X-43A successful flight

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:56:14 -0500, Michael Zaharis
wrote:

BTW, how has the -H been deveoped? I remember some dire warnings early
on when that aircraft was added to the fleet that it would not be able
to fulfill all of the roles that the old -Bs do. Have they been able to
work around that?

It was modified to carry some vehicles, but it still can't carry all
of them. I've forgotten what the limit is. Weight, maybe. So the
way we're dealing with it is to keep the NB-52B flying for another
year or so. I assume this is how long the vehicle that the H can't
carry should be flying, although I understand the H is scheduled for
further modifications down the road.

Will they eventually retire the final -B carrier and rely fully on the -H?

I don't understand what you mean by "the final -B" here. There is
only one NB-52B, 008. Its predecessor, 006, was the NB-52A and it's
at Davis-Monthan now.

In any even, yes, we will eventually retire 008 and rely on the new
NB-52H.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

Mary Shafer wrote:
On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:56:14 -0500, Michael Zaharis
wrote:
Will they eventually retire the final -B carrier and rely fully on the -H?


I don't understand what you mean by "the final -B" here. There is
only one NB-52B, 008. Its predecessor, 006, was the NB-52A and it's
at Davis-Monthan now.

In any even, yes, we will eventually retire 008 and rely on the new
NB-52H.

Mary

I was referring to 008. I hadn't remembered the first NB-52 was an -A.
I thought that they were both -B's.

Actually, I was down at the Pima Air Museum a few weeks ago, showing the
NB-52A, among other aircraft, to my wife and sons. The older son, who
is 3, was thoroughly unimpressed, other than repeatedly uttering the
words "Big airplane!".