Posted on 08/19/2011 2:49:09 AM PDT by equaviator
I’m going to the airshow at Selfrige tomorrow!
Think you used enough picture there, Butch?
You even fit the golf course in there!
Awesome craft. I had the honor of going to Palmdale and see the assembly line of this magnificent plane. Quite the experience; so much pride from all who were involved. Great times.
Where I live is where they turn around during the air show...they are flying so low you can see the pilots...
The Bone is an amazing airplane. Nothing that big should be able to do what it can do. I saw one at the US Air and Trade Show in Dayton many years ago, and at the start of the show, the pilot took off on full afterburner, got about 100 feet off the ground, pulled the gear up, then slammed it into a 70-degree bank and disappeared behind the trees, vapor streaming off the wings. He ended up doing one whale of a performance.
And loud? It’s the second-loudest airplane I’ve ever heard. Only the Concorde, in my experience, was louder. Both of them don’t sound like they fly, they sound like they move by just tearing the sky open in front of them.
}:-)4
While the B-1 flies like a fighter yet carries a full bomber load, it has always been a weapon system in search of a mission. After all its years in service, the mission is still not well-defined. It is not fully stealth, it was not successful as a penetration bomber, and couldn’t even answer the bell for Desert Storm after every Iraqi fighter was grounded and SEAD was achieved. Best evidence for my thesis: the B52 is still flying with pilots that are younger than the airframe.
Please don’t take my comment as disparaging to the crews or the superior flight characteristics of the aircraft that make it impressive at an airshow. The problem is with the decision-makers that put us in this position.
“The highly-versatile and multi-mission capable B-1 is in high demand in support of operations around the world.”
Hey, Jimmah, do you hear that?
I’m not seeing any Bones on that flight line, just some tankers and hawgs. My hubby was one of the ground floor guys on the B-1; great aircraft. I’m not sure why Sheridan made the comment about noise scaring the bad guys; the bombs got to the target before the sound did.
My husband started his AF career in B-52's in '81. The BUFFs were nearly 20 years older than most of his crew; the AC flew them in Vietnam when they were new.
No kidding, you can practically read the automobile license plate numbers. I love how the golfer below the white hangar on the right is frozen in mid-swing. Pretty good form, too - keeping that elbow straight. :-)
I got to see a B1 fly for the first time in my life at the Dayton, OH, airshow last month. I’ve seen the Concorde, as well as the B2 (which did a triple-flyby at the same show). Well, nothing is more impressive than seeing the B2 profile as it banks on its wing to return back over the airfield, but the B1 was an altogether different, awesome beast.
The B1 took off, came back around with its wings extended, so the speed was somewhat “regular”. Then it came back around with wings swept, at full afterburner at about 450+. And the sound was glorious. In that regard, the B1 was certainly more interesting to witness than even the B2.
Well, the B1 left for an airshow in Michigan, but luckily for us, after the Dayton show had “ended”, the B1 returned from its day up north and made another high-speed pass over the Dayton field and then came in for landing. So we got the proverbial encore by hanging around 45 minutes after the show technically ended.
So in summary: B2 = badass.
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