode, it just got louder and louder until my equipment shook, the F16 I was in shook. I heard things dropping off the walls. I heard people scrambling around. When the plane passed overhead it was the most terrifying noise I had ever heard. I stumbled out the aircraft in a daze, went and got a coffee, spilled it.
Is it a shriek, a scream, a roar? When eight TF33s pass at ground level at full bore, they GET YOUR ATTENTION! Mors Ab Alto!!!
@@ARGONUAT it's all of the above. The worst thing about it, it just kept getting louder and louder until your guts started shaking. The only thing comparable to it in sheer ferocity was the F5 Xenia tornado. It was like an argument with God
@Wallace I went to an airshow as a kid in the 70's in the U.K. (RAF Church Fenton) H&S not what it is now, a Vulcan did a very low pass & full power climb out, very close to the crowd. I thought my young rib cage was going to rattle out of my chest. Then a Harrier was allowed to hover along the runway... Dear lord, my ears!
Brilliant!
We didn't do it intentionally, but it was always fun to watch farmers dive under their tractors when we passed overhead at 200 feet (low level run).
I was a B-52G Aircraft Hydraulic Systems Technician at Castle AFB, Ca 1989-1993. Proudly maintaining and keeping these aircraft in the air, in defense of our Nation.
Brilliant presentation, Curious Droid! Best I've ever seen.
B-52's time in service is longer than its wingspan.
You'd think that, but in reality, they're smaller than most passenger airliners. Because it has a very slender fuselage compared to its wingspan, it looks a lot bigger on video than it actually is.
@@SRFriso94 True, but a 747 cant really carry a whole lot of bombs.
@@mikester1290 It could. But How to release them? It would be a suicide mission.
@@macdaniel6029 It's been attempted... there was that air-launched ICBM concept they tested, and Virgin Orbit is recycling the idea as a space launch. If a 747 can tote an orbital rocket under the wing then you could probably dream up a way to make that a payload of ordinance.
@John La Duke that was a C-5 Galaxy not a 747
The Tu-95 Bear could be considered the B-52's counterpart, as the Russians intend to run those for a long time too
Was actually surprised he didn't mention the Tu-95, i think both are about the same age or so
The Russians are still using stuff left over from Czarist times
Except they continued to build Bears until the mid '80s. I wonder how old the oldest Bear in active service is?
@@Mishn0 They built them in 1990's too.
@@shebbs1 True, as the Tu-142, I forgot that! That and the Russians have long been known for not discarding old equipment when the new stuff comes out. They'd just shuffle it down to the lower echelon formations. Like the US used to do with the National Guard, Now the Guard has F-22s and F-35s as soon as the regular Air Force does.
Another well researched video Paul!
How have I never come across this channel before; it's amazing!
This shows how aircraft engineers from the 50's and 60's were way ahead of their time.
Just goes to show what humanity was capable of when they actually used their brains rather that sitting around waiting for a computer to tell them what to do. Even with all of our modern technology, we still cannot design a better plane than the Lockheed skunk works did when they developed the SR-71 Blackbird in the late 40s and early 50s.
@@parrychapman7703 Well said, I've heard the SR-71 was the last aircraft made with ink, paper and a slide rule. And when they ran the model through the computer program it didn't change a thing.
@@cowboy_broke I'm not sure if it was the last, but I'm pretty sure a computer did say they couldn't make it any better.
@@parrychapman7703 That's because back then, there was a serious arms race. We could have been to Jupiter by now if governments still invested the same amount in technology.
@@parrychapman7703 Don't bet on it. Just like it was many years before we actually saw the SR-71 you can be certain what is up there now is well beyond it. The feats of many of these design team throughout history are impressive but it is foolish to believe that equally impressive feats are not being made today.
Analog airplane doesn’t care about your digital warfare.
Sure it does. Just because its sensors and comms are analog doesn’t mean it can’t get jammed. Going digital saves weight, space, crew workload, and gives you better options for countering the enemy’s jamming and/or tracking.
@Warriorcat49 Bullshit, digital is only a liability. Remember, just because it’s digital, doesn’t mean it can’t be jammed. Saves weight/space/crew workload, give us a break. The B-52 has all that shit, and it was already as capable of evasion decades ago as it will ever need to be.
@@redbluesome2829 you can use digital things as long as they arent connected to any networks, some solid state drives weigh less than punch tape i can guarantee you that
@@redbluesome2829 Just keep digital air gapped and you'll be fine.
Death traps.
Interesting video! Also, a very smooth segue into the promotion, good showmanship.
13:03 Dude the flex from heating by the sun on those wings tho. Damn that's cool too see.
Aliens invade earth in 4057
US airforce: B52
Aliens: *mommy im scared*
stone age tech to them ....its like going to a car mechanic with a carburetored engine. noone knows what to do with it now.
@@tomast9034 I still own a carburetor-engine car. Only stupid mechanics don´t understand them.
It may be ancient but it will work forever.
Aliens would just cover an asteroid with some cloacking device and then yeet it at us from safe distance
@@marcoconti1197 This is more or less what the Gamilons did to Earth in Space Battleship Yamato/Starblazers.
@@macdaniel6029 All they need to do is watch a 'Mustie1' YT episode or three ;-) (If you haven't seen Darren in action yourself)
Yes, Paul: 'fellow'... That's definitely what the second F in BUFF stands for...aha ha...
Sort of like when railroads got rid of the caboose and replaced with the "flashing" rear-end device, or "F.R.E.D." Flashing, sure.
I also like the nickname "Stratosaurus"
Oh...I think any fellow AF vet knows the REAL word!
@@samsignorelli Hey, even if it stood for fellow, the enemy would quickly adopt the acronym, without calling the plane a fellow
Just make CZcams & family friendly.
Nice and thorough. Very nice listen
Really great video, kept me interested the whole time
The hangars they keep them in are called, "The Love Shack".
Lol really????
I see what you did there 🤣
Its a little ol' place where they get together
@@toogsintheteeth I had to stop and think about it, but yeah, penny dropped. 🤪 Tinnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Roooof,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Rusted! (What a Group)
An image of Kate Pierson would be great nose art.
I was born in 1961 in Sacramento California. My house was just 10 miles from Mather Airforce base. When the Buffs were headed out the house shook and all of us kids rushed out side to watch. You could tell what was was going on somewhere by the color of the various plans. White and silver for nuke armed SAC planes and Green camo for those headed to south east Asia to give Charlie hell. Shock of shocks was when we saw Green Buffs armed with white Hound Dog missiles during Tet. Yeah even a 6 year old can see the difference.
Well Elmer, I was a mechanic on those birds when you were born....
@@regdor8187 - What you doing on CZcams gramps?
Don’t know what he is doing on youtube, but it’s pretty cool that he is. These machines are awesome.
@@LKRaider - Just some innocent ribbing.
@@regdor8187 why were the engines producing so much dark exhaust upon takeoff and landing as per the first one minute of this video?
Thank you for a video . Learned a lot.
I was an enlisted electronic warfare/countermeasures technician (chaff, flares, radar and radio jamming, etc.) on the B-52H from 2001-2007. This meant that I and my coworkers drove out onto the flightline in a work truck with tool chests and tool boxes, climbed on/into/beaneath the plane, and troubleshot and repaired mechanical and technical issues, not unlike glorified car mechanics. Most of our work involved identifying malfunctioning parts, uninstalling them from the plane, sending them off to be fixed or scrapped, then installing new replacement parts and ensuring they worked properly.
If only I could show you how ancient that technology really was. You could sense its age. It all looked, and felt, like you'd stepped fifty years into the past, and was large and heavy. For example, there were outdated computer programming cases (repair tools, not part of the plane) as big and heavy as a packed piece of luggage, with memory cartridges the size of lunchboxes, both with hardly more computing power and memory than a cheap calculator.
The plane also broke constantly, in the sense that at least one thing (and usually several things) had to be repaired after every single training flight, let alone real sorties. There is a price to pay for being old without being entirely replaced by something 100% new.
I thought this was going to be about why we still hear "Love Shack" on the radio at every fast food restaurant in America over 20 years later.
It's the same reason; It's a good song, and appropriate for the application.
Cause you were headin down the atlanta highway...?
Love that song
@@cosmicrider5898 I was NOT! I was in fact headed toward my own private Idaho
The SR-71 Still holds the record for the fastest plane ever @ Mach 3.2 set almost 60 years ago. This was a golden age of avaition.
0:43 It has so much lift that it is practically aiming at the ground with flaps down, unloaded at low altitude.
Sir, your all videos are excellent with unique information
BUFF: I desperately need an upgrade...
AF: come back in twenty years...
BUFF: okay, here I am, it's been twenty years...
AF: not now, come back in thirty years...
Except it doesn't need an upgrade. Bombs still fall down and go boom when they hit the ground just as well as they ever did.
Designed and engineered with slide-rules. How many know what a slide-rule is? How many have one? And they still work without batteries!!!
I prefer mechanical computers but slide rules are better for mobile use
Do they still get patches?
Interestingly, we did the weight & balance of the B-52 using an analog slide rule type device. You slid it back and forth for fuel/bomb loads at various locations to insure the CG stayed within limits. And to determine a proper trim setting for takeoff.
Still have my dad's old one.
I bought a British Thornton slide rule a few weeks before Clive Sinclair brought out his first pocket calculator. Try explaining a slide rule to a kid now. First you have to explain what logarithms are. At which point you give up.
You want to know something funny, my best friend is currently serving in the same B-52 bomber that my dad served on, which is also one of the bombers built by my great grandma.
This thing has outlived the people that build it and their children.
When they nailed the engine swap... It'll be retired maybe in 1 or 2
*CENTURIES*
**heavy dreadnought breathing**
Even In Death We Still Serve
ray-saint.tumblr.com/image/187679678979
Dreadnoughts dont actually breathe, and they dont vocalise with the throat, their thoughts are projected through a neural interface into the vox.
Edit: also TIE is so wrong and weirdly right at the same time.
@@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681 If the Dreadnought had a text-to-speech device.
...and just like that im installing DoW II. thanks
@@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681 also they're not dead, they're nearly dead Astartes kept alive by Mechanicus machinefuckery and forced into suspended animation for an RnR.
They should upgrade those engines... those plumes are darker than my soul ffs 😂😂
I believe they're currently mid process
I was thinking that myself. I see that they are worried about the new engines being too powerful for the old airframe so why don't they just put new engines in with roughly the same horsepower but just brand new technology to be more efficient.
@@frankmyers5971 Watch the movie, "Pentagon Wars" for the answer you seek! It is there.
They were talking about changing the engines to turbofans back when I was a kid in the ‘80’s.
I’ll believe it when it happens.
@@Justanotherconsumer It has low bypass turbofans.
You best and smoothest segue yet Paul. :)
I watched this because today I saw 2 52's fly over Denver. What an AWSOME sight.
All of a sudden Trek's idea of having Kirk era ships still active 100 years later didn't seem that crazy.
Made a lot of sense in Trek, since the Federation had huge borders with a lot of less advanced species that could reasonably be patrolled with otherwise obsolete ships.
Despite her age she is still a beauty.
Indeed she is!
Great video, thank you.
Nice way of talking. Not everybody can talk non stop. And stil keep a clear voice and hold your attention. It’s a gift.
So yes I like watching and listening to this channel
Technically as long as there's an application for it - forever. The cost of operating is the trick (including refurbishment). Per flight hour the B1 has already surpassed it and can carry larger loads (which makes it the next long-life candidate). (edit - I'm pretty sure the second F isn't for 'fellow')
No the B-1 payload is 50,000 lbs The BUF 100,000 +
I worked on the B1 and Rockwell offered the second 100 B1s for half the cost of the first hundred and Air Force turned it down, Could have had 200 B1s instead of 100.
@@jimfling2128 Nope. 70k lb B52 bs 75k lb B1.
However, the B-1 cost of flying and manhours per flight hour is so much higher than the B-52.
@@beverlychmelik5504 Nope - that's the B2.
Age is no barrier, as I keep telling myself and I was born in 1961!
We´ll talk again in 2050!
I stumbled across this video, and what a fantastic video it is.
Subscribed instantly.
Just a couple days ago, I found out we still use b52s. I was in disbelief when I found out they are still in service to this day. Great vid!