Edwards B-52 Crash Puts Bomber Test and Sustainment in Focus
On Monday, a B-52 Stratofortress plane came crashing down shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base, with everyone on board having lost their lives. As per base officials, the plane took off at 11:20 a.m. on Monday in order to conduct a test flight for the radar modernization program of the Air Force. Col. James Hayes referred to it as a “tragic and unsurvivable” incident, which has shifted its priorities to recovery from investigation mode.
In spite of military officials confirming that an investigation has already begun into the matter, Hayes noted that the full details would take approximately six months to reach the public. This is important to know because, in the case of a flight test loss, the engineering significance goes way beyond just the loss of life or the plane. Instead, it lies in what such an incident tells us about the challenges of keeping an aging fleet relevant through major upgrades while conducting missions within a particular environment.
Edwards Air Force Base is different from other bases because it has a history of flight testing fixed wing and rotorcraft aircraft, drones, and even shuttles because of the long runways and abundance of test facilities that it offers. Moreover, this type of activity generally involves the combined efforts of military air crew members, civilian test staff, and military contractors. This is particularly true for Monday’s incident since the crew comprised individuals representing each group mentioned above. To add to this, according to Boeing, there were two of their employees among those aboard the plane.
This is due to the fact that the process of legacy aircraft modernization requires more than simply installing new radar and taking off. This includes testing its performance in tandem with all of the pre-existing aircraft infrastructure, including power generation, wiring, display screens, mission systems, maintenance techniques, and flight test instruments. While this objective may seem simple enough in writing, in practice, it becomes an issue of complex systems integration on a very old plane.
Indeed, the B-52 is a good example of the type of challenges that come up when it comes to sustaining an aging fleet through numerous upgrades. Specifically, it went into service in 1955 and has been out of production since 1962; however, it remains a vital component of the current bomber fleet. Prior to Monday’s incident, there were 76 B-52H models in the Air Force.
This is made possible because of the continuous efforts that have been made towards life extension and maintenance of the plane. For instance, it is worth noting that parts for an aircraft that does not go into production anymore cannot always be provided directly by the manufacturing company. As a result, a portion of B-52’s components are salvaged from decommissioned airframes kept at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
This is significant because the modernization and sustainment of a strategic aircraft is equally a problem related to industrial base. On the topic of upgrades, there have been several initiatives related to the improvement of the bomber in question, including radar modernization and installation of a new engine. Altogether, they are anticipated to cost $48.6 billion in investments.
From a public perspective, this modernization is seen as a way to extend the service life of the plane and improve its maintainability. However, as for engineers and maintenance specialists, it means having to find a proper way of integrating the new systems into a very old airframe. At the end of the day, this determines how efficiently the program will be able to go past test and prototype phases and become a reality in a wider fleet context.
It is important to note that flight testing is crucial at this stage of the process as it allows determining how the plane performs and how well the system is integrated into its architecture. As such, the loss of a B-52 during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base implies the loss of valuable information on whether the radar modernization can allow for further use of the bomber into the future.
This can only mean that, apart from being unfortunate, the incident has important ramifications. The reason is that it is worth mentioning that the death toll of those who died in this crash has not been surpassed since 1982, when nine members of the B-52 crew lost their lives. Before this tragedy, the last deadly crash happened in 2008 and resulted in the deaths of six members of the Air Force. Although this comparison should not serve as proof, it does highlight the rarity of accidents in this fleet of planes.
Thus, for now, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that there was an incident during the test flight of a B-52, which was being used for radar modernization. Eight people lost their lives and investigations will likely be held for several months before the full facts of the case become known publicly. However, the underlying message that can be taken is quite obvious: the sustaining of an old bomber is not only a matter of upgrading but also of testing and maintaining.
By David Whitaker — Associate Editor at the aerospace & drones desk at AMI, specializing in transforming flight systems, aircraft programs, space flight, and UAV news into comprehensible stories.
