Page 4 - Engine Replacement Program News Today

America's B-52 will likely fly for more than 100 years before it retires, but it was actually designed in a hotel room over 48 hours.

“There's a lot that can go wrong on the program management side,” Col. Louis Ruscetta, senior materiel leader of the B-52 division, said of the bomber's upcoming modernization. “We have to try to manage and reduce what can go wrong."

The Stratofortress bombers will be ready for another quarter-century of operations.

The B-52 is the old workhorse of the U.S. Air Force, and by giving it new engines, it has also received a new lease of life and will serve for 30 years.

The development of the cutting-edge bomber has been sped up by the utilization of advanced technologies, including digital engineering.

A 60-year-old B-52 spent an astonishing 23 hrs and 25 mins in the air when it conducted a routine security flight in Europe and the Mediterranean.

"The B-52 has and will continue to serve as a vital component of the nuclear triad," the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command told Newsweek.

Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation, and Pratt & Whitney have invested hundreds of thousands of hours of digital engineering on the podded mount for the digital engines to virtually attach to the bombers wing, as well as on other tests such as understanding airflow properties of the aircraft. By   Barry Rosenberg on June 04, 2021 at 9:12 AM

By   Breaking Defense on May 18, 2021 at 10:01 AM The Rolls-Royce F130 engine, based on the commercial BR725 powerplant, is the company’s candidate for the B-52 CERP program. Photo by Alan Petersime Craig McVay is Senior Vice President of Strategic Campaigns for Rolls-Royce Defense. He is a retired Marine Corps fixed-wing aviator and in this Q&A discusses how the company is bringing advanced technology and support to the USAF B-52 re-engining program. Breaking Defense: Why is the B-52 re-e...

The B-21 Raider, the Air Force’s new bomber now in development, will have as much in common with its Cold War-era predecessors B-1/B-2/B-52 bombers as the F-35 Lightning II has in common with its World War II-era predecessor P-38 Lightning. For example, the B-21 represents a significant step forward over the 30-year-old B-2 Spirit, as the B-21 is being designed by Northrop Grumman (who also built the B-2) to survive against the most advanced modern air defense systems such as Russia’s S-40...