The Raven wrote:
"Lyle" wrote in message
...

Boeing should just start working on the B-52 replacement, instead of
trying to improve an aircraft that nobody will buy.

Well based on what's be said so far, without a firm order for a heap
of them, plus lots of USG R&D funding, it wouldn't be
possible...........

True. They can do some coneptual work, looking at possible configurations
and so forth. A lot of that work would be done with low-level Air Force
study funding, though there might be some company funding as well. But they
won't start any serious design effort until the Air Force ponies up some
real cash. Which it plans to do sometime around 2013, last I had heard.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...rcraft/b-3.htm

Of course, the inital focus of a bomber replacement project will actually be
the B-2, which is scheduled to retire *before* the last B-52. The B-1 and
B-52 go out at about the same time a few years later.

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"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
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