Word: plane
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...breathtakingly beautiful airplane with slim-silhouette wings that meld into a fuselage that breathes speed, the swanlike aircraft is designed to penetrate Soviet air defenses, unleashing nuclear-tipped missiles at targets deep inside the country. But skeptics lampooned the B-1B -- at $283 million a copy the most expensive plane in aviation history -- as an unnecessary and probably unworkable interim successor to the aging B-52s, and in 1977 President Jimmy Carter scuttled the project. Newly elected Ronald Reagan revived the B-1B in 1981, ordering 100 of the bombers, but as production approaches the halfway point, critics...
Pentagon officials insist that is not the case. Says Air Force General Lawrence Skantze: "The B-1B is the best, most capable bomber in the world today." Claims Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger: "The plane will do what it's supposed to do." Nevertheless, Assistant Air Force Secretary Thomas Cooper told Congress, "We have to be aware of the limitations in the B-1B right now and plan accordingly." The Air Force is also withholding almost $300 million from contractors for poor performance. Last week, tucked away in the Defense Department's 1988 budget proposal was the Air Force's most...
...rush to deploy the B-1B, the Air Force went into production while the aircraft was still undergoing major design modifications. Even before the first bombers became operational last fall at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, there were portents of trouble. The plane's fuel tanks, built directly into the wings without rubber bladders, leak jet fuel. Early flight tests revealed problems caused by loading cruise missile launchers and antiradiation pods onto the original airframe design. In gaining an extra 41 tons -- nearly a 25% increase -- without additional wing surface, the B-1B had acquired an extraordinary "wing loading...
There are other problems. Pilots bringing the B-1B to treetop level found that the ground-tracking radar, designed to keep the plane from slamming into hills, was inadequate. The system jerked the B-1B up and down, causing considerable internal stress. Fuel consumption turned out to be enormous, particularly when the pilot kicked in the afterburner to accelerate through enemy defenses, raising doubts whether the plane can even reach its targets. So many difficulties emerged in flying the aircraft that some 40% of the training missions have had to be scrubbed...
...fundamental shortcomings of weight and fuel consumption will permanently limit the utility of the airplane. Even Air Force insiders doubt the ability of the troubled electronic jamming system to assure the B-1B's mission to penetrate Soviet airspace. In particular, the black boxes are designed to protect the plane from attack from below, yet the new Soviet MiG-31 and other planes have a "look-down, shoot-down" capability that severely threatens the B-1B from above...