B1B amazing.....

[Derk 265]

[CowboyTodd41 133]

Oh my... watching the backbone bend when the nose touches down is making me sick to my stomach

[+russouk2004 6,958]

any landing you walk away from is a good landing as they say   well done though, pilots done well

[+streakeagle 866]

Outstanding landing.

The award was nice, but I bet the aircrew and their families could care less about that.

I am curious how bad the flexing was.

If the longerons on the nose didn't fracture, I could see the airframe being made flyable again.

At the very least, the aircrew not only saved their own lives, but kept quite a bit of the B-1 intact as spares for other B-1s if it wasn't repairable.

I hope they were able to identify the cause of the failure and take some action to keep it from happening to someone else who might not be so lucky to put her down so well.

[JediMaster 451]

It flexed because it set the nose down harder than normal. My guess is other B-1s have done that before and since, just with the nose gear down, to no ill effect.

In other words, had the nose gear been down, I don't think that was hard enough to have burst the tires let alone damage the fuselage other than the bit under the nose that scraped along. Large planes flex, they're not rigid, that would make them too subject to cracking and breaking! Even small planes flex for that matter, although to a much smaller degree. Even the hood of my car I've seen flex in extreme wind.

[Derk 265]

Indeed the nose comes down harder than in a normal landing where the movement is counterbalanced by the leverage of the stabilators at a speed where  they are still effective , but the nose wheel position is also quite a bit farther back than the position where the nose hits the ground, meaning  a lot extra leverage forces on the fuselage.... Really wonder if it ever flew again......   

Edited March 1, 2014 by Derk

[FastCargo 412]

That was tail 85-0070, I believe the nose art was 'Excalibur'.  She did go back to flying...in fact, I remember seeing her on the Dyess flight line.  Based on later pics, it looks like she went to Ellsworth at some point before she got 'Boneyarded' in 2002 from what I understand.

 

I actually knew the A/C who did that landing, but I couldn't remember his name to save my life.

 

I've got video (somewhere) of one of our jets rolling out from a full aft wing sweep (67.5 degree) landing...looks pretty normal up until 20 minutes later when the landing gear catches fire.

 

The wildest video of a Bone landing I've seen (and I haven't been able to find it ANYWHERE) was from when I watched it 20 years ago with a 55 degree aft wing sweep landing.  The nose position and speed just looked WRONG.  It was taken from the approach end of the runway and it was *%*^$# scary.

 

FC

[Nesher 629]

outstanding landing of course!

[B52STRATO 215]

Where the beast rests.