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When I use to be a CC on C-141a & B's, along with KC-135's, I've run into a few CC's and maint. crews that use to work them. Was told they were the Hyd. mans nightmare. 10ring
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Quoted: I hate to be the voice of reason but there are already 3d models and "blue prints" of every part of the aircraft. They aren't taking it apart to build a model. They are disassembling it to measure the wear on each part. A "digital twin" is built up predict failures before they happen. View Quote Sounds like some TPM bullshit. |
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Quoted: We used to live right in line w/ the runway at McConnel AFB in Wichita. It would rattle our windows sometimes then they took off our direction but they were still cool. View Quote I lived in Deer Lake Estates, there was exactly one house closer to the south end of the runway than mine. This was during the time the KS ANG flew the BONE. Lots of B-1 experience and history in my family. |
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Quoted: I met a Bone Pilot. We were talking and he thought it was cool that I am an engineer and he said he always wanted to be an engineer. So I asked what he did, he was a B-1 pilot. Hmmm, nerd sitting in an office < USAF aviator. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: No former B-1 pilots here? Seen guys who’ve flown many other military jets but not the bomber types. Odd bombers don’t seem to be represented in GD anyways But then I recall a old USAF col who was also one of the hostages in Iran back in 1979. He said fighter pilots are bold and warriors. Bomber pilots are lovers, he said. If I would’ve been blessed with great eyesight, maybe this is what I would’ve pursued flying I met a Bone Pilot. We were talking and he thought it was cool that I am an engineer and he said he always wanted to be an engineer. So I asked what he did, he was a B-1 pilot. Hmmm, nerd sitting in an office < USAF aviator. My BIL was a B-1 pilot. Flew quite a bit in GWOT. He is a member here but rarely ever lurks or posts. He got out of the AF a few years ago and is now a 757 pilot for Delta. Or so he hopes to remain one due to the lack of flights. |
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Quoted: I saw the pair of THE BONES do an afterburner flyover when the B1 pilot crashed and died in Afghanistan. I was getting coffee in Ballston and heard "BCCCCCCHHHHH" And I'm like "What the fuck is that?" ::: goes outside ::::: Noise intensifies and then they're banking in front of me just ripping apart the sky as my ear drums break. It was fucking awesome View Quote I love the BONES. In Afghanistan, back in 08 we were getting some harassing mortar fires one night. We couldn't get a good location for country-battery fires, but we got a BONE to come in and do a "show of force". Basically, we had them come in and fly around our Province, loud and low, everyone in the province knew we had the BONEs on station. Then had them do a low-level over-flight of the area where the mortars were coming from and had them kick in the afterburners. Needless to say, we didn't have anymore issues that night. It was always great when we could bet a BONE on station, even if we didn't have any targets for them because everyone knew they were overhead and no one wanted to stick their heads up so we could wack-a-mole with the BONEs long loiter time and big payload. |
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Quoted: That computer storing this information had best be airgapped and have decent security around it or people will be able to download the dang plans soon after they finish inputting them. View Quote The result will be full drives of solid model files. Some would be able to make pretty pictures of airplane shaped objects. Most would forget about what they have when they learn the cost of software to look at the solids. |
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Quoted: I worked for Rockwell in Palmdale 86-87 as a flight test/checkout mechanic on them. When they did the acceptance flight and had no squawks they would do a flyover in full augmentor with the F106 chase plane indicating AF acceptance of the aircraft. It was wild to be up on the backbone of one ship while they fly over. The city bitched about the noise enough so they stopped that. That being said I wonder why they can’t just use the assembly blue prints to do the same as scanning. Probably a good reason but just curious. View Quote Money, and I'll bet the old loft data is gone. No loft, no new drawings. Fixing the 3d scans will require about as much work. If the project is scanning hardware, the con that worked that in should fired. I doubt they are. |
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Quoted: The Chinese will have the plans as fast as they are scanned View Quote I told this story years ago here, but time for a recap. On my first consulting visit to McDonald-Douglass in Long Beach, I signed the guest register at the lobby and waited for my escort. He showed up to escort me to the conference room where I was to give my presentation. In the back of the lobby is a long hallway to the facility. On both sides are pictures of military planes they've designed and produced. At the end of the hallway, the last photo on the left (going in) was a transport plane that looked familiar, but it had a red star on the tail. I stopped to confirm, and it did. My escort stopped and I asked him why a plane with the Soviet emblem was on the wall here. He said that they copied their transport plane right down to the flaws, so why not put it up. |
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Anyone with a 3d printer will be able to download plans and LITERALLY HAVE A B-1 BOMBER WITHIN HOURS!!!!!! WTF???????????????? THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Great idea, until some dipshit leaves a laptop in a McDonald’s and the info gets sold to China.
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So, let the Chinese “steal” it. I mean, add a few Easter eggs first, then let them steal it.
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Quoted: So, let the Chinese “steal” it. I mean, add a few Easter eggs first, then let them steal it. View Quote Attached File "The plans say that the radome compartment is full of blue faberge eggs. We stole these plans straight from the Air Force. So we're filling the radome with faberge eggs, that's an order!" |
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Seems like a big waste of a whole lot of money and 6 years worth of Airman's time doing this for an asset that will be replaced shortly because it's an absolute maintenance hog. The thing takes approx 3 to 4 times as many manhours of maintenance to fly than any other platform in the AF.
The AF is making the best decision getting rid of it. Yes, it's a cool plane and it does a few neat things, but at what cost? |
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I spent 4 years at Ellsworth. Standing at the end of the runway about 100 ft away from a B-1 as it hits the afterburners for take off is the loudest thing I have ever felt or heard.
I was sitting on a Minuteman launch site north of Sturgis one day and had one zip over at a few hundred feet going like a bat out of hell headed towards the electronic bombing range near Belle Fourche SD.... scared the shit out of me. |
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The BOne is one of the most beautiful aircraft to ever fly. Maybe one day (decades from now) we'll be able to have access these plans and 3D print your own plane.
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So 6 years and millions of dollars spent to find issues and create a maintenance document for the plane that a 2 year E3 mechanic will will say "No fucking shit it breaks, I have to fix it all the time".
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Quoted: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/10/13/air-force-stripping-b-1-bomber-down-its-bolts-make-digital-twin.html One B-1B Lancer bomber is having a lengthy breakdown -- but for good reason. In partnership with Wichita State University's National Institute of Aviation Research, or NIAR, airmen with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center have been stripping the supersonic heavy payload bomber down to its nuts and bolts and then scanning each part into a computer to make a perfect virtual copy of the aircraft, the Air Force said in a recent release. The effort to make a B-1 digital twin -- which began in April and will take six years to complete -- will help maintainers understand which parts disintegrate fastest given the aircraft's operational wear and tear and how they can be improved. "Through the scanning process, we will discover all the places that saw structural failure or damage. It will create a living medical record for the B-1," Lt. Col. Joseph Lay, B-1 Engineering Branch material leader, said in a release. "We have been scanning the wings, and the wing scans have been helping us understand how to build new repairs for some of the cracks that we have seen in the wings themselves," he said of the aircraft, tail number 85-0092. The bomber, which retired to the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, in 2002, was manufactured in 1985 and last served with the 128th Bomb Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. It made the 1,000-mile journey from Arizona to Kansas via flatbed truck for the deconstruction. The digital twin will help maintainers expedite results and procedures for other B-1s, Lay said. "We will be able to apply data from aircraft in the field to help us predict areas that are more likely to have structural issues," he explained. "This living virtual model of the B-1's structure will be superimposed with layers of maintenance data, test [and] inspection results, and analysis tools, which can be integrated over the aircraft's life cycle." Lay added, "We are also currently developing inspection techniques and repairs for areas on the upper fuselage and sharing that data back with the [manufacturer]." The B-1, originally built by Rockwell, is now a Boeing Co. craft. The collected data on the wings and fuselage will give maintainers more understanding of "fatigue damage in those areas," Lay said. The B-1 has the ability to climb thousands of feet into the air, kick back its wings -- thanks to its variable swept-wing design -- and dive low, following the Earth like a jet ski skimming water. However, last year, officials began telling B-1 pilots to cut back on the low-altitude terrain-following capability, known as TERFLW mode, in an effort to preserve the aircraft's structure. The B-1 digital twin is just the latest effort to address the bomber's maintenance. For example, the Lancer was one of the first aircraft named to the service's predictive maintenance experiment, headed by Air Force Materiel Command. Known as the condition-based maintenance technique, or CBM+, the program gives maintainers the ability to see when a part may fail and to schedule a fix before it does. The B-1 bore the brunt of repetitive deployment cycles over the last decade, most notably to the Middle East, leaving the fleet in poor shape. Over the past year, the airframe has undergone frequent inspections and time compliance technical orders, or TCTOs, which often mandate modifications, comprehensive equipment inspections or installation of new equipment. Gen. Tim Ray, the Air Force Global Strike commander, said last month that the fleet's readiness is improving, and its recovery and maintenance are well ahead of schedule, thanks to concentrated resources and maintenance. "On any given day, I probably can fly well over 20 of the B-1s," Ray said, referencing the fleet's mission-capable rate, or the ability to fly at a moment's notice to conduct operations. By comparison, only about seven of the bombers were ready to deploy in August 2019. I thought this was an interesting article. A 6 year investment and however much money this will cost seems like a significant investment. I wonder if this a clue they are planning on keeping the BOne around for a bit longer. I'm also wondering if they will do this with other aircraft. ETA: Needs moar pics. https://i.insider.com/57e2a2a5b0ef9764008b72ba?width=1100&format=jpeg&auto=webp https://images03.military.com/sites/default/files/2019-08/b-1-lancer-qatar-3000.jpg -K View Quote I hope they post the 3d files so I can 3d print my own B1 !! |
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6 years to do that? 6 motherfucking years to strip down a plane and scan it?
Airline mechanics could strip it all down in one night Outsource to a small company and it will be done in 6 months for half the price Government spending out of control |
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Quoted: I worked for Rockwell in Palmdale 86-87 as a flight test/checkout mechanic on them. When they did the acceptance flight and had no squawks they would do a flyover in full augmentor with the F106 chase plane indicating AF acceptance of the aircraft. It was wild to be up on the backbone of one ship while they fly over. The city bitched about the noise enough so they stopped that. That being said I wonder why they can’t just use the assembly blue prints to do the same as scanning. Probably a good reason but just curious. View Quote They are wanting to see how and why parts are wearing and how to improve on them. Blueprints would give them specs, but no indication of what that part would like like after thousands of hours of flight time. |
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Quoted: I love the BONES. In Afghanistan, back in 08 we were getting some harassing mortar fires one night. We couldn't get a good location for country-battery fires, but we got a BONE to come in and do a "show of force". Basically, we had them come in and fly around our Province, loud and low, everyone in the province knew we had the BONEs on station. Then had them do a low-level over-flight of the area where the mortars were coming from and had them kick in the afterburners. Needless to say, we didn't have anymore issues that night. It was always great when we could bet a BONE on station, even if we didn't have any targets for them because everyone knew they were overhead and no one wanted to stick their heads up so we could wack-a-mole with the BONEs long loiter time and big payload. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I saw the pair of THE BONES do an afterburner flyover when the B1 pilot crashed and died in Afghanistan. I was getting coffee in Ballston and heard "BCCCCCCHHHHH" And I'm like "What the fuck is that?" ::: goes outside ::::: Noise intensifies and then they're banking in front of me just ripping apart the sky as my ear drums break. It was fucking awesome I love the BONES. In Afghanistan, back in 08 we were getting some harassing mortar fires one night. We couldn't get a good location for country-battery fires, but we got a BONE to come in and do a "show of force". Basically, we had them come in and fly around our Province, loud and low, everyone in the province knew we had the BONEs on station. Then had them do a low-level over-flight of the area where the mortars were coming from and had them kick in the afterburners. Needless to say, we didn't have anymore issues that night. It was always great when we could bet a BONE on station, even if we didn't have any targets for them because everyone knew they were overhead and no one wanted to stick their heads up so we could wack-a-mole with the BONEs long loiter time and big payload. |
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Quoted: So good, it’s lost every war it’s fought in. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: So what? B-1A/B is 1960s technology. And still the best non-stealth bomber in the world. So what? lol, So good, it’s lost every war it’s fought in. Shut that whore mouth. It's a supersonic bomber with loud ass afterburner. It is the second coolest to the B2 |
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Quoted: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/10/13/air-force-stripping-b-1-bomber-down-its-bolts-make-digital-twin.html One B-1B Lancer bomber is having a lengthy breakdown -- but for good reason. In partnership with Wichita State University's National Institute of Aviation Research, or NIAR, airmen with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center have been stripping the supersonic heavy payload bomber down to its nuts and bolts and then scanning each part into a computer to make a perfect virtual copy of the aircraft, the Air Force said in a recent release. The effort to make a B-1 digital twin -- which began in April and will take six years to complete -- will help maintainers understand which parts disintegrate fastest given the aircraft's operational wear and tear and how they can be improved. "Through the scanning process, we will discover all the places that saw structural failure or damage. It will create a living medical record for the B-1," Lt. Col. Joseph Lay, B-1 Engineering Branch material leader, said in a release. "We have been scanning the wings, and the wing scans have been helping us understand how to build new repairs for some of the cracks that we have seen in the wings themselves," he said of the aircraft, tail number 85-0092. The bomber, which retired to the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, in 2002, was manufactured in 1985 and last served with the 128th Bomb Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. It made the 1,000-mile journey from Arizona to Kansas via flatbed truck for the deconstruction. The digital twin will help maintainers expedite results and procedures for other B-1s, Lay said. "We will be able to apply data from aircraft in the field to help us predict areas that are more likely to have structural issues," he explained. "This living virtual model of the B-1's structure will be superimposed with layers of maintenance data, test [and] inspection results, and analysis tools, which can be integrated over the aircraft's life cycle." Lay added, "We are also currently developing inspection techniques and repairs for areas on the upper fuselage and sharing that data back with the [manufacturer]." The B-1, originally built by Rockwell, is now a Boeing Co. craft. The collected data on the wings and fuselage will give maintainers more understanding of "fatigue damage in those areas," Lay said. The B-1 has the ability to climb thousands of feet into the air, kick back its wings -- thanks to its variable swept-wing design -- and dive low, following the Earth like a jet ski skimming water. However, last year, officials began telling B-1 pilots to cut back on the low-altitude terrain-following capability, known as TERFLW mode, in an effort to preserve the aircraft's structure. The B-1 digital twin is just the latest effort to address the bomber's maintenance. For example, the Lancer was one of the first aircraft named to the service's predictive maintenance experiment, headed by Air Force Materiel Command. Known as the condition-based maintenance technique, or CBM+, the program gives maintainers the ability to see when a part may fail and to schedule a fix before it does. The B-1 bore the brunt of repetitive deployment cycles over the last decade, most notably to the Middle East, leaving the fleet in poor shape. Over the past year, the airframe has undergone frequent inspections and time compliance technical orders, or TCTOs, which often mandate modifications, comprehensive equipment inspections or installation of new equipment. Gen. Tim Ray, the Air Force Global Strike commander, said last month that the fleet's readiness is improving, and its recovery and maintenance are well ahead of schedule, thanks to concentrated resources and maintenance. "On any given day, I probably can fly well over 20 of the B-1s," Ray said, referencing the fleet's mission-capable rate, or the ability to fly at a moment's notice to conduct operations. By comparison, only about seven of the bombers were ready to deploy in August 2019. I thought this was an interesting article. A 6 year investment and however much money this will cost seems like a significant investment. I wonder if this a clue they are planning on keeping the BOne around for a bit longer. I'm also wondering if they will do this with other aircraft. ETA: Needs moar pics. https://i.insider.com/57e2a2a5b0ef9764008b72ba?width=1100&format=jpeg&auto=webp https://images03.military.com/sites/default/files/2019-08/b-1-lancer-qatar-3000.jpg -K View Quote |
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Usually they'd fly at night, only had them once for a morning tic which was admittedly weak (some small arms fire at long range from an opposing ridge line about 800m away). They were heading home so dumped the rest of their load along the ridge though so that was cool, random assortment of 10 or so 500-2k lb bombs. The Bone is the sexiest AF plane by far.
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Quoted: One of my favorites of all time . I remember going to airshows as a kid and you couldn’t even get near them . You could climb in and all over all kinds of military hardware but not those . It sat out there alone in the distance with barricades around it . You just looked at it from a distance. I remember them flying over the red dirt fields I played in and them flying so low it seemed like if you threw a dirt clod you could almost hit it . View Quote The last missile base we had, that we lived in for over two years, was located off US54 about 12 mi E of Council Grove at Bushong, KS. It was the bomb run IP for the B1s out of McConnell for a Smoky Hill bomb range run. They were generally about 150' AGL. It was pretty awesome. |
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Quoted: Shut that whore mouth. It's a supersonic bomber with loud ass afterburner. It is the second coolest to the B2 View Quote B2 is something else entirely. After my stint at Rockwell on the B1, came the Northrop B2 in the same position as a flight test & checkout mechanic. I remember taking my fam walk when I started there and looking down at the B2 from the cat walk in the hush house. All I could think was "there's flying death if I ever saw it". The B1 was kick ass to be sure but the B2 was just death personified. Both neat to work on but the B2 was easier by far. At least for me. Got a pair of highly detailed 1:200 German made scale models of each on my humidor at home. Hard to believe that was 30 or so years ago. |
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Quoted: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/383325/image_jpeg-1636370.JPG "The plans say that the radome compartment is full of blue faberge eggs. We stole these plans straight from the Air Force. So we're filling the radome with faberge eggs, that's an order!" View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: So, let the Chinese “steal” it. I mean, add a few Easter eggs first, then let them steal it. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/383325/image_jpeg-1636370.JPG "The plans say that the radome compartment is full of blue faberge eggs. We stole these plans straight from the Air Force. So we're filling the radome with faberge eggs, that's an order!" "Do you really think that 8 1/4-20 bolts is enough to hold wing on?" "These are as-built plans, even better than blueprints. No deviation!" |
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