Thanks to all for the comments! Feel free to modify or edit “my” drawings! maybe I misunderstood the rules, but i believed that one was free of modifying someone's creations, as long as you keep the proper crediting. In fact, I modify the existing B-52 without asking their creators,
if they have problems with that, I will remove it.
How about giving the old B-52 a hunchback with a retractable probe just aft of the pilot compartment symmetric to the fuselage longitudinal dorsal line? Use the hunchback for fuel probe and a satlink? Just a suggestion.
The problem that prevented me of placing the probe above the roof are the escape hatches of the crew... I´m not sure how they can interfere in a evacuation... Safety first!
If I remember correctly , the issue about using current receptacle location is that the two systems use different philosophies ... while the tanker's boom operator is responsible for guiding it into the receptacle, in the probe and drogue system the pilot of the receiver aircraft is responsible of making the contact, so I consider direct view of the probe a "must"
My other favorite position was over the radome , just in front of the windshield, but that required to relocate/delete the AN /ALQ-155, and cause i don´t know their technical issues, I decided to leave it in place...
Unless you plan on installing a rear warning ESM pod (a good idea since you deleted the gun.) how about faring that tail stinger too? That square it will be a drag point as the slipstream comes off the tail control.
I agree that is a very good place for EW equipment, but not being sure about which one to use, I have done what the USAF did and just blank it off …
I think a standard Tornado-style retractable refuelling probe would work just as well scabbed to the side of the cockpit.
The problem that i see about a Tornado-type retractable probe, it's that when it pivots open its moves back a little, so they are mounted slighty ahead of the cockpit.. In the case of the B-52, with it's short nose added to the required probe lenght to keep it on the freestream out of the turbulences seems to me like the probe will be aft of pilots vision..
The other option that I though about is an axially-extensible probe as some helicopters use... But honestly, I do not see that the probe is sooooooo long to cause unsolvable and/or catastrophic oscillations... But I don´t have a wind tunnel at home to check it...