Obsolescence and Standardisation

I was reading through one of my (many) news feeds the other day when I came across an excellent

Spitfire

article in Flight which reminded me of issues around obsolescence. The contract as for an upgrade to the RAF Spitfires for modifications to the landing gear to accommodate new tubeless tyres.

This reminded me of a presentation given at the COG
in Scotland a few years back with the example of the B52, which now has
an estimated life-cycle of around 94 years! Both of these examples show
systems whose life expectancy has been extended and are now having to
cope with "new technologies."

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