I walked into the Wings Over the Rockies museum expecting to see a B-1B—but something about the airplane just didn’t look right. It wore the dark, radar-absorbing paint associated with the operational B-1B fleet, but the configuration didn’t match a B model. Then I noticed a small dashed outline around the crew compartment: the escape capsule. The B-1B never had one. That told me I was looking at something much rarer—one of only four B-1A flight-test aircraft ever built. When I checked the tail number, 0160, I realized this wasn’t just an airplane I had read about. I had chased this exact aircraft while I was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base. In this episode, I’ll explain how I identified it, why the B-1A was different from the later B-1B, what it was like supporting the B-1 flight-test program, and some of my experiences chasing the airplane during tests that included SRAM missile launches. Sometimes an airplane in a museum is much more than an exhibit. Sometimes it is a piece of your own logbook.B-1A, B-1B Lancer, Rockwell B-1, B-1 flight test, Edwards Air Force Base, B-1 escape capsule, B-1 chase plane, flight-test pilot, SRAM missile, AGM-69 SRAM, Wings Over the Rockies, experimental aircraft, military aviation history, Captain Ron aviation Hashtags: #B1Lancer #FlightTest #MilitaryAviation #EdwardsAFB #AviationHistory
Source: The Museum’s B – 1 Wasn’t What It Seemed – I Had Chased It!
