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B-1B Lancer Chases KC-135 Stratotanker, Looks Like a Rat, Whiskers and All

Now this is something I never thought would come up: have you ever noticed how, given the right circumstances, the front end of a B-1B Lancer looks like the face of a rat? If you didn’t, here’s the perfect pic to enlighten you.
B-1B Lancer on refueling mission over the Pacific Ocean 17 photos
Photo: USAF/Master Sgt. Nicholas Priest
B-1B Lancer on refueling mission over the Pacific OceanB-1B Lancer shooting flaresB-1B Lancers over the PacificB-1B Lancer being parked in GuamB-1B Lancers en route to Super Bowl LV flyoverB-1B Lancer landing at Naval Support Facility Diego GarciaB-1B Lancer over the Persian GulfB-1B Lancer taking off from UK baseB-1B LancerB-1B LancerB-1B LancerB-1B LancerB-1B LancerB-1B LancerB-1B LancerB-1B Lancer at Edwards Air Force Base
The Lancer is, alongside the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress, part of America’s bomber Trifecta. That means these three are the only ones currently fielded by the American Air Force (USAF) that have been specifically designed to play the role of bombers.

That should make each and every one of them fierce and scary-looking machines, and for what it’s worth, they are. The B-52 can hold the widest array of weapons of any plane now in use and will become, in a few decades, the first military aircraft to reach 100 years old while in service; while the Spirit, with its alien spacecraft-like shape, it’s unmistakable in the sky, provided you get to see it coming.

The Lancer, on the other hand, can carry “the largest conventional payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the Air Force inventory,” and its blended wing/body configuration makes it look unlike any other aircraft currently flying in the skies of the world.

Yet, the photo we have here, recently released by the USAF and showing a Lancer during a refueling mission over the Pacific Ocean in late June, makes it look quite quirky, with the windscreens showing us the eyes of the creature and its nose, with the two small fins on either side looking like a rat’s whiskers, completing the illusion.

Separately, there’s another interesting aspect of this pic that needs to be mentioned: the bomber’s reflection can be seen, inverted, in some surface inside the KC-135 Stratotanker it was chasing at the time (click main photo to enlarge and experience that).

Two reasons, then, to have this one included in our Photo of the Day coverage.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
Daniel Patrascu profile photo

Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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