Hoping to leverage Boeing Wichita’s legacy, Spirit positions for B-52 bomber work

At the height of the Cold War, the Air Force amassed a fleet of 744 Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses, each capable of delivering 70,000 pounds of bombs, including nuclear ones, thousands of miles from the U.S.

The airplanes, which can fly 650 miles per hour at 50,000 feet for 8,800 miles, were a key part of the nation’s nuclear deterrence strategy against its then-largest adversary, the former Soviet Union.

Many of those bombers produced between 1954 and 1962 were assembled at the former Boeing Wichita, now Spirit AeroSystems. In fact, 76 of the 102 B-52H models that remain in the Air Force’s inventory were produced on South Oliver in Plant 2, where Spirit now assembles nearly three-quarters of the Boeing 737 commercial airliner.

Now, the Air Force wants to extend the life of the B-52s that remain in its fleet to at least 2050. That means replacing each bomber’s eight original Pratt & Whitney jet engines.

Spirit AeroSystems, created from the 2005 sale of Boeing’s Wichita Division, would like to get some of that work.

(Read more: Wichita Eagle)