B 52's to be around till at least 2040

[AceHavok]

Wow... Service until 2040?  That would make them around 90 years old.  That would be like taking a B-17G and using it in the modern day military.  Wouldn't they have to make new ones eventually?  They're only so many patches you can fix for a plane.

[rpm]

I'm sure flight hours are very restricted now.

[Grayeagle]

Thing about the B-52 is ..
.. they don't go the speed of heat, they don't pull a lot of G's,
..and they're built better than yer average bridge to haul that massive design load.

If they aren't hauling close to a million pounds,
they're down right 'sprightly' and the crew has to be on top of it during climbout or she'll get away from them.

Even the original avionics loadout has lightened considerably.
No more hydraulically tuned transmitters !!
(imagine slidin one o those in, at shoulder height, in the rain ..they were frik-kin HEAVY)

-GE aka Frank

[TwinTail]

Think how many spare parts we would have had if we hadn't chopped them up?
(Image removed from quote.)

Few hundred B52's among many other types of military aircraft sitting in the aircraft graveyard in Tuscon AZ