Here’s Why the B-52 Bomber Will Fly for 100 Years

Under the Air Force’s current bomber plans, the B-52 will fly until 2050 — just shy of its 100th birthday. While this prospective centenary has been cause for some breathless coverage, little has been said about how a complex piece of machinery built during the Korean-War is still useful in 2018, let alone 2050. What is the B-52’s secret?

The average age of the 75 B-52s currently in service is 55 years old — as in, they first took flight when President John F. Kennedy occupied the Oval Office. Compared with modern aircraft, the B-52 is neither particularly fast nor stealthy. But that doesn’t really matter, given its current uses. “We have few adversaries that can challenge our air superiority,” said George Ferguson, a senior aerospace and defense analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “So a lot of B-52s work as the large ordnance carriers, with no stealth or speed characteristics.”

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Music Credit:
– Dragon and Toast by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100251
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

– Hitman by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300013
Artist: http://incompetech.com/