Gorgocutie Says:
This comic perfectly captures the B-52 Stratofortress’s ridiculous service life. The Boeing B-52 first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1955. That’s SEVENTY-ONE years ago and counting. The Air Force plans to keep flying them until the 2050s, meaning some B-52s will see a century of service — flown by pilots whose grandparents weren’t even born when the plane was built.
The joke is a classic: you time travel, you ask "Is the B-52 still in service?" hoping to pin down your era, and the answer "yes" tells you absolutely nothing. It could be 1962, 1992, 2026, or 2092 — the B-52 refuses to retire. It’s outlasted every bomber that was supposed to replace it (XB-70 Valkyrie, B-1B Lancer, B-2 Spirit — all either retired or reduced). The B-52 keeps trucking because it’s cheap, reliable, and was designed with enough room in the airframe for upgrades that it’s basically a 1950s body with 2020s internals.
The military-industrial equivalent of a immortal tortoise that just won’t die. Also, the comic’s questioner is a time traveler asking if the B-52 is still around while the guy he’s asking is a blue dude from some unspecified era itself, so the irony is layered.
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