Flying the Mighty B-1B Lancer | Tony Mahoney (Part 2)
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- Tony Mahoney shares how he went from flying the F-16 to the B-1B aka the “Bone” and finishing up his military career in the KC-135.
Some great stories and insights throughout, so strap in and enjoy.
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What a lovely guy - very chilled and understated.
I completely understand what he's talking about when he mentions differences in culture... I was a LEO, i went from a station where street arrests were king, to station where the highest regarded officer was the one who had never drawn a weapon in 30 plus years.
We need the Nigel Mansell story. The only driver in history that has been World Champion and IndyCar Champion at the same time.
Nige is one of the most underrated drivers. Absolutel legend
@@jimbrown5268 Met him at a historic racing event when I got a paddock pass, had a brief chat with him, he was my 2nd fave driver after meeting Rowan Atkinson too at another event.
Haha! We love Nige! Nigel Mansell is such a fun man with great stories. Its nice to hear this recollection 'easter egg' in this interesting interview
Excellent interview. I enjoyed Tony's perspective. I was in initial cadre when the AF took possession of the B-1B. Unlike Tony I came from flying the B-52H. So he came from a high powered Lamborghini to a big sports car. I came from a VW buss to a big sports car. I have over 6,000 hours in B-52H and almost 1,600 hours as an instructor pilot in the B-1B. The B-1B is fun to fly, especially going VFR and flying down inside the Grand Canyon and our low level routes. However, when we got "hands off" full Terrain Following it wasn't as fun because we didn't hand fly it as much through the mountains. Fortunately, for pilot proficiency, we also were flying the T-38 so we could check out a T-38 and go out and do acrobatics until we ran out of gas. I loved the crew concept. I had a co-pilot whose wife always made us the best breakfast burritos in the world. As soon as we got to altitude we would take out a bottle of Tabasco sauce and pass out the burritos. This was great especially on long flights to Guam.
Prior to flying the B-1B, I was a staff officer at HQ SAC and had input into choosing the B-1B instead of the proposed Stretch FB-111. I personally briefed General Jimmy Dolittle about bomber requirements and he and I (at his request) went out to a parked B-52H and I gave him a tour of the cockpit. (General Dolittle was retired but an active member of the Presidents Scientific Advisory Board).
Historical Note: Rumor had it that Rockwell had hidden (in the desert around Palmdale) many of their machines that they used to build the B-1A. When Carter scrapped the B-1 program he sent Feds to destroy all the equipment used to make the B-1A. They never found the hidden machines. Once President Reagan gave the word, the machinery came out of hiding. I saw B-1B number one being built and number 100 being built at Palmdale. Flew most of the early production BONEs. Also, I'm one of the few people still alive that knows why the bomb bay in a B-1B is 163 inches long......but that's another long story.
Wow what a career! It you’re ever interested in coming on the show let me know.
Nice, thanks fellas....
My 30 year memory was inaccurate as I was corrected by another B-1B pilot regarding the location of the RHAW scope in the B-1B. It was in the back not up front where the pilots could see it. However the point I was making was it did not give an accurate direction from where a threat was looking at you from. An extremely confusing distracting device that was therefore useless other than knowing something is looking at you from an unknown direction. Kudos for the contribution the BONE apparently made today.
Very interesting interview! He's totally right that the B-1B is/was BY FAR the loudest plane I've ever heard on the ground. Always set off car alarms when in reheat. And he's right that in the early conventional days, it wasn't a very capable conventional bomber. He must have come in just after they solved the problem of it jamming it's own radar! My only disappointment is that he didn't dive into the mindset of SAC (or bomber ACC) that he hinted at in the last interview. That, unlike fighter pilots, they praised rather than critiqued each flight. Hence the failure to figure out the Raven jamming them (that was my first thought when he brought it up so it's not that hard to figure out). Maybe he just didn't want to rag too much on the bomber community at the time. Funny that he's flown a Bone at Mach .95 and now flies an 18hp ultralight- very different low level experiences!!
The are B-1B deployed locations where houses and other buildings are not built to US standards. The wing commanders have to be ready for complaints from the local population when B-1’s turn up “the sound of freedom” from their engines, and the buildings start to shake and crack apart.
Very well said.
This was fascinating. Different to many others, hearing such good critical points of the bone in that timeframe
Great Channel! Thank you Sir Mahoney for your service! The :Bone : ..awesome in my books.... notam... flash back to mid 80's late 80's thereabouts... CYAW ( Shearwater International Airshow ) B1B Flying display..... As it was a two day show...I was in attendance both days...The display pilots were at the top of their game! One routine was a swept wing, high speed pass from tree top level.. I kid you not! Vapor off the wings to boot! Well, fast forward to the following year airshow, I was speaking to a USAF Pilot on the static ramp....he was now an instructor I believe on the Talon if memory serves. Well, I mentioned to Him the awesome B1B performance low level high speed the year previous....He looked at me square in the eyes and said ..did you enjoy that pass ? It was me ! Small world.
Cheers
Yeah, it would have been a tough transition for sure. Love the Bone, but obviously coming from the F-16, it would be a let down. with my background (before the F-16) in the F-111, it would have been easier for me, I think.
I’ve worked with some fighter guys that also got BRAC’d into the Bone and didn’t like it either. One guy even refused taking his fini flight in it.
I personally have thought it would be very cool to fly.
@@mikemarcum9563 Well, it's still way better than any other "heavy" IMO, with maybe (but just maybe) the exception of the B-2.
This guy really did it all
I was stationed at Grand forks AFB North Dakota in the early 90s we had 21 B1b s stationed there then. We flew them all winter long.
Very interesting. Thanks for your stories.
I think this was a brilliant interview - really honest and insightful and not sugar coated. I think it’s easy to forget the politics of decisions within the service and without that can leave service personnel sometimes with a substandard platform and also personnel who find themselves in odd places - as said the platform is different now and as they sometimes can be seen from my kitchen window I’m glad they are still about as it is one heck of a beautiful aircraft.
You are correct politics played had a huge impact. Carter cancelled the program and Reagan brought it back.
Really enjoyed this. Such a varied career. Have a mate who was RIFed and ended up back here on the F111. Must have been around the same time as Tony.
The Flag I went to was one of the first with the b1 on a conventional role. We were the only ones who could keep up with them and helped escort them egressing off target as our escort was either “dead” or outta gas by then!
Cheers Mike!
Yes it has impressive speed for such a large bomber
Electrictronic countermeasures from a nearby F-111.. The ground could force an intruder up the same way.
That's something to watch out for.
I wonder if that P-51 had been optimised for low level races.
i spent a full minute trying to figure out what on earth the Amtrak network in Kansas had to do with the way that you flew a B-1B. All this talk of train-following radar performance temporarily threw me...🤣
Great honest interview! Glad he's been to visit Duxford :-)
Oh my. I was surprised to hear someone would prefer a KC to a B1B. Too bad. Such a beautiful aircraft with great possibilities.
I enjoyed flying the B-1B but had more mission satisfaction from the KC-135.
@@kanfly2I appreciate your time sir. Thanks for having this chat we could watch
Ooof... some of this is better left unsaid... imo.
Great video as usual, ty!
Cheers
Great and interesting interview. Very diverse career.
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
Thank you for posting the video Mike…It was good to hear his service experience…However it would be great to have an interview with a B1B Pilot/Crew…not a F16 pilot. Love the channel 🫡
Originally big Cof G management issues with wings and fuel, led to a few crashes I believe.
One of the 4 B1-A prototypes went nose up and stalled forcing ejection in 1984. Since the 1st 3 B1-As had ejection capsules while B1-A prototype #4 and all subsequent 100 production B-1Bs had the 4 individual ejection seats. the incident aircraft was the 2nd of the 4 B1-As in existence and was on its 127th test flight. Pilot Doug Benefield was killed when there was a riser failure causing the front right corner of the capsule to hit the ground instead of landing on its airbags. A bolt that secured Benefields seat to the aircraft snapped. It should be noted that this particular bolt had a 40 g rating. The other pilot and the flight engineer were also injured. The crew was performing testing with the automatic fuel distribution system switched off, leading to a too far aft CoG for the prescribed wing sweep, leading to the incident. Mr Benefield was 55 years of age and was the Chief Test Pilot for Rockwell International. He had first flown the B1-A in 1974 and was 1 of 6 people qualified to fly the B-1s, 2 civilians and 4 USAF pilots as of 1984.
Interview was Negative AF!!! Really glad there are other pilots who feel differently and Love the Bone ‼️🖤
Tbh It sounds to me like he didn't want to and wasnt a big fan of flying the B-1
I really just missed the F-16 & and IMO the B-1B really didn’t have a viable mission at that time.
Yeah, dumb bombs from a B-1 don't make much sense. The SAC mission involved flinging off ALCMs and SRAMs at targets dozens to hundreds of miles away from the flight path. The tactical mission should be the same, not overflying a target. With glide bombs and cruise missiles it can go back to the mission it was designed for. I suspect you'd have had more satisfaction if you'd had JDAMs and JASSMs at the time.
Shame they got worn out flying figure eights in the ME.@@kanfly2
@@kanfly2 fair enough. I can understand why you would feel that way. Great interview by the way!
@@kanfly2I heard they pulled one out of the boneyard and it was going to be brought back to service. That will bring the flyable number back to 45.
It's interesting that this older bomber becomes useful only very recently, with the modern guided ammunition that can be dropped from high altitude.
"We'll just never admit we crashed another one very recently" 😂
Pity Tony had to leave his beloved F-16 for the B-ONE...Interesting about the EF-111s using the same frequency to jam as the B-One used for its targeting radar.....these are the problems not realised until real world scenarios.
At least he can talk from experience.
Aircrew Interview, when you post a Part 2 video, please post a link to Part 1...
It’s in the description link. Plus, it’s not that hard to go back and look for part 1 in our catalog…
@@Aircrewinterviewmy mistake, I didn’t see it.
@@pat8988 no problem mate. Hope you enjoy :)
Could you immelman in the B1?
How did the Russians have any control over the b-1’s nuclear abilities and how are they able to inspect them every year for nuclear capability!! I wouldn’t have thought that they would be able to have any influence over whether it had nuclear capability or not!!
The Russians are allowed to physically inspect the fleet due to conditions both the USA and Russia agreed to when the START or NEW START treaties were signed. When the AGM-86B nuke cruise missiles were drawn down to be used to create AGM-86C CALCM(Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile-the same missiles that were first used during the opening of Desert Storm. In fact these were the first weapons launched during Desert Storm. The 7 B-52Gs that fired them flew from Barksdale AFB, USA to Saudi Arabia where 17 GPS guided CALCM were launched. The 14,000mile mission took 35 hours 24 minutes setting a world record for bombing missions and the first time a GPS guided missile was used in combat.)
they were all laid out in nice rows so that the Soviets could image them via satellite.
It wasnt so much the Soviets dictating whether of not the B-1B could carry nuclear payloads, it was the treaty/agreement between the Soviets and Americans that either country was allowed to have so many Both sides host weapons inspectors and arrange weapons to be viewed via satellite imaging.
ICBM/SLBM/ALCM/GLCM and so many vehicles that can deliver them: submarine launch tubes/strategic bombers etc. The B-1B was a scary weapon to the Russians. It could carry 24 AGM-69A Short Range Attack Missiles internally on triple rotary launchers holding 8 missiles each, with the capability of carrying 8 more externally. Each of tehse missiles had a range of 100 nautical miles and carried a 200 kiloton warhead. the B-1B would fly just subsonic, at 200 feet and fire these missiles at Russian air defenses in a mission set called DEAD. destruction of Enemy Air Defenses). After the initial B-1 blasted through the air defenses more B-1s or follow on B-52s would deploy gravity nukes to strategic targets. The B-1B lost the SRAM mission in 1990 as probklems with the missiles motors were found via X ray, then it completely lost the nuke mission in 1995. Then in 2007 IIRC all of the wiring and the actual physical mounts for nuclear weapons were all removed.
Currently a new Boeing adjustable launch rail is being fitted to the B-1B to allow it to carry up to 8 stealth AGM-158A JASSM or 8 AGM-158C LRASM(Long Range Anti Ship Missiles) externally on the belly of the bomber. This is in addition to the 24 JASSM/LRASM that can be carried internally on the rotary launchers. 32 stealth cruise missiles is quite the capability, esp. with the pivot to Asia.
😊
Part 1 - ua-cam.com/video/DosV6SdAgEs/v-deo.html
He doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the B1; faint praise.
Was not a big fan when we flew almost 3 decades ago as it had no viable mission. Now its capabilities are very impressive with many of the upgrades it has undergone.
Seems like a lot of info to give on the jets he interacted with... hope he was allowed to..
Not a real inspiring interview. More of an hour long whinge
Why do we give out all the technical details to everyone for free, stupid. Greets to all the foreign services reading this smh
Nothing I disclosed can’t be easily read in the civilian community. I never said anything about all the classified info. I do appreciate your concern.