Reportedly, as part of its defensive EW suite, the B-1A was intended to have a towed decoy related to the TDU-X.

It is also worth mentioning that two separate people claimed this thing was being developed as a towed decoy for the B-1A bomber before it was canceled. It is possible that an offshoot of this towed target program did have that concept in mind, but we cannot find any evidence that anything came of it. A towed electronic warfare and even infrared-enabled decoy for the B-1A would have been quite useful for ensuring its survivability.

Such a decoy would have to of been capable of being stable at high speed and the small towed decoys we know today were just not possible during the 1970s when the B-1A was being developed. It's also worth noting that the B-1A's born-again successor, the B-1B, was one of the first aircraft in the USAF's stable to received modern towed decoys. So maybe there is something to these claims, we just need to find documentation of it.
 
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North American AMSA design took some inspiration from this I think?
 
As a kid, I remember seeing a B-1B flying over a grain elevator. We were delivering wheat to grain silo. It was in August 1989 or 1990. McConnell AFB was where they were based out of at the time. I think they liked using the silos as simulated targets.
 
Good Day All -

A few images from the Gerald Balzer collection to add to the thread.

Enjoy the Day! Mark
Not sure if anyone else may have commented but the oblique wing one looks very much like the Dan Raymer Rockwell D645-3 ISADS Minimum Penetration Time bomber of 1978. It was a study config. - see below
 

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Good Day All -

A few images from the Gerald Balzer collection to add to the thread.

Enjoy the Day! Mark
Not sure if anyone else may have commented but the oblique wing one looks very much like the Dan Raymer Rockwell D645-3 ISADS Minimum Penetration Time bomber of 1978. It was a study config. - see below
Yes, its a Rockwell design but not AMSA.
 

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Hello,

I've found these two monochrome photographs showing the cockpit of a B-1B with thermal flash protection. I was curious, were these shields strictly inside the cockpit behind the glass, or was there any additional shielding also put on the exterior over the canopy glass as well? I haven't been able to find anything besides these two images and I'm wondering if any exterior shots of this setup exist.

1666817660301.png

View: https://twitter.com/clemente3000/status/1450930269310050304
 

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[...]The pilots have Thermal Protection Flashblindness Equipment (TPFE), which protects the pilots from being blinded by the brilliant light pulse of a nuclear explosion. TPFE consists of aluminum panels to cover the cockpit windows. The pilots can fly the B-1B with the panels blocking the view out the windows because six of the shields have cutouts for EDU-4/A polarized lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) portholes. PLZT is a material with the unusual property that when it is exposed to a bright flash of light, it reduces the intensity of the light to 0.003 per cent of the initial intensity with a reaction time of 150 microseconds, much faster than the blink of an eye. The colloquial term that the crews use for this equipment is ‘plizit’. [...]
Source:
The Supersonic BONE
A Development and Operational
History of the B-1 Bomber, page 99
Copyright © Kenneth P. Katz, 2022
ISBN 978 1 39901 471 7
 
From this Russian book.
 

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Low Altitude Manned Penetrator (LAMP)

I am intrigued as I thought I knew all the 60s stuff. Presumably this was a project that filled the time between the cancellation of the B70/RS70 and the AMSA. Any pics/models/stuff?
Apologies if this has already been posted (I've missed if that's the case) and although not directly AMSA/B1 I can't find a better thread. (from Air Force Magazine, here or here)

1964: Year of Decision for the Strategic Force of the 1970s​

By J. S. Butz Jr.

Dec. 1, 1963

Within the Air Force the feeling has long been clear that the mixed force is necessary. A new manned bomber, to replace the aging B-52 force, is therefore a requirement.
Three systems are presently under study and in competition with one another to fill the advanced bomber role in the 1970s:
• A high-altitude, extremely-high-speed reconnaissance/strike aircraft.
• An advanced manned penetrator with variable-sweep wings—one that would attack at low level and high speed.
• A multipurpose, long-endurance aircraft, probably using laminar-flow control and regenerative turboprop engines.


....

Three Systems Under Study

In the final round of briefings and discussions with the OSD, the Air Force is basing its case for the manned strategic bomber primarily on three detailed systems studies which are due to be completed next spring. These study aircraft which are in competition for the advanced bomber role concern:

High-altitude, extremely high-speed reconnaissance/strike aircraft. McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Lockheed Aircraft Corporation are both engaged in USAF-sponsored studies of this type of vehicle which currently is called the RX.

Advanced manned penetrators (AMP) which would cruise out at high level and fly at low level and high speed during the last few hundred miles to the target. This aircraft undoubtedly would need variable-sweep wings for it is to perform essentially the same mission as the TFX but stretched to intercontinental ranges.

This capability for high speed on the deck should enable this aircraft to cruise continuously at supersonic speeds at altitude with little performance penalty in other areas. General Dynamics Corporation, the Boeing Company, and North American Aviation, Inc., are conducting such studies.

Multipurpose, long-endurance aircraft called MPLE or Maple. A wide variety of these multiple-purpose aircraft is possible, and they seem adaptable to several other tasks in addition to the strategic. Endurance versus speed appears to be the most important trade-off. For instance, if several days of endurance are provided, the aircraft probably would have to be driven by regenerative turboprop engines turning very-large-diameter propellers. If more speed were desired, turbofans or turbojets would be used, and the propulsive efficiency and endurance would drop. A major strategic advantage of the very-long-endurance Maple is that it could circle existing air defenses and could approach the Eurasian land mass from any direction with air-launched missiles. Several companies are working on studies of this type, with virtually all of them using the Northrop-developed laminar-flow control, low-drag boundary-layer control system.

All of these design studies are of the parametric kind and investigate the influence of a wide variety of factors on the performance and effectiveness of each type of aircraft. For instance, the advantages and disadvantages of aluminum, titanium, and steel structure and turbofan versus turbojet powerplants are looked into in detail. Variations of each type of engine and structure also would be studied, with each variation pushing the “state of the art” a little differently—or not pushing it at all.

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AMP.png

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Not quite a “secret project” but rather a “secret paintjob”. I’ve being trying to track this down after reading about it online a few years ago. The proposed B-1B Two Tone or ‘Killer Whale’ camouflage pattern. Combines dark and pale grey for camouflage effect while retaining protection against flash and heat from a nuclear explosion. The pale grey segments covered heat sensitive areas of the aircraft and would work like an all-white ‘anti-flash’ coating common in nuclear bombers of the 50s and 60s.
Actually, I have wondered why modern bombers have such a dark gray color and had wondered if the matter of flash-effects would be an issue.
 

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