世界の名機 Aircraft of the Year
Rockwell
B-1B Lancer
This view highlights the broad centrebody of the B-1B, which allows the aircraft to carry a huge bombload. The slender wings pivot back to give unparalleled lowlevel performance for an aircraft of such size.
US ‘swing-wing’ superbomber
Designed in the 1960s to replace the B-52, the Rockwell (now Boeing) B-1 eventually saw action for the first time in 1998 as a conventional bomber. When the US turned its attentions to Afghanistan in 2001, it had become the main means of providing precision-guided attack.
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ontroversy had surrounded the B-1 throughout its formative years. It had been cancelled and resurrected twice, and had taken more than 20 years to reach service. Even then it could only perform nuclear missions, and was overlooked for duty in the 1991 Desert Storm operation. Ten years later, it came of age during the 2001 Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, where its ability to loiter for hours with a heavy load of GPS-guided bombs made it a perfect vehicle for a new style of warfare. In the Cold War era the B-1B was tested for external carriage of cruise missiles. Much later, it gained an external store in the form of the Sniper XR targeting pod carried under the forward fuselage.
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The story of the B-1 reaches back into the late 1950s, when Strategic Air Command began its search for a successor to the B-52. Initially this was to be the North American XB-70 Valkyrie, but the advent of surfaceto-air missiles had killed off the idea of a high-altitude bomber. Instead attentions focussed on low-level operations, although the ability to operate at high speed and high altitude was not forgotten. The 1963
The B-1A was to be a strategic bomber with Mach 2 capability at high altitude. Only four were built before the programme was cancelled in 1977 at a time when its survivability was being questioned.
Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft requirement envisaged an aircraft capable of Mach 2 at high altitude, and around Mach
1 at low level. Although studies were conducted by several companies, funding for full development was vetoed in 1968.