Message to Chinese fighter pilots: "we're going to send antiques twice your age" I can hear retired MiG-25 pilots chuckling over the BUFF as a threat
Modern design technique gives 60-year-old B-52s new lease on life
By Stephen Losey March 8, 2022
ORLANDO, Fla. — The iconic B-52 Stratofortress bomber has been a mainstay of the U.S. Air Force’s fleet since it was first introduced during the height of the Cold War.
But with the average B-52 now 60 years old and increasingly showing its age, the bomber is getting a fresh lease on life — in the form of a new slate of F130 engines from Rolls-Royce North America
In a briefing with reporters March 4, officials from Rolls-Royce and Boeing detailed how modern digital design techniques are helping craft the B-52′s new engines and related systems.
The Air Force announced in September that Rolls-Royce had received the $2.6 billion Commercial Engine Replacement Program contract to keep the B-52 flying into the 2050s — roughly 100 years after the first B-52 was flown. The aircraft’s current Pratt & Whitney-made TF33 engines, which also date back to the early 1960s, are expected to reach the end of their life spans by the end of this decade.
In the fourth quarter of this year, she said, Rolls-Royce will start testing its engine prototypes at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, to see how they will operate in the B-52 nacelle. The engineering and manufacturing development phase is expected to last into 2026, she added.
As the B-52′s engines receive upgrades, Gass said, so will its related subsystems, including power generation and pneumatics. The B-52 will also receive new cockpit displays and digital engine controls, new struts and structures for the engine pods, and a new aircraft health maintenance system to help the Air Force sustain it for the next three decades.
Gass said the modernization will set the table for additional upgrades in the future to help keep the bomber running into the 2050s.
More:
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022/03/08/heres-how-21st-century-design-is-giving-60-year-old-b-52s-a-new-lease-on-life/