B52 flies again after 10 years in desert storage

[Panzerwomble]

Not quite back from the "shelf of doom" but an amazing engineering feat none the less. I think from the seriel this was built in 1960 . 

 

https://theaviationist.com/2020/12/17/wise-guy-is-back-regenerated-after-10-years-at-the-boneyard-b-52h-flies-again-after-pdm-at-tinker-afb/

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Panzerwomble

[Oldbaldguy]

Practically everyone in America drives a car that is no more than five years old while young USAF crews are flying the same Buff tail numbers their grandfathers flew.  Our replacement T-38s come from countries that no longer want or need theirs and we are happy to get them.  And then we buy new stuff like the KC -46 for untold billions and it doesn’t work.  The mind boggles.

[easixpedro]

26 minutes ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Practically everyone in America drives a car that is no more than five years old while young USAF crews are flying the same Buff tail numbers their grandfathers flew.  Our replacement T-38s come from countries that no longer want or need theirs and we are happy to get them.  And then we buy new stuff like the KC -46 for untold billions and it doesn’t work.  The mind boggles.

^^^This!  When I flew Prowlers, there were airframes I was flying that were built before I was born.  I still can't figure out how we then replaced them w/ the EA-18G, but used the same weapons system (the original jamming pods, circa 1968). It's like buying a 2015 Mustang and insisting that Ford put in an 8-Track cassette tape...

[aircommando130]

The old 135 is still getting the job done! The KC-46 isn't authorized to fuel our MC/HC-130J's yet. 

So we use the 135 guys from Tinker, Phoenix and Salt Lake City for our air refueling requirements.

My 88 mustang GT still has the cassette player...but is powered by a 400 hp supercharged 5.0!

 

Cheers...Ron

[John1]

6 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Practically everyone in America drives a car that is no more than five years old while young USAF crews are flying the same Buff tail numbers their grandfathers flew.  Our replacement T-38s come from countries that no longer want or need theirs and we are happy to get them.  And then we buy new stuff like the KC -46 for untold billions and it doesn’t work.  The mind boggles.

Our tax dollars at work.   It’s not just an AF thing, the Navy’s LCS program is a joke and they still haven’t been able to work the bugs out of the USS Ford.  Don’t even get me started on the Zumwalt class DDG’s.  Billions down the drain.    Thank goodness we don’t need that money for education, infrastructure upgrades, etc. 

[easixpedro]

2 hours ago, John1 said:

Our tax dollars at work.   It’s not just an AF thing, the Navy’s LCS program is a joke and they still haven’t been able to work the bugs out of the USS Ford.  Don’t even get me started on the Zumwalt class DDG’s.  Billions down the drain.    Thank goodness we don’t need that money for education, infrastructure upgrades, etc. 

Will tread lightly with this to avoid the political bit. Honest truth after working acquisition for awhile is that Congress continues to boggle the mind. Sequestration and continuing resolutions (I.e. not able to pass a Budget, on time...) means that no new programs can be started as funding is frozen. Good luck trying to replace aging equipment when there’s no money appropriated and the old stuff continues to get older and used at prodigious rates overseas (on top of bad DoD practices). I’m glossing over a lot, but that’s it in a nutshell.

[John1]

1 hour ago, easixpedro said:

Will tread lightly with this to avoid the political bit. Honest truth after working acquisition for awhile is that Congress continues to boggle the mind. Sequestration and continuing resolutions (I.e. not able to pass a Budget, on time...) means that no new programs can be started as funding is frozen. Good luck trying to replace aging equipment when there’s no money appropriated and the old stuff continues to get older and used at prodigious rates overseas (on top of bad DoD practices). I’m glossing over a lot, but that’s it in a nutshell.

I agree that Congress is equally at fault, especially by forcing the military to purchase unwanted weapons and keep open unneeded bases.  Fact remains that congress didn’t spec out or design the LCS or the other dud systems that we spend billions on.   Plenty of blame to be shared by both parties I suppose.   

[Oldbaldguy]

4 hours ago, Jennings Heilig said:

The media are making this out to be the second coming.  It's what AMARG is for.  The aircraft was in flyable storage, and it was needed for continued service.  They took it out of storage, cleaned it up and de-cocooned it, and it's back in service.  Boom.  Exactly, precisely what AMARG is designed to do.

Well, yes and no.  The airplane was parked in open storage and cannibalized for ten years.  It had structural cracks in bad places and was missing vital organs; that is not flyable storage.  Once selected as the least worst of the lot, it took two full years to return it to service.  Wise Guy might be the new guy at Minot, but it is still a sixty year old airframe.  How much longer can we drag these things back from the dead and tell our kids to go fly ‘em without there being consequences?  And none of this was free.  You have to wonder how much the Air Force had to pay out of pocket “to meet the congressional mandate of 76 airplanes” on the ramp.  How many congressmen even know what a B-52 is?

[jenshb]

Did they get all the spiders, scorpions and rattlesnakes out of it though...?

[Confusionreigns178]

When the RAF received old F-4 airframes from US storage facilities, many of them had dead lizards and other wildlife inside the airframes. I guess that's preferable to finding the live versions...

 

Chris. 

[Oldbaldguy]

And the Air Force found all sorts of trash throughout brand new KC-46 airframes, including in the fuel tanks, so it’s not limited to derelict airplanes.