Happy Monday, everyone. Let’s kick this week off on a good note with this awesome pic of a B-1 Lancer bomber, commonly known as the Bone, performing a low-level, high-speed pass in April while practicing for the Fort Lauderdale, Fl., airshow.
Check out the condensation forming around the Bone’s four engines and even its Sniper targeting pod up front, as the plane begins to push towward Mach 1.This particular jet belongs to the 28th Bomb Wing out of Ellsworth AFB in North Dakota, the same unit that participated in the bombing of Gadhafi’s forces last year in Libya.
Via the Aviationist.
{ 81 comments… read them below or add one }
This is awesome! We don't see enough of our bomber force.
Just so long as the enemy does ;)
hahaha agreed
Damn, that's a lot of spillage. Too bad those intakes don't work as originally designed.
??? if it didn't work as designed then the engine would never be able to reach it's maximum thrust output
Gee, ya' think…
That's not spillage… It's moisture being forced out of the air by compression as the aircraft nears the speed of sound. It also shows how well the engine inlets are actually designed as the pressure wave is outside and not inside the engine stalling it.
Right, because the ideal intake design always has the "pressure wave" outside the intake — f'ing moron!
That's all you have? Just a moronic idiom and nothing to back it up?… lamfao.
Oh here, let me teach you how to properly design an intake, because clearly any idiot can do it…
They could post a picture of a damn flying outhouse and most people who read this would go "oooh, ahhh". Hell, if it had an the name of a US defense contractor on the side, they'd swear up and down its the best aerospace vehicle of our time. How can you possibly look at something so f'ed up as the B-1B and think all is right in the world? Hell, you don't even need to know about aerodynamics, just a little history would tell you all you need to know.
The B1 is A very well designed and proven platform.
Yeah, there you go, it is the pinnacle of aerospace vehicle design. Say it with conviction!
Wait a second, is this a clever reference to the 'A'? Finally, someone who knows what they're talking about.
Ok calm down man, people know the B-1B was a compromise vehicle, and yes those inlet vanes hurt performance compared to the variable inlet the -A model had. But look, at the end of the day the political climate got the -B build and not the -A. It's had big problems but is doing banner service today. It's just an airplane that needed to have technology and circumstances catch up with it.
The biggest problem the B-1B has faced and still faces to a degree is issues with its original defensive ECM package not meeting specifications and requirements. Aerodynamically there is nothing wrong with the thing other than the fact you wish they had kept the high-altitude performance of the B-1A.
Sure, it's not f'ed up. I mean, just because the same engines that used to propel it through the air at M 2 now can only get it up to M 0.8. Hell, a lot of engineers work their whole careers to make a "contribution" like that.
No, the B-1B can make Mach 1.25 or so at high altitude. If I recall the B-1A's requirement for top speed at low level was reduced to about Mach 0.9 due to cost reasons. Same speed as the B-1B at this altitude.
Have you ever worked on or flown a B-1B?
Are you referring to the redesign of the intakes from the B-1A (variable geometry, supersonic optimization) to the B-1B (optimized for subsonic and, I think, fixed geometry)? I was under the impression this was either to hit RCS targets or cut costs, but it always seemed a bit of a shame to relegate it to high subsonic when it seemed capable of much higher cruise performance.
Still, awesome plane.
You're part of the way there. The intakes are fixed now (the F-16 will go Mach 2 with a fixed intake), but why? Remember how the 'B' was sold to the US Air Force? It was the poor man's low leverl stealth penetration bomber. You can't have those radar waves bouncing off the face of the compressor and stay stealthy now, can you?
And what's your issue with this? The fixed intakes on the B-1B indeed help provide a lower radar cross section and were cheaper/simpler. This came at the cost of the Mach 2+ high altitude performance of the B-1A of course, but these design changes were reflective of USAF strategy at the time. The cheaper costs involved would have been a plus too, considering how the B-1B was viewed as a bridge to the definite ATB program.
No issue. Hell, I'm a big fan of redneck engineering. A little duct tape here and some bailing wire there and there you have it. Actually, if they'd ever build the 'R' someone mentions further on down, then who cares what kind of bs story it took to get the airplane built.
Um, 28th Bomb Wing is in Ellsworth, SOUTH dakota.
Yeah there not too worried about it here. It's a loose and fast corner of the Blogosphere.
Just a correction. 28th Bomb Wing out of Ellsworth AFB is in South Dakota. Great pic!
Beautiful plane with a lot of capability,we could use about 500 more of them.
beautiful pic. Anthropomorphically reminds me of a swimming seal at that angle.
Nothing like a low level high speed pass to rattle your fillings-I love it
What even cooler is seeing a low level (about 100ft AGL) 90 degree bank turn I saw an F-18 do down in Pensacola.
….and more capacity than a BUFF! Glad they are on our side! :)
The BUFF still rules!!!
I'll take the BONE any day over the flying '55 Chevy.
Holy moly!
Oh what I would give to be behind the yoke on one of those things. Abilene squadron does low level mountain training down in West Texas where we mule deer hunt in the Big Bend area. Ever see one on a low level training run?? Now THAT is something!!! Especially at night…. Oh what I would give….
No yoke on that baby, those pilots are stick jockys. On of the few heavy bombers that thinks its a fighter!
North American, even when assimilated into Rockwell, always built pilot focused airplanes.
….and flies like one
2 bays or 3 ?? Don't remember ???
3
I've never seen the device in the front edge of the right wing root before. Looking at google images I see that most didn't have it, but a few do. Aparently it's called the Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod. It gives better vision on the battlefield, both TV and infrared. http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123140611
Awesome aircraft. We focus so much on the problems with newer aircraft. Pictures like this are a reminder that great airframes can evolve from rough beginnings. Read up on the teething problems with this baby and the LOX problems on the Raptor seem paltry in comparison. Just MHO. either way, I'm glad this bird is on our side.
One noisy plane one flew over my house nearly knocked clock off the wall. it was well over 3000 ft off the ground.
The B-1B just gets better…
New Upgrades Revitalize B-1B Lancers
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/re…
Not going away anytime soon.
How about they do a low pass over the crowd, open the bomb bays and drop a few tonne of lollies on the crowd… (M&M moving at Mach 1 would not hurt that much…) and it would be an awesome pic. (Just need to tell everyone to wear eye protection etc)
Hopefully the B1B will be upgraded to the B1R with F119 engines,AESA radar,AIM120 and AIM9X air to air missiles,Lantirn pods,increased weapons load of J-DAMS and the 250lb small diameter bombs,also with the F119 engines it will have a increased speed to Mach 2.2 substainable speed so it can get out of trouble as quick as it gets into trouble.That would be one AWESOME aircraft.
Just outa curiosity, how does it go from B1B to B1R? Why not B1C?
I hadn't heard about that proposal. It would supercruise at M. 2.2? That would be cool. Wasn't there some other stuff they did to the B-1 when they cut its nuts off to build the 'B'? If it's just new engines and nacelles, let's do it!
Mach 2.2 is only done at high altitude and for brief spurts
Even with new engines you cant really change the speed at very low altitude, which is what it was designed for.
Even the F-111 would barely do M1.1 at terrain following hieght
At high altitude you cant out run a SAM unless you are a SR71
For a blast to the past about the B1R:
http://web.archive.org/web/20071212053150/http://…
I've yet to see (or hear, for that matter) a high speed pass that equaled that of an F-104 at full bore just a couple of hundred feet AGL. The Germans did this in the late 70's as part of an exercise, and cracked a reinforced concrete block building wall at a USAF airfield near Trier. The 104's used to hold the level flight sea level record at 1000MPH or so.
How about that massive single F105 motor.
I once saw, at Micheal's Field, Utah, a low level Thud buzz past an F15, (both in full burner) like it was standing still. Eagle with ruffled feathers.
Nobody does low level like the F/FB-111 did! Mach below a thousand feet thru the mountains.
Remember the B-52 flying so high they were like dots onlly to hear that carpet of broom,boom en boom,kind af scary I think if fell like that wich it did 24 hours a few days,but sound never to forget and be proud of..
Word Anthony! I remember very well the reverberations of the carpet bombing going on maybe 20-30 klicks away from our position near the Iraq/Saudi border. Went on for days, non-stop! I actually felt sorry for the poor sob's on the receiving end of it! They did an outstanding job though! Supply lines cut, communication severed, extreme loss of motivation for them! Keep up the good work you crazy pilots!
Even though it would be expensive, I hope that they send all (including B-1's at the boneyard) in for a SLEP and bring the one's in the Boneyard back into service. We don't need to go as far as the B-1R but keeping these planes instead of the B-52 I think makes sense.
Well; aren't we glad that Carter didn't get his way back in the 70's. . . One of these fly’s over my house at least twice a week. I only wish they would do it at a little lower alt.. The bird is awesome in every aspect. The Bone says it all…
The A version of the Bone was a different plane than the B in a bunch of ways. The inlets were revised for lower cross section, terrain following was better, the offensive and defensive avionics were revised, etc.
Would love to be near one of those bases. Two pleasures I miss most from my earlier days: F-4s going supersonic over my childhood home near Lambert in St. Louis and the near-constant rotor- and fixed-wing activity overhead when I lived near Ft Hood in Texas.
If u have a choice to chose between B1-B Lancer and B2 The Bat Wing then which one do u chose? To me, I chose the B1-B Lancer and not the Bat Wing because it blinds like a Bat and cost too much 4 the Tax-payer!
As a young E-3 tech at Edwards from 1966-67, I dodged Blackbirds and watched XB-70's, and worked on aircraft with rocket engines for Test Pilot School, . . . but it all costs too much.
It is time to put away the killing toys and start getting along.
I already did the other stuff.
Then we could all sing Kumbaya and go for a ride on our unicorns.
And btw, I'm ex-AF too (SAC).
si vis pacem para bellum
I was at Spangdhalem AB when that F104 busted a wall. The next week a Luftwaffe F104 was flying in for a airshow. I was working on a apron near EOR
when it flew over on final. It suddenly went very quiet. I walked out of the hardened shelter and saw a pilot in a orange flightsuit walking towards me. He asked if I would call a fire truck. His jet was in the grass next to the taxiway! While at Langley in 1992 we were heavy into a ORI. The sirens were wailing as a B1 flew overhead at 300ft/500knts and pulled a climbing right turn as if it were a fighter.What a sight!!! Scared the crap out of everybody.
GREAT pic! Reminds me of a painting I once saw of a B-52 on a low altitude run over the Nevada desert, entitled "Low Level Heavy Metal".
Saw it at the air show in Ft Lauderdale but a nasty day for weather.Thunderbirds
made about three or four passes with no show do to bad weather on Sat. Show canceled on Sun. Bummer.
I still think the Avro Vulcan is a sexier bird though. Sad the RAF is out of the bomber business.
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One Man Show Rate Which is Turn Off n Out! Alien never Stay On I AM Holy Ground.
Sensor I AM and still the Sorcerer The Cheap Magician Out of My Sight!
Too Bad Maj. Kong never flew the BONE. I can picture him in that cowboy hat Making that missile Complex At Lapuda. Pep pills & all.
What the Stupid English the FUK the Freak United Kingdom Idea! IT still got None!
The English is the Moron and u think u can keep on killing and Stop the others defense and the WASP The Fly never enter into I AM Kingdom!
what an awsome looking plane it would be real scary to see one of those fly overhead.
The proposed 'R' variant would change the intakes among other things. Supposedly the F119 variant used would have RCS reducing features that would make the intake design on the 'B' unnecessary. Plus the F119 is a generation ahead in terms of performance.
No idea if some structural changes would have to be made elsewhere.
In full burner it can get another 0.4 M, versus being able to do M 2.2 for the same amout of fuel. Gee, I'll bet they fly at altitude in full burner all the time just to watch the fuel guage spin. What a great "feature" that must be. What a huge aviation success story! You should get a "good spin" merit badge for that one.
They could cut off that vertical stab while they're at it and add 2 inboard canted verticals to the back end of the glove above where the engines are mounted while they are at it (very SR-71'ish). Then they could add some real canards up front instead of those "ride vanes". If they copy the J-20 canard design (how ironic) it won't hurt the forward signature any worse than the ride vanes do and it would make up for the missing horizontal stabilizer in back.
Come on, William, in your heart you know that would kick ass! Admit it! I won't tell anyone.
They could cut off that vertical stab while they're at it and add 2 inboard canted verticals to the back end of the glove above where the engines are mounted while they are at it (very SR-71'ish). Then they could add some real canards up front instead of those "ride vanes". If they copy the J-20 canard design (how ironic) it won't hurt the forward signature any worse than the ride vanes do and it would make up for the missing horizontal stabilizer in back. — I meant to put this here, damit!
I won't lie. The B-1R would be damn impressive. Although I'm not certain about the 20% range drop. Perhaps if they used a development of the F119 with a larger fan, somewhat like the F135 but still optimized for supercruise, there wouldn't be such a loss.
If that were spillage the plane wouldn't fly 100 miles!
Right, that spillage flow that is obvious in the photograph really isn't there. Duh…