From cbcox at ilstu.edu Fri Mar 12 16:28:25 1999
> ``The B-52 is one of the most remarkably successful airplanes
> every built.''
What about the DC-3?
The interesting thing about the DC-3 is that it remained useful for so long; however, even 65 years later, a DC-3 is still just a DC-3. It lost it's combat effectiveness sometime after WWII. But a B-52, nearly 45 years later, is an entirely different aircraft with totally different functionality than was envisioned or designed. It is perhaps *more* lethal now than when the last one rolled off the assembly line in October '62. The recently announced engineering studies about moving it's front-line usefulness into the year 2045 (!) relies heavily on reengining from the 8 turbofans to 4 engines like that found on the 757 -- an airplane designed some 15 years *after* the last B-52 was made. The current B-52 is now some 100,000 pounds heavier at max takeoff weight than the original.
/jordan