On 20 Apr 2016 at 21:53, Bruce  Johnson wrote:
> The B52 is more of a black swanicorn than the normal military hardware
> procurement.:-)
>
> It was designed and made at a time when we were just transitioning to
> jets from prop bombers, and was (iirc) the first design that was meant
> to be jet propelled from the get-go (iirc the B-36 started life as an
> internal combustion prop design). Also, Boeing had a LOT of experience
> building tough, survivable aircraft,
> <http://www.daveswarbirds.com/b-17/fuselag2.htm> and I think they took
> that with them to the B52 design.
>
> So it was pretty over-engineered to start with.

The same goes for its Soviet counterpart, the Tu-95 'Bear', though it uses turboprops
rather than jets.