North American Rockwell / Boeing B-1 Lancer

There is a link here or in the B-52 re-engined thread where we can see how they carefully strip all parts out of the airframe cautiously, pulling out rivets after rivets before 3D scanning, testing and reverse engineering the thing.

I can ensure you that with this method, plus a cautious re-integration strategy (that might involve new parts), you can end up very easily with something that got better structural behavior than the original parts or assembly.
We have 40 years of engineering advance where extensive engineering can be applied on all parts when that was often time consuming or unachievable before. Hence a better or equal design at the end.
The good sign is the money and the willingness to cross-share the experience with students, keeping them away from coffee/inflated experience internship that has a very disastrous effect on the industry.

No. This looks good.
 
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Hehe
Aerospace is at the fringe of engineering.
Remember that we did not have 3D at the time, meaning that everything, mostly, was 2D projected.

With often complex body curvature (yes, Aerospace is the sexy branch of engineering!), parts real shapes are sometime not perfectly reflected in the manufuring drawings and instructions. Yes. You read it correctly.

Then, what happens when you loose the experienced mechanics, welder or men in charge of hot shaping, cold bend a complex part, casted or not? You can loose the knowhow. Loose the mold, that were often hand trimmed or rectified with experience from the assembly lines, and it's even worst!

That's where the fun start for very experienced engineers with good mathematics and academics (I insist). Like that Belgian detective, you have to rebuild a manufacturing chain, often from scratch, that it can be rebuilt accurately. That's what the kids here are offered to do (with some instructor). It's a hell lot of fun where you learn at every step of the way like few of your colleagues will ever have the opportunity to experience.

Highly recommended!
 
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My problem lies in the ability to fabricate a consistent component. It should have been perfectly feasible to do things when they were produced, been making airliners of al types consistently so why not this one?
 
Perhaps the longeron(s) have some sacrificial material to deal with tolerance stack-up across three major fuselage modules? Or the fuselage could have been slightly "bent" over several thousand flight hours? I don't know.
 
Foo Fighter said:
My problem lies in the ability to fabricate a consistent component. It should have been perfectly feasible to do things when they were produced, been making airliners of al types consistently so why not this one?
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I'm guessing tolerance stack between modules. Each set of modules is a little different, so to keep that outer mold line correct the longeron has to be custom matched to the modules.
 
Foo Fighter said:
My problem lies in the ability to fabricate a consistent component. It should have been perfectly feasible to do things when they were produced, been making airliners of al types consistently so why not this one?
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Also, airliners are a simple tube, not an area-ruled complex compound curved nightmare.

I'd expect that the 2707 would have had the same issues.
 
Scott Kenny said:
I'm guessing tolerance stack between modules. Each set of modules is a little different, so to keep that outer mold line correct the longeron has to be custom matched to the modules.
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Yes. That's where 3D CAD made most famously a big impact on reliability and cost. WYSIWYG is real (with the appropriate manufacturing tools and methods also in the chain).
 
Abraham Gubler said:
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.
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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.
 
I've seen double AGM-86 pylons for B-1B
I've seen double AGM-129 pylons for B-1B
I've seen double Tomahawk pylons for B-1B
I've seen double combined SRAM/external fuel tanks pylons for B-1B
But where this triple AGM-86 weirdness came from? This is DeAgostini World Aviation series in Russian born under Stan Morse Airtime Publishing guidance and I guess illustration was used/reused in number of their publications.
 

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flateric said:
I've seen double AGM-86 pylons for B-1B
I've seen double AGM-129 pylons for B-1B
I've seen double Tomahawk pylons for B-1B
I've seen double combined SRAM/external fuel tanks pylons for B-1B
But where this triple AGM-86 weirdness came from? This is DeAgostini World Aviation series in Russian born under Stan Morse Airtime Publishing guidance and I guess illustration was used/reused in number of their publications.
Click to expand...

Probably just a bad extrapolation from the tandem triple racks on the B-52 wing stations.
 
Apollo Leader said:
I remember reading in Aerofax's book on the B-1 that there was a Navy version that Rockwell had proposed that was supposed to be capable of carrying a bunch of AIM-54's.
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frank said:
Sometime in the early '80s I saw in AW & ST there was a B-1C proposed for ADC, a long range interceptor, that would use the F-14's radar & have Phoenixes in the weapons bay(s).
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If that is true, can anyone provide citations, pictures, and documents about the B-1 Lancer carrying the AIM-54 Phoenix?

I assume that the AIM-54 Phoenix carried by the B-1 Lancer would have featured folding fins for internal carriage similar to the AIM-47B Falcon proposed for the Lockheed F-12B?
AIM-47AB-1S.jpg

SOURCE: O'Connor, S. (2011, June). Arming America's Interceptors: The Hughes Falcon Missile Family. Air Power Australia. Retrieved from https://www.ausairpower.net/Falcon-Evolution.html
 

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