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So, how is it a near 80 year old design is still flying, while something decades newer is already considered obsolescent? 🤔The irony is that stealth technology is perishable. And because stealth is largely part of the airframe's design, it can't be changed or easily upgraded as something internal and modular, such as avionics and engines. To improve the stealth characteristics of an aircraft, you need to design something new from scratch. And so, that's the main reason why the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress is seemingly immortal, while newer and more advanced counterparts like the Northrop Grumman B-2 Sprit is already obsolescent because the stealth technology that was used to make it is obsolescent, and to replace that, they literally needed a new airframe, and by extension a new aircraft, with newer more advanced stealth technology. 😜This obsolete technology was what Don Pettit was referring to when he mentioned 'lost' technology.