The bomber could use a new coat of paint and is scheduled to go to the depot at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma for a full overhaul in February 2020
But even planes in Type 1000 storage need significant work to get them flying again. In Ghost Rider's case, personnel at the bone yard https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-boneyard-at-davis-monthan-air-force.html had previously ripped out its GPS receiver and other navigation equipment for use on other operational B-52s, so these systems had to get replaced.
Ghost Rider also needed a substantial overhaul to bring the bomber up to the latest baseline configuration, as it had missed various upgrades while in storage. Wise Guy will need the same treatment, having been out of service for more than a decade.
It may be of interest to note that the "60" in Wise Guy's serial number is the fiscal year in which the Air Force bought her. The very last of the B-52Hs rolled off Boeing's production line in 1962
http://knuckledraggin.com/2019/05/back-from-the-dead/
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28015/a-b-52h-nicknamed-wise-guy-becomes-the-second-to-ever-come-back-from-the-bone-yard
We came close back in the early 90's when a B-52 G slid off the runway at Loring AFB and broke in half. Boeing proposed three possibilities, a) pull a good D model out of the boneyard and upgrade it using everything off the damaged G, b) cut the front portion off of a B-52 in the boneyard to graft onto the damaged G, or c) repair the damaged pieces of the G and splice them back together. The decision was to repair the G model without pulling anything out of the depot, it took a year but they got her flying again.
ReplyDeleteSo is this replacing another B52 that got damaged beyond repair?
ReplyDeleteClick on the links for the rest of the story, as always
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