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Bah, throw a few bottles of Sea Foam in there and they’ll be fine…
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Pilots are already flying planes their grandfather flew, give it another 40 years and it will potentially be great-great grandfather.. that is just insane.
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or we could spend a few hundred billion dollars designing a new heavy bomber that would fit the needs of all the services and might be ready in 15-20 years.
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I hope this doesn't go off the rails, but...
Does this happen because the only time there's sufficient willpower to make those time and money investments on a replacement are during wartime or the looming threat of the same? Or are heavy bombers merely so niche (even in wartime) that there's very little use for a new design when compared to that development cost?
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Lew Zealand wrote:
I hope this doesn't go off the rails, but...
Does this happen because the only time there's sufficient willpower to make those time and money investments on a replacement are during wartime or the looming threat of the same? Or are heavy bombers merely so niche (even in wartime) that there's very little use for a new design when compared to that development cost?
The use case for "non-stealthy" heavy bombers has shrunk considerably in the last 50 years. But, when you need that capability and don't care if it's stealthy (because you've already destroyed everything that has a radar), you need it.
Even with upgrades, the B-52 is cheap to operate, unlike the B-1B that can carry more bombs than the B-52.
The B-52 is going to go down in history with the DC-3, and the 1911 pistol... in it's niche, there's just nothing better. Eventually, the niche goes away, and they stop being used... but as long as there's that niche - they're in service.
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raz wrote:
... and might be ready in 15-20 years.
At which point it's already obsolete!
:emoticon-tv-015:
only $1.6M each, not including 'launch platform'...
