The history and future of the B-52 - BBC News

The B-52 is the US Air Force's "heavyweight of the skies". The six-engine military plane has been involved in conflicts since the 1950s - and three generations of pilots have flown in one.
And its not expected to go away - the B-52 programme is planned to continue until 2040, as its range and capacity is unique among US military planes.
Filmed and edited by Franz Strasser
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[@lukeblake7003]

the b52 has 8 engines

[@toddhall7451]

I miss flying the b52

[@catfish252]

me too

[@catfish252]

I flew the B-52 for 13 years and not a day goes by that I don't think about that airplane. I would take the Buff over any other plane in the Air Force's inventory.

[@jamesnewman2181]

eight engines...

[@AndreBSaba]

yes

[@Chrisallengallery]

Tomorrow, we will be counting to 9.

[@kevgreenhalgh263]

+James Newman The one in the film had six engines. Do pay attention. :)

[@Milosz_Ostrow]

+Kev Greenhalgh - The narrator's reference to "the six-jet aircraft" in the old newsreel film is obviously in error. No B-52 has ever come off the production line with less than eight engines. Models B-52A through B-52G used Pratt & Whitney turbojets; Pratt & Whitney turbofans were introduced on the B-52H in 1961. Although there have been investigations into replacing the four two-engine pods with four individual, upgraded engines. this has not been done due to cost reasons.

[@dorothycooper3285]

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[@dorothycooper3285]

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[@2ndkombat]

Old but not obsolete

[@rakeshchauhan1544]

great plane

[@duramax78]

Did they not use the b52 in the Korean War.?

[@skyfuzzball8312]

In fact: Vietnam is only the country managed to take down B52 during the Vietnam war

[@nickgolovanev657]

31 losses in Vietnam. Very poor result for bomber.

[@nickgolovanev657]

+evodevo i'm busy, i have to walk my bear

[@REDPOWERable]

Bears are very important part of soviet russia life. Bears make missiles that can shoot down any stealth jet.

[@badguy1481]

Hey...Even MOSCOW was not as heavily defended with missile systems as Hanoi. And 31 losses out of HUNDREDS of B-52 missions that occurred that week is TINY! And as you may know, the Russian guidance signals for those missiles were jammed so they became useless. The ONLY way they could hit a B-52 was by mass launching of BUNCHES of missiles...all unguided...like a shotgun...and PRAY those missiles hit something. Great idea...BUT...the problem is you run out of missiles real fast. Which is exactly what happened. By the end of the week, as one pilot said, bombing missions over Hanoi were like practice bombing missions over Kansas...they had NO effective defenses.

[@nocommentnoname1111]

isn't this thing terribly susceptible to anti-aircraft missiles these days?

[@catfish252]

All airplanes and to a certain degree even stealth airplanes are susceptible to AAA and Sam missiles, however the B-52 as do all Air Force planes gets periodic upgrades to it's defensive capabilities that help counter those threats, but as one of the people in this interview said, It's not a nimble airplane, meaning it's not able to evade some threats as well as say a fighter could. The B-52 has a wide array of Electronic counter-measures that help it jam radars. It also employs things like flares for heat seeking missiles and chaff which clutters an adversaries radar scope to help it defensively.

[@algugs]

Oh thank you thank you BBC for keeping me scared so that i continue to go out and buy useless crap that i don't need. Lol NOT!!!!

[@darpa222]

Got one word for ya, RussianBear

[@dorothycooper3285]

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