The Venerable B-52 Bomber: Why the Air Force Just Can t Let Go sofrep.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sofrep.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Offensive power: Air Force s show of strength at the Super Bowl as B-52, B-1B and B-2 bombers fly over Raymond James Stadium
Capt. Sarah Kociuba led the flyover in the $1.157billion B-2 Spirit that took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri
The B-52 took off from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and the B-1 from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota
The tri-bomber flyover, the first of its kind, flew over Tampa just before kickoff
The B-2, developed by Northrop Grumman, is known for being nearly invisible to radar and the Air Force has 20 of them in its fleet
US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Joshua J. Garcia
Many aircraft have come and gone over the past century of military aviation.
But a few workhorse aircraft have endured, continuing to fill a role above the battlefield.
There s an old saying: If it ain t broke, don t fix it. Some aerial warhorses take that pretty literally.
That definitely seems to be the philosophy used by many countries around the world in retaining large numbers of older aircraft as the mainstays of their air forces.
Fighters, attack planes, bombers, and even tankers, all populate this list of old warhorses that have served in wars you only read about in history textbooks today, yet still fly in modern conflicts such as the fight against ISIS in the Middle East.