Greatest Modern Bomber

[davparlr]

How did they manage to get it to stay on the pole, it would look out of place on a pole in my opinion but still cool.

I guess it takes a big pole!

[Clave]

Hmm..

B1B: 75,000lbs @ 925mph $178m

Tornado: 18,000lbs @ 1,450mph $35m

I think I'd rather take five Tornados for my first attack

[syscom3]

Theyre two different aircraft performing two different missions.

[Clave]

Seems the B1B cost was about $383 million, so I'll take 10 Tornados and stuff the mission - I mean the bad guys only have to be lucky once to shoot down the B1B but it's unlikely they'll get lucky ten times

[plan_D]

You need ten Tornados to actually hit the target, unless you plan on sending Bucaneers with them to pin-point the target just like the RAF did in the Gulf. At least when buying a B-1, you're 90% sure it's going to come out of the factory working.

Why buy a Tornado, or ten, when you can buy F-15s for a cheaper price and they're better...

[syscom3]

You also forget the B1B is also a nuke penetrator bomber.

If I was going to attack a heavily defended target, deep in Russian territory in a nuke war, I will take the B1 over the tornado anytime.

[FLYBOYJ]

You also forget the B1B is also a nuke penetrator bomber.

If I was going to attack a heavily defended target, deep in Russian territory in a nuke war, I will take the B1 over the tornado anytime.

Agree - it also has double the countermeasures

[FLYBOYJ]

You also forget the B1B is also a nuke penetrator bomber.

If I was going to attack a heavily defended target, deep in Russian territory in a nuke war, I will take the B1 over the tornado anytime.

Agree - it also has double the countermeasures

[davparlr]

You also forget the B1B is also a nuke penetrator bomber.

If I was going to attack a heavily defended target, deep in Russian territory in a nuke war, I will take the B1 over the tornado anytime.

Indeed, you certainly would want to use a B-1 in that situation but I do not believe the B-1 has a nuclear mission any more. You really, really would want to take a B-2.

[syscom3]

B2 first, B1 next

[Matt308]

And the oft quoted $380M price tag, like that quoted for the B-2, includes ground infrastructure, spares, maintenance, etc. It is used as a means of unfairly comparing fly away costs of a single airplane vs that including recurring costs over the lifetime of the airframe. As once said by a famous American writer, "Lies. Damn lies. And statistics."

And while not the "best", certainly one of my all time favorites the B-58 Hustler.

[syscom3]

And while not the "best", certainly one of my all time favorites the B-58 Hustler.

The B-58 certeinly had that "sex appeal" of supersonic aircraft of the late 50's and early 60's.

[Matt308]

I'll say she did. A handful to land, but wow!

[k9kiwi]

but I do not believe the B-1 has a nuclear mission any more.

Excuse me while I roll over and die from laughing so bleeding hard.

It is just like sex.

You have to penetrate to dominate.

Thus the mission is still there.

[Matt308]

Or the B-2 a conventional...

You don't see daylight shots of this often.