Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:Are the B-1s that bad, Baxx?
For those of us who flew them, I found them a NIGHTMARE. Serious controllability issues (which resulted in an additional huge amount of money being spent to make them stable) Constant engine flame-outs (or complete destruction of the engine that caused many losses of aircraft), avionics failures, defensive packages that were easily defeated, constant problems with the swept-wing (mechanically and the computer control), etc etc. NONE of these issues were because of the USAF maintenenace guys (very dedicated people, who were stuck working on something that was plagued with designed problems).
Up until just a few years ago, my basic Palm Pilot had more computing power than the entire package on-board one these monstrosities! An avionics and computer upgrade made them better, but I was already flying KC-135R refuelers by then. Baxx, could probably give you a better insight to the maintenance nightmare, but out of the 7 we had for our squadron, usually only 2 were flyable at any given time.
A HUGE waste of tax payer's money for a plane that the USAF ABSOLUTELY DID NOT WANT OR NEED. Politics...the senator that finally pushed them down our throats happened to be from the home-state that the initial B-1A and B-1B models were built.