Originally Posted by
De_flieger
The B52 has been flying for 65+ years and on current plans, the last B52 pilots haven’t been born yet. Update the avionics and throw some more modern engines in the Saab, or even just keep maintaining the existing ones, and it’s got plenty of life left.
Its a bit disingenuous to compare the longevity of an aircraft with no modern equivalent doing a mission considered to be essential supported by a bottomless well of money. None of those things are true of civilian turboprops.
The basic airframe might still be good, but which new engine is in that thrust class? Who would pay the eye-watering money for a modern avionics integration and certification? A development program like that would simply be unaffordable even if you could get someone to do the engineering.