TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. —
After practically 1,500 miles and a month on the street, the B-52H Stratofortress nicknamed “Injury Inc. II” has arrived in Oklahoma and is able to begin its new mission.
In contrast to its predecessors “Ghost Rider” and “Sensible Man,” which have been additionally resurrected from the Arizona desert, this venerable plane is not going to be rejoining the lively fleet, however nonetheless has an essential mission to satisfy.
The plane, tail quantity 61-0009, was taken out of storage on the 309th Aerospace Upkeep and Regeneration Group’s “boneyard” final spring and despatched to the Pima Air & House Museum the place its wings, fuselage and horizontal stabilizer have been eliminated.
The fuselage arrived on the Boeing facility close to Tinker Air Drive Base Jan. 22, 2022, the place will probably be reassembled with the left wing. The plane will then function an integration mannequin to check how properly new applied sciences and present and future modifications will combine with B-52 plane.
The best wing and horizontal stabilizer have been transported to McFarland Analysis and Improvement in Wichita, Kansas, to help structural integrity analysis for the B-52H Plane Structural Integrity Program, or ASIP.
“We respect Boeing’s partnership to revive Injury Inc. II in help of the B-52 modernization effort,” stated Col. Louis Ruscetta, the B-52 senior materiel chief with the Air Drive Life Cycle Administration Heart’s Bomber Directorate. “This can be a nice alternative to scale back threat to the a few of our growth efforts and opens doorways to deliver different modern capabilities to the fleet and hold this platform flying into 2050.”
In keeping with Invoice Pogorzelski, the venture lead for the mock-up effort, the Air Drive funded the plane regeneration and transportation, whereas Boeing will present the infrastructure to deal with the mock-up to permit for growth and testing actions.
“The B-52 modernization is really a Staff Tinker effort, counting on program workplace and native trade and the sustainment heart experience,” Pogorzelski stated, including that a lot of the set up work is deliberate to be performed on Tinker by the Oklahoma Metropolis Air Logistics Complicated.
The group inside the B-52 Program Workplace working that is the Business Engine Substitute Program or CERP. Their mission is to switch the getting old Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines with trendy industrial engines. The Air Drive just lately chosen the Rolls-Royce F-130 engine as a substitute to the TF33.
Ruscetta stated having the mixing mannequin close by will likely be useful to the Air Drive.
“As new applied sciences develop, we are able to use this mock-up to assist velocity integration and get functionality to the sphere quicker” he stated.
Transporting such an outsized load required a whole lot of planning. The crew needed to take care of traversing overpasses and turning via intersections the place the margins measured in inches. The B-52 and its escorts took up two lanes of site visitors requiring the convoy to drag over each few miles to let site visitors go. In all of the journey from Arizona to Oklahoma took virtually 4 weeks.
The B-52 is present process its greatest modernization effort in its historical past. Along with new engines, the B-52 can also be upgrading its 1960’s core radar to a brand new Energetic Electronically Scanned Array system just like these present in trendy fighter plane. It additionally simply accomplished a serious communications improve and can quickly get a brand new Tactical Information Hyperlink functionality.
