Warbird Information Exchange

They did a nice job cleaning this plane up but I think historically it should have stayed white. Any thoughts?

http://www.strategicairandspace.com/res ... n_B-1.html

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Same here, I think that it is too important to paint in a fake paint scheme. But, they did do a nice job. I wish that it would have stayed at Wright-Pat, and they would have been given the one that we have.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I don't understand why they felt the need to repaint it. Totally destroys the authenticity in my opinion.

Actually, the Strategic Scheme is an accurate paint for the aircraft. It spent most of its life in the "Desert Scheme" camo, but it spent its flying career in the B-1B program with the "Strategic Scheme" paint scheme. The white scheme is actually the least accurate as the aircraft is not in anywhere near the configuration externally that it was when it wore that scheme. In fact, had they repainted it in the "Desert Scheme", it would have been just as inaccurate as they would have had to re-install the long canoe that was removed when the aircraft was modified for the B-1B program.

So, while you may not like it, the paint on it now is actually the most accurate paint scheme for the aircraft as it is displayed.

Maybe it should have been repainted to look like this:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0985107/L/


Here's the white paint it wore at Wright-Patt...

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0776499/L/

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Either way they did give it a nice, clean paint job. Looks good...

http://marvellouswings.com/Aircraft/Bom ... shland.JPG

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

That is awsome, CAP good news.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

The B-1B is my favorite modern bomber for many reasons, so I have a couple of books on the aircraft and thankfully remember where in them to look to confirm what I said.

The "Desert Scheme" would have been cool, but there are a sequence of shots in one of the books showing the "Strategic Scheme" in front of several backgrounds showing how the colors chosen actually causes the aircraft to appear to change because different backgrounds cause the colors to stand out more or less and makes the aircraft shape and size different from reality.

How's the interior - intact?

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Its nice to see it has a roof over it now!

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

What's the trick to getting the wings retracted on the ground (I thought they couldn't)?

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Thems some serious hinge pins!

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"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"

When it was at the NMUSAF, I was told that it's interior was mostly intact, much as B-1A #3's, with only the classified avionics removed.

As for the wings - the wings can be positioned in any position on the ground. They just typically leave them full forward as that's the "retracted" position for the actuators.

Thanks!

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

As a member and frequent question asker at the museum I can share a few bits of info from the staff.

As of last summer this is what I was told on multiple occasions by multiple docents and folks in the restoration hangar.

The interior is not good these days. They said while at Wright Pat the interior was heavily scavanged for spares. It has been sealed as there was not funding to track down and replace what was taken and few would ever get to see it.

Now hold onto something and sit down. If you look close in the finished pictures you will also notice the intakes are sealed. When you tour the museum you can see it is totally sealed........."birdproofed" as it were. She is destined for a pair of massive concrete pilings at the gate. The museum is rasing funds to build the mounts and labor to hoist her up. Soory to share that bit of news but she is the gate guard in waiting.

Somewhere I haev a ton of pics of most every inch you can see from the ground. WIll look to see what I have and update webshots or finally get a photobucket account going.

Eric

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