Insane Speed and Power: The B-1 Lancer Story

imagine a machine that combines the speed of a supersonic Hustler with the devastating punch of the heavyweight buff a Marvel of military engineering that skirts the edge of Legend and reality an airplane that's like the F14 Tom cat's Big Brother they never warned you about welcome to the world of the B1 Lancer affectionately known as the bone this isn't just the story of any bomber it's a tale of resilience a blend of power and speed that has defied the odds outperforming the legendary B-52 in bomb load the bone struck fear into the hearts of its adversaries so much so that it was deliberately restrained by International treaties but there's a twist it was canceled not once but twice and yet it soared back stronger than ever while obtaining over 60 World Records today we're diving into the secrets of this iconic aircraft the last of the American swing wings from its unexpected Origins to its crucial role in modern conflicts the B1 lancer's story is more than just metal and Machinery so fasten your seat belts hit that subscribe button and join me on a high octane journey to uncover why the bone is an indispensable Titan of the skies is stealthier than you think and is needed now more than ever pilot fog.com today America uses three types of bombers each with a different primary Mission the stealthy B2 Spirit the venerable B-52 Strat Fortress and of course the fast B1 Lancer when you need to strike a target with total surprise you send in the B2 when you want an overhead presence that can strike at any time you send in the B-52 so when does the B1 come into play well when you need a rapid lowl delivery flying under the radar you send in the bone to really understand where the B1 fits in today you have to go back to its Origins by the late 1950s new anti-aircraft missiles made flying at high altitudes a risk for bombers this was proven Beyond a doubt when Gary power's You2 plane was infamously shot down in 1960 as a result the US Air Force started flying its bombers lower to hide from radar using Hills and Valleys in a tactic known as terrain masking low-flying bombers are harder to detect because the radar would get confused with ground objects and couldn't see below a certain angle this made anti-aircraft missiles less effective against low-flying aircraft case in point the b-58 Hustler was designed for high-speed flying yet it wasn't good at low levels after just under 10 years in service the b-58 program was cancelled meanwhile the B-52 bomber though originally not made for low flying could perform the task but it was not really suited for it because of this new designs called penetrators were developed for long low-level flights the F-111 fighter bomber was the first true penetrator aircraft and as a result the Air Force wanted a bomber that could combine the mock two speeds of the b-58 Hustler with the range and payload of the B-52 this new bomber would eventually replace both the b-58 and B-52 or so the Air Force thought these requirements led to the Advance the man strategic aircraft or amsa project which was about making a new bomber that could perform similarly to the f111 as the amsa project timeline wore on and on the joke was that amsa actually stood for American 's most studied aircraft however some people questioned if a new bomber was even needed since long range icbms and submarine launch missiles were seen as better for defense defense secretary at the time Robert mcamera preferred icbms and limited the bomber program to just studies and developing Parts these bomber studies went on focusing on advanced technology but mcamera didn't want a new bomber preferring to improve the B-52s and use FB 1111s for shorter missions the amsa project looked like it was in Jeopardy as you know in the world of military Aviation projects like the iconic B1 bomber often navigate through a maze of political debates and decisions it's a realm where understanding different perspectives is crucial just like in the B's Journey from blueprint to Sky and when it comes to staying well informed especially in our complex and multifaceted world having a reliable source like today's sponsor ground news is as vital as having the right Intel in an aircraft development project ground news offers that broad spectrum of viewpoints ensuring you're as well equipped in your knowledge as a pilot in the cockpit of a B1 bomber this platform combines articles from some 50,000 local and international sources in one place making it easy to access and allowing you to compare coverage for example recently the Philippine military announced joint patrols with the us and the South China Sea and it was barely covered by the media this comes as somewhat of a surprise because tensions are rising in the area almost daily we can see 17 articles have been published about this in the last day with most of the sources coming from a center leaning view I appreciate that I can also see who owns these sources and how factual their reporting practices tend to be what I really find useful is that I can skim the headlines and see how the story is being reported in this case we can see that sources on the right include the strengthening of of the alliance between the US and Philippines while sources on the left highlight the actions of Chinese warships and you can see these at a glance on the ground news site which is available on desktop or mobile so if you care about the truth like I do and are tired of the misleading media narratives then you really need to be using ground news I highly recommend you check out the site go to ground. news/ piloto the link is in the description right now you can get 30% off unlimited access to the Vantage plan by using my link Subs subcribing not only supports my channel but this small team working to hold the media accountable I find their platform really useful and I think you will too thank you ground news and getting back to the B1 while the amsa project was essentially cancelled in the late 1960s Richard Nixon bought it back after he became president by April of 1969 the program officially became known as the b1a proposals by General Dynamics boing and Rockwell were submitted in January of 1970 with Rockwell winning the contract in June of that year the initial design of the b1a was incredible the airplane featured an escape capsule in case the pilots had to eject at high speeds with swing wings that could sweep out for takeoffs and landings then sweep back for high-speed flight interestingly with its wings fully swept out the B1 could land in airfields that the B52 couldn't when it came to speed the b1a was fast reaching Mach 2 plus at high altitudes and even Mack 1.2 at low altitude however the problem for the bone was cost in 1970 a single B1 was $40 million but with the runaway inflation of that era that cost jumped up to 70 million in 1975 as a result Rockwell began finding ways to lower the cost of the bomber so ejection seats were used instead of the escape capsule and the low-level speed requirement was decreased to mock 0.85 which allowed for Less use of titanium in the wings and fuselage keeping cost down more on that in a minute despite these efforts by Rockwell to scale back costs by the time Jimmy Carter took office in 1977 the estimated cost of each bomber had risen to $100 million and there were several competing projects first President Carter was made aware of a top secret stealth bomber which was under development known as the advanced technology bomber or ATB this would eventually become the B2 Spirit secondly Pentagon officials stated that the new ag68 Air launch cruise missile or alcm could be launched at safe distances from a B-52 and penetrate Soviet air defenses based on this President Carter announced in June of 1977 that the B1 was cancelled in favor of Submarine landbased nuclear missiles and a modernization program for the B-52 in an interesting twist of fate the ATB program that produced the B2 which was a deciding factor in the cancellation of the B1 actually helped bring the B1 back to life as we'll soon see publicly Carter's cancellation of the project was split among partisan lines Republicans were for keeping the program while Democrats were against it during his 1980 presidential campaign Ronald Reagan strongly argued that Carter was not doing enough for defense often pointing to the cancellation of the B1 program as a prime example upon being elected to office Reagan had to decide if the ATB stealth bomber would be ready in time or if the B1 program should be resurrected as a stop Gap with the ATB bomber taking longer than expect expected the decision was made in January of 1982 the Air Force gave Rockwell two contracts totaling 2.2 billion to develop and build 100 B1 bombers the design was updated for the missions they now expected creating the b1b these updates included slowing down the maximum speed to improve stealth this allowed for the use of simpler fixed geometry intake ramps instead of the variable ones along with changes to the air intakes the Lancer also makes use of serpentine or s-shaped ducts to hide the engine fan blades from enemy radar emissions and although not technically a stealth aircraft the B1 has a radar cross-section that is about 15th of a B-52 these and other changes made the b1b slightly less visible on radar a worthwhile tradeoff for the slower speed as air defenses were becoming more sophisticated the new Focus this was all about higher subsonic speeds at low altitudes which produced an increase from about moach 0.85 to 0.92 on the deck the b1b top speed is around Mach 1.2 at higher altitudes although at the time there were still critics of the b1b the main arguments in its favor were the ability to carry nuclear and conventional bombs and the takeoff performance that allowed it to operate from a much wider variety of airfields as compared to the B-52 the first production b1b rolled off the assembly line in 1984 and the 100th Lancer was delivered in 1988 in looking at the B1 you may have noticed some small Canard likee wings or veins near the nose of the bomber these are part of an anti- dampening system known as structural mode control system or smcs this combined system helps smooth out what would otherwise be a very very bumpy low altitude ride while protecting the structure of the aircraft when it comes to the engines the Lancer packs a punch the bone is powered by four after burning gf11 engines each putting out more than 30,000 lb of thrust with afterburner that's 120,000 lb of Freedom imagine the sound of this thing on takeoff the powerful f11 engine would go on to be developed into the G e f-110 engine which was used on the super Tom Cat and the F-16 Fighting Falcon aka the Viper it's hard to understate how fast the B1 is for a bomber as we mentioned earlier the lanter holds over 60 world records in the form of speed payload distance and time to climb one of the more memorable records was set in 1993 when three B1 BS set a long-distance record showcasing ing its ability to perform strikes anywhere in the world without any stop however what's a bomber without bombs we've hinted earlier at the Bone's massive bomb load which is greater than the B-52 it turns out that the B1 can carry 75,000 lb of bombs inside not one not two but three internal bomb Bays on top of this the Lancer has six external hard points which can carry a total of 50 th000 lbs of ordinance it's a lot of Firepower hanging on the outside these external hard points give the B1 flexibility in carrying oversized weapons that may not fit inside the internal bomb bay and the amount of weapon options the Lancer can take are staggering everything from long range anti-ship missiles to Conventional freef fall bombs cluster bombs and of course Precision guided bombs the B1 also uses rotary mounted launchers to dispense jams giving new meaning to the phrase Reach Out And Touch someone speaking of precision guided weapons the Lancer can make use of lockheed's sniper XR pod which allows the B1 to use multiple sensor formats to positively self-identify targets before Prosecuting them Conventional Weapons initially an add-on for the B1 program may have been what actually has kept the bomber in service the idea of a supersonic capable low-flying strategic bomber gave the Russian nightmares during the Cold War in fact the B1 was so feared that it was specifically called out in a nuclear arms treaty and had to be reconfigured as to not allow it to carry nuclear weapons these modifications included adjustments to the hard points to prevent nuclear weapon pylons from being attached the removal of weapons bait wiring bundles that could arm nuclear weapons and the destruction of nuclear weapons pylons these conversions were completed in 2011 and Russian officials inspect the bombers every year to verify compliance officially the B1 first saw combat not in 1991's Desert Storm but in the 1998 desert fox campaign where it dropped mostly unguided general purpose weapons since then b1s have seen action in the Kosovo Allied Force campaign the operation enduring Freedom Campaign in Afghanistan and in the 2003 second Gulf War during these conflicts the B1 dropped both conventional and precision guided bombs more than sharing the load of all ordinance dropped for example in the first 6 months of operation enduring Freedom 8 b1s were responsible for dropping almost 40% of the bombs used by Coalition Air Forces this included about 3,900 J dams making up 60% of the total dropped during operation Iraqi Freedom the B1 played play a significant role despite flying less than 1% of the combat missions as it delivered 43% of the JMS used that works out to about 480 jams dropped per Lancer in 2012 the ninth expeditionary bomb Squadron returned from his six-month tour in Afghanistan the squadron's 9 b1s flew 770 sorties making it the most of any B1 Squadron on a single deployment during this time the Squadron spent 9,500 hours airborne and always kept at least one of its bombers in the air at all times in doing this the ninth accounted for a quarter of all combat aircraft sorties over Afghanistan while fulfilling an average of two to three air support requests per day and while we all love the A10 swooping in and supporting troops on the ground sometimes we forget that the B1 has saved the lives of many an Allied Soldier possibly even some viewers of this video b1s also participated in operations against Isis in Syria as part of operation inherent resolve during which on 31 separate occasions the bombers went Winchester meaning they dropped all their payload today the B1 remains active continuing to fly missions daily in ongoing operations with its high speed and long range the B1 has evolved into a quasi self bomber that is effective in conventional Warfare against ground targets interestingly the B1 is seen as a useful asset for maritime duties such as patrolling shipping lanes a feature that could come in very handy in the Pacific Theater of operations currently there are plans to upgrade the bone to keep the aircraft viable with some estimates showing it being in service until 2038 and as you have now heard heard the B21 Raider is in development and already flying however if there are delays in the Raider program then history could repeat itself after all the bone was green lit because the B2 Spirit was taking longer than anticipated in a similar way what if the B21 takes longer and the Lancer gets an extension on its operational life in many ways it would be a fitting addition to the story of the twice canell misunderstood and feared bomber that is the bone one last thing the Air Force had proposed an updated version of the bone one that would have slightly less range but more speed it was referred to as the b1r with r standing for regional you never know when I may release my next video unless of course you subscribe to the channel and click the bell for notifications you can support me by supporting today's sponsor ground news getting an awesome mug on my shop or joining my awesome patreon crew the B1 Lancer fear the bone now you know pilot fog.com

Channel: PilotPhotog

Views: 1,241,687

Keywords: aviation, flying, photography, aviator, pilot, fly, airplane, plane, planes, pilotphotog, avgeek, Supersonic Bomber, AirForcePower, CombatAircraft, AviationTechnology, StrategicBomber, TheBone, MilitaryMight, Rockwell, B-1B, B-1A, supersonic, North American, Hypersonic, GE F101, GE F110, A-10, F-16 viper, best of aviation, development, research, ronald reagan, jimmy carter, Cold war, Richard Nixon, robert mcnamara, F-111, penetrator, ICBM

Id: F0CCNQYPw0U

Length: 19min 18sec (1158 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024