Is our fleet of jets too old? Are we safe?

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 19:16:23 -0500

According to a Military.com story dated December 8th, 2014, Two F-16s and one F-15 crashed recently and there is concern about the safety of these aircrafts.

Pilots and crew chiefs especially, what do you say about this report? Anything to it? What should we do?

Response by MSG John Wirts made Dec 10 at 2014 10:03 PM

MSG John Wirts — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 22:03:24 -0500

What are the two oldest operational planes in the AF inventory? The first B-52 serial numbers started out 54- so they are 60 years old, they were produced into the 60's. Some current B-52 jocks are flying the planes their fathers and grandfathers flew! The A-10 Warthog was developed in the late 60's, I was a DAF civilian at McClellan AFB when the AF brought the first A-10 into McClellan AFB as we were the support depot for them. so the Warthog is a little over 40 years in inventory I don't know if there are any three generation families of warthog jockeys or not. Properly maintained these planes can fly forever. The B-52's were losing wing integrity in the late 50's, the wing attachment bolts were hollow to allow routing wiring to route through them. The nuclear mission required an immonen maneuver to escape the blast, this over stressed the wing mount bolts. Crews from McClellan AFB had to be sent to locations where the wing bolts were too far gone to allow flight to our depot.

Response by Cpl Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 10 at 2014 11:52 PM

Cpl Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:52:10 -0500

As long as they stop landing, err I mean crashing them in the enemy combat zones.

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 10 at 2014 11:51 PM

TSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:51:45 -0500

I get a kick out of these arguments.

As MSG John Wirts mentioned if you do proper maintenance these aircraft last for a very long time. All maintenance guys know what happens to Aircraft, Ships, Missiles, Guns, etc....that maintenance is not properly done on. Yes, it would be nice to all have brand new toys to kill the bad guys with, but can we pay the price for it? Nope, can't pay it. Anyone had to borrow from Peter to pay Paul when it comes to fixing things?

And to think we have some of the best gear in the world and some of the best maintained gear in the world.

Response by MSG Brad Sand made Dec 10 at 2014 11:56 PM

MSG Brad Sand — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:56:18 -0500

Two F-16s and one F-15...we still have a fleet of B-52s? I'm old and they were flying before I came into the World! These aircraft stay in service because there is nothing better.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 11 at 2014 12:23 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 00:23:43 -0500

I haven't worked on fixed wing a/c, but I can only assume protocols are similar to rotary. All of the components on an a/c have a lifespan. Some parts are months, some are years, some are decades. As long as those parts are properly maintained and replaced then they'll last a very long time. Every now and then you have an incident like the one that just happened in SC where a part has a catastrophic failure. Sometimes you can see it before it happens, other times you can't.

The military is working on upgrading existing a/c and retiring old variants. My unit just got rid of our last A model UH-60 a month or two ago. Now we're all A+ and L. I'm sure in a few more years when Big Army is bored with the M model, our L and A+ models will be gone. (Hopefully not though. The A+ models my last unit had when we were in Afghanistan out performed the L and totally blew away the M. The A+ is a little tempermental, but a beast.)