[blowsand]

Please do more research. They are most decidedly not “simply too old”. They have been “refreshed” many times over - from engines, to flight electronics, to targeting and comms systems, to airframe structures, to coffeemaker automation.

[hk1337]

Sounds like a lot like ship of Theseus. The B-52 now is not not the same B-52 64 years ago.

[jmalicki]

The airframes still date closer in time to the Wright-Patterson Kitty Hawk flight than to today.

[labcomputer]

How much physics has changed between Kitty Hawk and today?

[jmalicki]

On a practical level, computer power and FEM etc. have changed aero/astro and the relevant physics at the level you can do engineering with, from people I know in those industries.

[shmeeed]

These airframes aren't physics, they're engineering.