Originally Posted by
sandiego89
While a 737/P-8 airframe size does seem to be what Boeing wants to pitch as the next AWACS, I do wonder if range/endurance wise something a KC-46/767, or even 787, sized airframe would be tempting especially for the USAF. 6,000 miles or 9+ hours endurance or so would be significant, especially when considering the Pacific basin.
FYI, the 737 based P-8 has 10.5 hours endurance at 300NM on station, without inflight refueling. That's pretty much the limit of endurance for the crew. Add inflight refueling and the crew may expire before the aircraft landed.
As an aside, I see that this thread has once again wandered far afield and no one is discussing B-52 engine replacement any more. So to bring things back, while the B-52 engine replacement will involve the installation of engines designed for biz-jets, the B-52 installation will include more and bigger generators. Today, only the lefthand engine of each two-engine pair has a generator. The new installation will include one generator for each engine (thus eight total generators) and each generator will be larger than the 45KVA generators now on the B-52.