Can you take off with only military power or does the B-1 require AB?

I'm always amazed at B-1 IFRs from the boom operator's perspective. The control surfaces, particularly the split stabilizer, is working like mad. Is there some form of FBW/SAS going on there for gust control or is that just stick movement? I figure there's a computer in there somewhere, given the front canard vanes.

You'd think by now Bell-Boeing would have come up with a pressurized cabin variant for AEW/ASW/COD roles, making this replacement plan at least semi-plausible.

There's also the "tripwire" aspect of having U.S. forces on the ground in Europe and Japan. Russia probably wouldn't think twice before engaging a non-U.S. NATO force. Ditto China in the Far East.

There's a YouTube of two B-1 takeoffs out of LGB airport for the Rose Bowl. Maybe the B-2 is more restricted in its options of local roosting places, but it appears the B-1 was parked there between the parade and game.

100,000 in attendance and, uh, several million TV viewers? All that advertising for $135K? It's a steal.

Both your statements are invalid. Pushing a nuke around a "public" railroad system is just plain stupid. Freight trains get humped/switched in a yard and if you designate the entire train as a fixed-consist launch platform it become easy to identify. MX Rail Garrison gave up early on this notion and instead relied…

Yeah, Putin was so "friendly" with Bush he invaded Georgia. Sheesh, leave the politics outta this one. The whole concept is brain-dead.

Yawwwnnnnn. So Eighties!

I'll see you and raise you a metric ton:

You'd think they'd use a fixed-shaft turbine for immediate throttle response given the need. Pratt & Whitney PT6 family of free-shafts is still known jokingly as "push and wait". Are the props variable pitch so the turbines run at 100% N2?

The TPE331 has only two support bearings, one at the nose of the compressor section and one trailing at the back of the turbine section. That's a lot of unsupported shaft and hence the bow. PT6s, IIRC, have an intermediate bearing in the middle and thus no shaft bow.

You turn the prop by hand 3 to 4 revolutions to locate, by feel, any high resistance point in the case of "shaft bow" or any unusual sounds or clunks. It also circulates enough air through the engine to prevent heat soaking the shaft and bowing it.

"I've never understood why they had to hand prop the thing."

Yeah, but the KA200 has a bunch of pilot assists for just this occasion: Autofeather and rudder boost. Autofeather quickly feathers the inop engine to a low-drag configuration, and rudder boost automatically assist with 50 lbs of rudder pedal into the running engine. King Airs are considered fairly benign on single…

Same landing gear as the S-3, another LTV subcontract.

You do know the Minuteman is solid-fueled, right?

Looks like a half-assed "for sale" effort.

Sorry, disagree. The mid-engine Maserati Bora was definitely a GT and not a supercar. Ditto the Pantera.

Actually, wrong coast. There are at least a dozen of these in Santa Barbara/Montecito. All of them are in great shape. Almost like the owners know this was the last of a breed and therefore doing their utmost to keep them cherry. I still love my 96 purchased new.