Cool Jet Airlines: 09/19/11

Monday, September 19, 2011

Rockwell B-1 Lancer Cockpit

The Rockwell (now part of Boeing) B-1 Lancer[N 1] is a four-engine variable-sweep wing strategic bomber used by the United States Air Force (USAF). First envisioned in the 1960s as a supersonic bomber with sufficient range and payload to replace the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, it developed primarily into a low-level penetrator with long range and supersonic speed capability at high altitude.

Designed by Rockwell International, the bomber's development was delayed multiple times over its history, as the theory of strategic balance changed from flexible response to mutually assured destruction and back again. The initial B-1A version was developed in the early 1970s, but its production was canceled, and only four prototypes were built. In 1980, the B-1 resurfaced as the B-1B version with the focus on low-level penetration bombing. It entered service in 1986 with the USAF Strategic Air Command as a nuclear bomber.

Rockwell B-1 Lancer