B1 Lancer: Engineering Marvels and Technological Breakthroughs (Full Documentary)
[Music] this is Rockwell's B1 bomber it is one of only four prototypes ever produced had it been accepted by the United States Air Force it would have been the fastest and highest flying bomber ever to go into service the Paradox is that the plane that ultimately did see service although looking almost identical flew at half the speed of the B1 but was much more effective in many ways development of the B1 parallel development to the very first strategic bomber the B-17 in that the B-17 also had to deal with an array of problems the history of the B-17 began when the Army Air corps circulated a specification for a multi-engine bomber they probably only expected manufacturers to respond with a twin-engine design but the Boeing Company showing what was to be characteristic foresight offered a four-engine plane [Music] as advanced as it may have been Boeing's model 299 as the Prototype was known was not very well received an accidental crash in the early trials and a belief in some quarters that large four-engine planes would be too difficult to fly in combat cost bowing the initial order and yet certain factions in the Air corps encouraged Boeing to continue development of what was for its time a massive aircraft using much of its own money and fighting government cutbacks the company continued to develop but was ultimately to be a most important plane world events were to justify this decision the emergence of the Axis powers caused the Roosevelt administration to rethink its attitude to long-range aerial bombardment a role in which the B-17 would Excel but the first flying fortresses to see action were 20 examples sent to Britain's royal Air Force as much for evaluation as for strategic bombing the British exercise could never be claimed as a major success although welcomed by a nation short on Armament the high-flying long-range b-17s the British called Fortress ones were to have a short and checkered career [Music] by flying at thirty thousand feet RAF Crews had hoped to evade German Fighters but the High Altitude did not deter the Germans and The Limited defensive Firepower of the b-17s proved inadequate against the luftwaffe everything [Music] with RAF results in hand Boeing's designers went back to the drawing board if the plane was to survive it would have to be rethought substantially more armor which might reduce the plane's bomb load would have to be added with a wartime effort underway women joined the workforce and production of the B-17 the plane that at one time no one wanted was considered a strategic priority [Music] another major modification to the second generation Flying Fortress was the completely redesigned tail fin which remedied the stability problems of earlier models but the major Improvement was to defensive Firepower the revised rear fuselage now bristled with gun positions some in the form of power operated turrets an effective but difficult to operate volter was a challenge to the courage of any gun [Music] thank you booming by day b-17s over Europe would continue to suffer heavy losses it was only the later edition of the escort fighter that radically reduced the toll [Music] at gun positions flying fortresses would have been easy pickings for the luftwaffe [Music] despite the high cost in lives there is little doubt that the theory of strategic bombing was well proved disrupting German industry and slowing down the Nazi war machine it was an effective but very expensive way of Waging War throughout the conflict Germany never had a four engine equivalent to the B-17 but its scientists did produce a novel and potentially very effective weapon that risked very few German lives and caused considerable Panic to its opponents powered by an air-breathing Pulse Jet Engine the V1 was the Forerunner of a new generation of weapon [Music] blind among civilian populations because with limited guidance pinpoint targeting was not possible although a very clever weapon the V1 could be brought down by ground fire and by fast flying Fighters [Music] but there was no defense for Hitler's second Vengeance weapon the V2 ballistic missile a brilliant and Sinister product of the Von Braun team which brought the technique of aerial bombardment to a totally new level one unforeseen by any of the allies meanwhile American scientists had developed the automated Fire Control System and had worked to perfect the pressurized fuselage enabling high-flying bomber Crews to operate without the restrictions of earlier planes like the B-17 [Music] their philosophy was to perfect existing technology that could quickly be mass produced foreign these Innovations together with many others came together superbly in the B-29 this was the ultimate development of the conventional piston engine bomber utilizing America's enormous production capability but b-29s were never used in Europe their principal Target was Japan in the Pacific Theater automated Gunnery proved itself a markedly better defense for air Crews than anything that had been available to the b-17s still the B-29 was a conventional weapon in keeping with the American philosophy of perfecting what was known there was one notable exception the atomic bomb the ultimate high technology weapon of the second World War it required only one B-29 to carry such a weapon and change the course of history [Music] foreign [Music] Ty had lost its innocence given the enormous destructive power demonstrated throughout the war by heavy Allied bombers culminating in the awesome destruction of the atomic blasts there can be no doubt that by the end of the war the long-range heavy bomber had become the era's most important weapon or at least the means of delivering it nevertheless there was also great interest in captured German V weapons shipped back to the United States V2s in particular were tested by American scientists although their limited range suggested their usefulness might not be great but a more serious challenge to the dominance of the long-range bomber was also emerging even as early as 1946 the proposed snark InterContinental missile offered an extremely useful range of over 5 000 miles although not to be operational until the early 50s this extensive Redevelopment of the V1 concept was to be a major success [Music] still delivery of atomic weapons in the late 1940s was exclusively assigned to the traditional long-range heavy bomber and the B-36 assumed the role as the first truly InterContinental bomber it would protect its enormous bulk by using a large number of gun positions to defend what some consider to be the indefensible [Music] sometimes referred to as the big stick or The Peacemaker the B-36 used a combination of piston and jet power to extend the American Strategic Air command's reach to any potential Target in 1947 V2 Rockets originally built in pinamunda Germany were enhanced with an American-made second stage providing a range which made the Air Force very interesting interest was increased by the belligerent acts of the Soviets in Berlin and Czechoslovakia the following year the Soviet Union an American Ally of the second World War caused additional concern when in 1949 it demonstrated its own capacity to detonate a nuclear device initiating one of the deadliest races in history [Music] in the early 1950s conventional aircraft now with swept wings and fully jet powered was still considered to be the most reliable nuclear Delivery Systems and therefore the best deterrent against what was fast emerging as the Soviet threat a distinct Cooling in relations between the two superpowers was heightened even further by the conflict in Korea and stage was set for a cold war with nuclear Sabers rattling on both sides crucial to this game of brinkmanship was the best means of delivery and as far as conventional aircraft were concerned the U.S Air Force had no better vehicle than the First Intercontinental all-jet bomber famous Boeing B-52 [Laughter] the already considerable range of the B-52 was enhanced by enormous auxiliary fuel tanks which could be jettisoned after use giving the aircraft maximum improved aerodynamics foreign the best means for delivery of atomic weapons the B-52 was also The Logical if not only choice for the scientific development of the new and still more lethal hydrogen bomb [Music] here at a high security base in the Pacific technicians install a new generation nuclear device similar in size to the A-bomb which devastated Hiroshima but more than 100 times more powerful [Music] [Music] Russia gave a great boost to American defense right from the onset of the Cold War American Research had borrowed from the achievements of Pina Munda and White Sands they utilized the nation's largest financial commitment to a single defense system and developed the first arsenal of truly intercontinental ballistic missiles with the urgency of a war of threats and Technology America's Talent for mass production was set to work on a defense system that would totally eclipse the manned bomber program from this day John intercontinental ballistic missiles became the prime means of delivering America's nuclear deterrence they confronted them equal if not greater number of Russian missiles which combined with other weapons on both sides in a bizarre formula referred to as mutually assured destruction this Arrangement did however succeed in maintaining a balance with so much Devastation available neither side could seriously consider nuclear warfare without ensuring its own Extinction but there was a downside missile Ray was an All or Nothing option on the other hand the manned bomber could be sent towards its enemy in a fine mixture of saber-rattling and brinkmanship B-52s stayed in service equipped with short-range air-launched missiles they could be released at a safe distance from the target some like the hound dog was supported by a conventional wing and powered by an air breathing jet a concept not totally removed from the V1 technology of pinamunda a Quantum Leap in the evolution of the manned bomber came with the remarkable xb70 Valkyrie the B-52 would be a hard act to follow but North American Aviation put forward a submission that was as courageous as it was brilliant the xb70 program still stands today as an example of the combination of Ingenuity and high technology to achieve otherwise unattainable results Air Force parameters for the new bomber stated that it should fly three times the speed of sound at extreme altitude beyond the range of Soviet defense systems the xb70 would certainly have secured its own defense through performance and in spite of the coming dominance of the ICBM still offered Air Force generals a flexible manned bomber alternative it was a valuable card in the game of political brinkmanship suddenly the program was abandoned confidence in Cent the missile was to be the Nemesis of the manned bomber when the Soviets demonstrated the accuracy of ground-to-air anti-aircraft rocketry once again the technology of wartime Germany suggested The Next Step the variable sweep Wing design had been under development in Germany in the final stages of the war later it had been developed by the American X-Plane program it took many years of research to perfect the swing Wing concept the first practical use came with the most remarkable aircraft General Dynamics F-111 proved the theory of the variable sweat Wing which allowed the pilot to change configuration from a high-speed Delta to a conventional straight Wing position for Target approaches below enemy radar [Music] foreign [Music] was the development of terrain following radar this enabled the pilot to select impressively low altitudes to which the F-111 would automatically adjust following the Contours of the ground below [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] but although the F-111 proved the effectiveness of flying undetected under enemy radar it was not a heavy bomber perhaps the same technology could be developed on a larger scale [Music] the Air Force's request for proposal released in 1969 asked among other things for low altitude ride control and nuclear hardness the ability of the aircraft's electronic system to resist the effects of a nuclear explosion again the North American company took the lead now under its new Banner Rockwell it put forward a concept that embraced all the latest Innovations including swing Wing technology but in the proportions of a long-range heavy bomber prove the concept an exhaustive wind tunnel program tested the shape proportions and function of Rockwell's proposed swing Wing penetrate in miniature every flight characteristic and operational idiosyncrasy of what was to be the B1 project underwent the closest scrutiny foreign [Music] verification process models were used in many different ways he here another scale replica of the B1 using the same non-radar reflective materials as the final aircraft is tested on a movable rig its ability to hide from radar coming from any angle is Thoroughly examined yeah the biggest and most impressive model in this process was the final full-scale mock-up this faithful representation of the designers ideas gave the manufacturer and the Air Force the feel of the final aircraft in those years before computer technology made it unnecessary the mock-up gave the last opportunity to explore the practicality of the concept before committing to the expense of production even details like hinge doors and access panels are Faithfully modeled so that ground and flight Crews alike can assess almost every physical detail of the finished aircraft a variety of model weapon loads both outside the aircraft and inside the bombays look absolutely convincing and provide the closest possible insight to the real thing so does the layout of the cockpit and even The Swinging mechanism of the wing works just the way it will on the production version this level of perfection is a test to the model maker but manufacturer of the real thing was to challenge the engineer far more there have been problems with the early F-111 Wing box on which the swing wing pivoted the b1b would carry a load many times greater than the F-111 so this facet of its operation was tested in the most punishing way as always with United States military aircraft the greatest consideration was placed on the service's most indispensable asset the preservation of aircrew was a major priority and with the B1 project it would prove a substantial challenge [Music] foreign [Music] Rockwell's Engineers tackled the problem of crew survivability from a stricken plane in exactly the same way General Dynamics had with the F-111 crew capsule but for the B1 with a crew of four it would have to be much larger and tolerances would be greater there was always concern about the effects on aircrew not only from the force of ejection but more importantly from the impact of Landing the f-111's capsule had worked well but at this scale and at a weight of nine thousand pounds the problems were multiplied [Music] there was a real danger of spinal damage to Crews on impact so rapid action airbags were developed to cushion the effect of the module as it hit the ground because of the nature of the b1's mission the airbags would have to work on land and water [Music] foreign ale California construction of three prototypes began the B1 project was now underway even if its long-term future was far from certain funding as in most major defense projects was to be a continuing problem Senate criticism of the enormous cost of the B1 and the usual inter-service competition for the military budget were as difficult for Rockwell Executives to handle as the new technology was for Rockwell's engineers here the dedicated test rig is used to assess tolerance to stress to prove the Integrity of the b1's basic design that Integrity would have to be confirmed before any plane with the performance expectations of the B1 could be allowed to fly in service eventually after years of gestation and months of production the first B1 was displayed to the public on October 26 1974. its Sleek lines were emphasized by its glossy white finish at the time it was the largest swing Wing aircraft in the world the first B1 serial number 74-0158 rolled down the Palmdale runway on December 23 1974 for its Maiden flight originally plans called for five flying prototypes and two for structural testing but because of cuts in the program only three planes were ordered the second and third of these were not to be available for flight testing for over a year so on the first flight to the first plane more than usual precautions were taken without a ready replacement loss of this prototype could cause the whole program to collapse little surprised then that the first short flight to Edwards should be accomplished with wheels down nor was any attempt made to alter the position of the enormous swinging wings but the two-man crew did adjust the jet exhaust system this complicated Arrangement is sometimes referred to as the turkey feathers for obvious reasons to control the final stages of up to 30 000 pounds of thrust with full afterburner is it difficult but vital function [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] Edwards is the traditional base for testing one's called muroc this Air Force facility has been the home of many major test programs here from the dry Californian desert the first B1 with the hopes of Rockwell and the Air Force and the balance would undergo the most thorough flight testing all the while its detractors look for the slightest floor to capitalize on already there had been problems with cost overruns these had been added to by the government decision to produce fewer test planes substantially increasing the unit cost also the decision to stretch the early delivery schedule created problems with the aircraft's 3 000 subcontractors Logistics must have been a nightmare although the first short flight of the B1 was a totally successful exercise its future was still far from secure and much of the real fact the program was to encounter had little to do with the planes performance rather the arguments were of knee philosophy and politics did the Air Force really require a new bomber how valuable was a recallable man deterrent genuinely informed assessments of whether the B1 might be able to achieve its Mission requirements were less easy to find and against this backdrop of uncertainty engineers and test pilots would have to prove Rockwell's super bomber as the testing continued the soul flying example of the B1 was carefully put through various stages of the test program soon the enormously powerful and complex landing gear was to be retracted and extended years earlier when Rockwell was still called North American and it was testing the xb70 valkyrie on its first prototype Mission the gear failed to retract properly but the b1's initial attempt at a clean profile flight was a total success with something as complicated as the undercarriage tremendous effort is expended in testing prior to flight but in the end the one that really counts is in the air [Music] throughout 1975 Rockwell's single flying B1 Renault Gauntlet of tests including the crucial Wing sweep function from straight Wing to Delta shape there was a comprehensive testing of the four general electric f-101 fan gen engines and of the delicate task of aerial refueling necessary even for a plane with a b1's range it was tested in high-level flight at over 50 000 feet then down to the deck for the all-important below the radar barrier trials flying over 600 miles an hour at less than 200 feet [Music] in these circumstances the small veins of the low altitude flight control system were vital government cuts to the program meant that only three prototypes were to be built the first of these was to fly and the second was for structural testing at the end of 1975 the stress tests were complete and the aircraft was released to be fitted out for flying but it would not be available till May the following year in January of 1976 the third aircraft built for flight testing came online this aircraft would concentrate on much of the complex avionics equipment used in the B1 program especially the Boeing built offensive electronic system a vital part in the B1 mission inside the cockpit of these prototypes a complicated array of dials and meters surrounds the cathode ray tubes if you look closely you can see the fighter-like control columns unusual in the large aircraft directly behind the pilot and co-pilot the other two crew members sit in their positions the defensive and offensive Systems Operations use the high point of radar development not only to identify and Target the enemy but also to fend off attacking opposition Fighters it's a far cry from the air Gunner huddled in the rear of the B-17 the B-1 crew fly in Comfort but in combat they'd face the same old risks fighting off late 20th or 21st century Bandits as the test of first three aircraft continued with the speed and altitude envelope being constantly pushed a fourth plane authorized for August 1976 production started its early stages of construction with this latest B1 underway it seemed the program had gained sufficient momentum to survive its critics with so much research behind it and so many of the problems solved it appeared certain the Rockwell bomber would continue into production but then on June 30th 1977 the recently elected Carter Administration canceled the project a the B1 program came to a halt a unit cost of over 100 million dollars was not the least of the reasons for cancellation but there weren't others one influential Factor was the earlier successful testing of a unique combination of two proven pieces of American Hardware a Minuteman missile and a C5 Transport Aircraft if it could be demonstrated that the C5 was capable of launching the missile in flight then it could offer the Air Force an extremely cost effective form of recallable deterrent the survivability of a massive Transport Aircraft as it approached the combat zone may not have been great but the extra range offered by the missile may have combined to produce some form of deterrent if the experiment worked [Music] although it was not to be adopted as a complete system the air launching of an ICBM was nevertheless a spectacular achievement it may yet have some potential a much more concrete threat to the B1 came in the form of the air launched cruise missile or alcm these are clever and extremely deadly weapons before extension their wings and tail plane fold flush to the main body so that many such missiles can be carried under the wings or in the internal bomb Bays of a B-52 everything [Music] the alcm program which was quickly implemented by The Carter Administration gave the Aging B-52s a new lease on life as a suitable delivery system the cruise missile uses small air-breathing jet engines and with their extended wings and subsonic speed obviously owe something to the original cruise missile the German V1 of World War II but 30 years of technical Evolution enabled the addition of Concepts similar to the terrain following radar first used in the F-111 this produced a weapon that was at the same time economical and effective and considerably extended the range and survivability of the B-52 one thing was certain after the Carter decision to cancel the B-1 the B-52 old as it was would have to carry on as America's only long-range recallable deterrent but although more life could be squeezed out of these remarkable aircraft it was equally obvious that in the long term a new delivery platform of some kind was inevitable even with the support of dedicated bomber versions of the F-111 and the alcms the hitting power of America's Strategic Air Force was starting to wane in spite of the discussed conversion of Transport Aircraft to carry cruise missiles it had been known for many years that survivability over or even close to enemy airspace required specialized aircraft and a missile carrying transport would be limited to a type of delivery far less challenging than the Air Force would expect from a B-52 replacement clearly a long-range penetrator was needed foreign although the Cotter decision had canceled production of the B1 it had allowed some funds for the continued tests of the first three planes and to complete the building of the fourth it was with these four aircraft that Rockwell started to resurrect the program but much time had passed since the cancellation and if the swing Wing bomber was ever to reach production it would be vastly different from the original concept in some ways time had worked in the plane's favor new ideas were now becoming available and with flying test vehicles on hand their qualities could be quickly verified [Music] foreign [Music] the most important change to strategic thinking was the revised attitude toward high speed the first parameter for the B1 had been that it could fly at over 50 000 feet and speeds in excess of Mach 2 twice the speed of sound and then as it approached enemy radar the plane was expected to drop to 200 feet and high subsonic speed to make its final run undetected but later thinking claimed that Mach 2 speed performance was of no real strategic value low and slow if 600 plus miles an hour is slow was seen as the best way for a long-range penetrator to reach its Target the reduction in top-end speed requirement would enable other benefits to be included in the new plane and would also contain costs much greater emphasis was placed on making the plane Invisible by using non-radar reflecting materials the new bomber would appear to be less than one percent of the size of a B-52 on enemy radar screens [Music] in-flight refueling for Optimum range was given even greater priority as there had been unfounded criticism of the early plane's results at low level a major change was implemented for crew Survival by deleting the crew ejection module which had never been perfected in favor of conventional ejection seats quite suitable for the slower flying version with revised specifications from Rockwell and the pressing need to solve the B-52 replacement problem the Reagan Administration announced in October of 1981 the decision to build 100 Rockwell bombers to be called the b-1b the four earlier prototypes which had done so much valuable work to prove the basic and later the modified Concepts would continue in the test program as the b1a it is entirely possible that had these four original aircraft not been available the entire b1b the born-again bomber project would never have got underway [Music] foreign [Music] was to have many new features including a modified and vastly improved Bombay these cavernous areas can now be adjusted to accommodate different weapons loads and fuel requirements clearly given the success the cruise missile had enjoyed it would also have to be accommodated because the b1b would be the B-52's replacement the new aircraft would have to accommodate conventional and atomic devices in a variety of sizes and configurations to fulfill a range of operations given this need for flexibility and the far-reaching scope of the B1 project it's hard to imagine that serious consideration was not so long ago given to using transports like the C5 to carry cruise missiles and that this combination was supposed to replace the classic B-52 foreign [Music] a continued to prove the new performance specifications work on the b1bs was well underway at Palmdale the total cost of 100 b1bs was to be 20 billion dollars or over 200 million dollars a plane but with the lesson learned from the disruption of the earlier program at least the B model was certain of completion and this meant in the long term the best value for the money much of the b-1b's cost goes to provide its sophisticated avionics equipment fixed antennas and radar dishes literally project from every angle of the fuselage all gathering information for its computers to analyze from this data the crew will make decisions decisions that may well resolve the outcome of a mission with historic importance and the fate of the aircraft and those that fly it could equally be at stake All Things Considered perhaps the Rockwell swing Wing bomber is not so expensive after all many types of skills and Technology are employed as the tens of thousands of Parts come together and the giant technological jigsaw puzzle that is the making of a modern bomber starts to take shape by the middle of 1983 the first b1b production model was ready to make its public debut looking so very much like its predecessor the new planes are hard to distinguish from those which first appeared almost a decade earlier modified air intakes and a small window for the radar operators are subtle but effective clues for the untrained eye however the performance variations are not subtle the b1b flying with half the speed potential of the a model uses 21st century materials to become almost invisible to enemy Fighters and missiles and therefore is far more likely to complete its Mission and all the time it's on its deadly Journey it's providing tacticians with the flexible option of a last minute recall a role only the manned bomber can perform but a role that was often understated in the past foreign [Music] having survived against competition that started with such crude weapons as the V1 flying bomb and later evolved into the sophisticated and extremely deadly cruise missiles that would be carried by aging B-52s and having been eclipsed by the development of ballistic missiles which began with the German V2 rockets and over time developed into the powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles that completely dominated the topic of nuclear delivery for over 30 years the manned bomber survived by using yet another German Innovation that of the variable swept wing in the early 60s the idea greatly refined and used in conjunction with terrain following radar emerged as the F-111 a very successful medium strike bomber and in the early 70s the concept was further developed into the B1 the ultimate high-speed long-range band bomber but it was to take another 10 years and the arrival of still more advanced construction materials and another generation of avionics before the later model the b-1b was to reach service a masterpiece of high technology the best that the Aerospace industry could offer had finally arrived it will fly well into the 21st century and given time will doubtless become a similar Legend to the aircraft it replaced the B-52 but clearly the b-1b the born-again bomber is already one of the world's Great Planes [Music]
2023-05-15 04:36
