History Friday

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50 Years Ago Tomorrow (26 Oct 1974): The Rockwell B-1A Rollout

Since the 1920s, the Air Force has leveraged technology to ensure that the mantra “the bomber will always get through” remained valid. Of course, defenses worked to make any such advantages temporary, resulting in the continuous evolution of offensive platforms for survivability. It was out of one of those inflection points that the B-1 bomber was born. In the 1950s, the Air Force relied on multi-engine jet bombers that could primarily use their speed and altitude to break the kill chain” of the USSR’s air defenses and avoid the fighters sent to intercept them. However, as Soviet ground-controlled interception systems and both air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles improved, the subsonic, high-flying B-47s and B-52s were suddenly vulnerable. The newer B-58 and XB-70, capable of exceeding Mach 2 and 3 (respectively), proved to be short-lived stopgaps when US intelligence concluded that they could also be shot down. Finding a solution was crucial to the survivability of the manned bomber not just as the lynchpin of the Air Force, but also as a relevant concept, especially in light of new Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Starting in 1961, the Air Force began studies to address this dilemma, which coalesced into the Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft (AMSA) program in 1965. AMSA focused on developing a bomber that could cruise at high speeds and altitudes to get to enemy territory, then dive to just above the ground while still flying supersonically to penetrate air defenses and reach its target. This approach exploited ground-based radars’ inability to detect low-flying aircraft due to the curvature of the Earth and interference from terrain.

Likewise, airborne radars were then incapable of tracking terrain-following targets amidst ground clutter. The Air Force’s F-111 fighter-bomber recently demonstrated how a “swing wing” (aka variable-geometry) could provide those capabilities, while systems devised for the XB-70 and the proposed Supersonic Transport (SST) could also be leveraged to hasten the new bomber’s development cycle. North American Rockwell leaned on its experience from those programs to win the B-1 Full Scale Development contract in June 1970. That award included just three airframes for flight testing and was distinct from a production decision. The B-1A made its public debut at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on 26 October 1974 (shown above), followed by its first flight on 23 December. In December 1976, the Ford administration authorized production of the B-1—but less than two months later, new President Jimmy Carter reduced the order, and then cancelled the program entirely on 30 June 1977.  Lingering questions about traditional bomber viability, the introduction of the cruise missile, and the highly secretive demonstrations of stealth technology all played a role in that decision. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan revived the program as the B-1B, in part to serve in the interim before the Advanced Technology Bomber that became the B-2 would be operational. (Photos: AFLCMC/HO)

BONUS: From the AFLCMC archives, below is the memo to the B-1 Program Office directing them to issue a “stop work” order to Rockwell in 1977.

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On 27 Oct 1954, 70 years ago this Sunday, the U.S. Air Force got its first black general officer when Gen Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., was promoted to Brigadier General (temporary grade). The promotion would be made permanent in 1960, and he would eventually retire from the Air Force as a Lieutenant General. In 1998, President Clinton advanced him to a full (four-star) General. General Davis Jr. broke many barriers and accomplished many “firsts” during his career, such as when he became the first black officer to attend Air War College in 1950 or when he became the first black wing commander of an integrated wing in 1953. He originally earned his pilot’s wings in 1942, and participated in WWII with the Tuskegee Airmen, commanding the 99th Fighter Squadron and later the 332nd Fighter Group as a whole. In the photo below, his father, Gen Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. (who was the first black general officer in the Army and in the Armed Forces as a whole) is pinning a Distinguished Flying Cross to him (when he was then a Colonel) at Ramitelli Airfield in Italy in Sep 1944. He earned the DFC for a Jun 1944 bomber escort mission where he managed to lead his outnumbered fighter escorts in defending an Allied heavy bomber formation against approximately 100 enemy fighters. (Photo: USAF)