Photo: USAF/Senior Airman Jacob B. Wrightsman
Built for a world that fortunately never came to be, the B-1B Lancer remains one of the most fearful sights in the skies of the world. Initially designed to carry nuclear weapons, it now patrols the world as a more conventional bomber.
The Lancer, also referred to by its pilots as The Bone, which would be a mispronunciation of B-One, has been around since the mid-1980s, and chances are it will continue to be flown well into the 2030s.
But that doesn’t mean some of them (there are a bit over 60 currently in service) are not being pulled from the front line right now. Like the one we have here.
The current lineup of B-1Bs is scheduled to start being replaced with something called B-21 Raider as soon as the middle of this decade. By 2036, all Bones should be out of service.
The one we have here, deployed with the Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, was just flown to the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. There, it will be stripped of all the secret hardware as it will be decommissioned and put on display as part of the Global Power Museum airpark.
That means it will take its place among historic aircraft, like the B-17 and B-24 bombers of World War II, the P-51 Mustang, and even the SR-71 Blackbird. And this new addition to the outdoor museum will take quite a lot of space, as it comes with a wingspan of 137 feet (42 meters) and a height of 34 feet (10 meters).
It’s unclear what missions this exact plane was part of, but the entire family proved to be a valuable asset during the wars in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It also flew over Yugoslavia in 1999, where it performed just 2 percent of all strike missions, but the bombs it dropped amounted to 20 percent of all the ordnance released over the former European country.
But that doesn’t mean some of them (there are a bit over 60 currently in service) are not being pulled from the front line right now. Like the one we have here.
The current lineup of B-1Bs is scheduled to start being replaced with something called B-21 Raider as soon as the middle of this decade. By 2036, all Bones should be out of service.
The one we have here, deployed with the Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, was just flown to the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. There, it will be stripped of all the secret hardware as it will be decommissioned and put on display as part of the Global Power Museum airpark.
That means it will take its place among historic aircraft, like the B-17 and B-24 bombers of World War II, the P-51 Mustang, and even the SR-71 Blackbird. And this new addition to the outdoor museum will take quite a lot of space, as it comes with a wingspan of 137 feet (42 meters) and a height of 34 feet (10 meters).
It’s unclear what missions this exact plane was part of, but the entire family proved to be a valuable asset during the wars in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It also flew over Yugoslavia in 1999, where it performed just 2 percent of all strike missions, but the bombs it dropped amounted to 20 percent of all the ordnance released over the former European country.
Google News