"It didn't see its first combat use until 1998, ten years after the last one was built."

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.

Here's one example, except it's every 20 years:

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.

Provided there's a problem, yeah, checklist might say "reset/open breaker X". General rule in aviation is you reset the breaker *once*. If it pops again, you leave it open.

It a yaw *damper*, and yes, it's really just an autopilot for the rudder. Essentially
"centers the ball" and eliminates roll/yaw coupling. Second thing you do, after raising the gear, in an older Learjet lest you piss off your passengers en route or kill them in the flare with a cartwheel.

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.

It's pretty typical since U.S. maritime regulations are fairly onerous. And yeah, personal property taxes can be steep as well. After a certain point, a U.S. flagged yacht over a certain displacement just isn't worth the trouble, particularly if you aren't hopping between U.S. ports but rather spending most your…

Yeah, kinda in your face like Starke's other recent design "A":

Once while flying in an AA MD-8x, we departed LGB, the aircraft's "home 'drome". We were very light and only going to SBA with at most 10 pax. Pilot announces we'll be doing a "max performance takeoff". Straight up, then a pushover at 2,000 feet. Looked down and I swear we were only at the far end of the runway.

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:

As somebody who wirewrapped backplanes by hand in the late 60s and early 70s, I can attest to the amount of work it took to ensure each connection was not only correct pin-to-pin, but also the path was optimal. It's a tedious, difficult, and error-prone process. No wonder they automated it.

One invisible aspect of the XB-70s technology was managing all the heat generated by Mach 3+ flight. The sharp points exceeded several hundred degrees at speed, and all that heat had to be rejected into the fuel tanks and then burnt. Of course, heating fuel put it close to the flashpoint, so the tanks had to be…

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?