Originally Posted by brickhistory
This is slightly OT, but the might BUFF was planned to be around after 1990 in the Cold War. As a cruise missile carrier and not a pure "bombs away" mission admittedly, but still a useful aircraft.
We now return to your regularly scheduled thread......
Which, of course, was much what the Vulcan was in Blue Steel/Skybolt days!
I think the point stands that while the B52 may well become the first "century" serving aircraft, it survives owing to a fluke of timing rather than any innate superiority of it or its development over other aircraft of its vintage.