Word: bombers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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During World War II, the Germans built an experimental Junkers JU-287 jet bomber with wings that raked sharply forward. The plane flew well in tests. But once the sound barrier was broken in 1947, the design presented a problem: forward-swept wings tore away from the fuselage at supersonic speeds, and strengthening the wings with steel or aluminum made the craft unacceptably heavy. Now, newly developed graphite-epoxy composites can produce a wing stronger than steel and up to 45% lighter. These materials form the skin of the X-29A's wings...
Even before the first prototype of the B-1 flew in 1974, critics charged that the advent of cruise missiles had made manned bombers less important. In addition, cruise missiles capable of being launched from the B-52 extended the effectiveness of that 32-year-old bomber. In 1977 President Carter canceled the B-1 project...
Reagan dramatically reversed Carter's decision in 1981 and hustled the B-1 into production. But now B-1 opponents have a new complaint: they claim the plane will soon be outdated by the Stealth bomber, with its new radar-evading technology and design, due to become operational in the early 1990s...
...getting on the campaign trail. At a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Chicago, he accused the Democrats of being responsible for a "dismal chapter of failed policies and self-doubt." They "claimed to be for a strong defense, he chided, while advocating the cancellation of the B-1B bomber and MX missile and supporting a nuclear arms freeze. That sort of stance, he said, reminded him of the saying, "Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build...
...great debates of election year 1984 has long been expected to center on President Reagan's costly demands for such new weapons systems as the MX, the B-1B bomber and the space-based Star Wars defense against nuclear attack. But last week the argument began over a much more mundane question: Are the U.S. armed forces better prepared to fight conventional wars now than when Reagan took office...