Crazy Reason Why US Spend 1 Week Maintaining B-1 Bomber After Each Flight 

I worked as a Mechanic & Maint QC Inspector for a U.S. Major Airline for decades and have just recently retired. I can honestly say that former USAF trained mechanics were easily among the best we had working on our A/C. The other interesting note along this subject is that former Marines made the best supervisors IMHO. The levels of intuition among skilled Aircraft Mechanics tends to be well above average in my observations. You were pretty much figured out, as to your integrity and aptitude, by management soon after you began employment w/ this group and placed on critical jobs accordingly. Upper management was always careful to hire & place managers that were approachable & had experience from the ground up. This made communication Much easier and therefore, fewer error's were made. Good People, Gr8 Job, Good Times !

Calling Airbus a french company @8:42 got me laughing :)

As a comparsion, the fastest drag racing cars, the "top fuel" class, require complete engine and powertrain teardowns and certain component replacements after every run. Each time about 30 seconds of idling and low power and 5 seconds of full power. Total miles on the engine before complete replacement is only 1 or 2.

Some years back, I saw, heard and felt one of these take off at Long Beach Airport in California. It literally shook the city. Loudest thing I have ever heard.

A pleasure to maintain. Reliable because we make it that way.

For some rough comparison, I had a friend in the 70s who was in an armored unit at Ft. Sill, OK. He said that for vehicles like the large battle tanks, the maintenance averaged out to roughly 8 hours for every 1 hour of operation. So considering the massive complexity and sophistication of just about any military aircraft, I'm not at all surprised at the downtime and expense involved. The US military establishment hemorrhages money, as it has been since over a century ago with the advent of mechanization.

The B1 must be the most beautiful plane in existence, after the Concorde

The B1 bomber at Warner Robbins aviation museum is a beautiful sleek black guard of the past. It may have been a maintenance nightmare, however it did show if American might wants something no one could think possible, American inginuity will build it. It is the most beautiful of the planes along with the F111. I'm sure some of the pilots that flew the B1B think dam what a time to been in the seat!

The pilots get lot's of glory and rightly so. It's a shame that the ground-crew, those men and women who work tirelessly in the background, don't get enough credit. Imagine keeping such complex machines ready to take off at a moments notice, a Herculean task!!!

Absolutely gorgeous aircraft.

An F-100 driver told me years ago that the F-100 required 40 hours of maintenance for every one hour of operation.

Top bomber. Went to see the four B1s that arrived at RAF Fairford on Sunday. Awesome

Had the pleasure of working on the Bone for over 30 years. She's a beast of a jet for sure but we had many flights on multiple days without 1 week of maintenance? They do take a lot to keep flying...that's for sure. They do their best when they fly regularly. Let them sit for a while on the tarmac and you'll be in for a lot of maintenance to get them airworthy. I will tell you this - When this jet is flying well, fully loaded, has you targeted and you are the enemy.....You can kiss your ass goodbye.

Quite informative. Thank you.😊

The supersonic airliner Concorde probably didn't have the high maintenance the B1 required or it would have been even more of a financial black hole. Nevertheless it was twice supersonic and bigger than the B1. It had a larger pressurized volume for passengers (vs. only the cockpit for the B1). It also had 4 afterburning turbofans (Olympus). Evidently, the Concorde never needed to do high G maneuvers, so probably, the structure didn't get as stressed.

The B-1 Lancer Is My Kind of Bomber!!!

Buenísimo el video thank you

Awesome Aircraft~ Just missed them - USAF 81-85, But I did see the F-15 issue...:)...

92-96 Bone armament systems technician 28th and 9th bomber squadrons. Maintenance intensive is definitely under rated.

The same reason it takes only 20 minutes to get a Cessna ready for another flight.

Beautiful aircraft to fly!

Its got to be easier than the B-36. 370 spark plugs to change every other month!

This was written and narrated as if it was a highschool student reading their essay.

It’s such a beautiful airplane.

The great Money Pit. A maintenance nightmare. A Sitting Duck without stealth. Who are they kidding? Someone made a lot of money off this mistake.

My first job out of college was EMP Testing for the Air Force and The B-1B was the plane I worked on. I've been in every bay on that plane.

If it's maintainance intensive then maybe it's not worth it

So, what is 'crazy' about the B-1 bomber?

B1 is more like a big F111 than an F14.... 👍 Shes a high maintenance beauty 😁

Good maintenance system..

That bird is worth the maintenance!

Omg look at the size of those engines wow

Airbus isn't "actually" French.

Very Good Videos

That's one bad ass aircraft

The big one has been since the day at energy service, maintenance nightmare. It is consistently had one of the lowest Mission capable airframe rates of any aircraft in the United States Air Force inventory for the past for decades.

7:30 the patch on that man's jacket says "B-2 Flight Test" not B-1.

It's Huge!

Perfection, but for next years model all in on all available upgrades price for perfect is just right

I think the B-1 Lancer looks like a big goose.

When the Pentagon asks for more money, Congress asks, “how much do you need?” The Pentagon says, “ more, more, more, more and a lot more.”

It may be expensive, but I don't care who you are, it is the coolest aircraft flying. I don't know if I would say ever because ever is a very long time, but it is close.

As a former Master Officer Airman Sergeant First Class Grade 1 Enlisted Warrant Brigadier 3 Star Purple Heart on detachment to the MAJESTIC 13 Nuclear Security Forces Seal Team Alpha Red during the Space Force campaigns to recon and destroy the Lunar Big Foot after being released by the Secret Gray Alien United Nations Police, I can confirm this is a plane.

... 9:02 ...ps ...all the plames designed to replace the C 130 are parked at davis monthan ...

Nice and large. No problem for new designed airfighter jets and drones wich are armed with new types of rockets!😊

How many freaking bombers do ya need? F117, F111, b1b, b52, b2, i mean its crazy

PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE THESE POOR CHILDREN A MILWAUKEE IMPACT!!!

Oh, nice. I used to live and work near that Aussie range. Funny stories warries. 😅;)

Why’s it crazy, it keeps them operational

Strictly speaking isn't it the "B1-B"?

right at the intro : B1B is not supersonic

I wish Congress and the AF would approve a brand new B1R to back up the B21 when Stealth isn’t as needed… - 4 F35 Engines allowing for Super Cruise - Sensor Suite all over the airframe turning it into a mobile command center like the F35 but with 4X the range - Long Range Air2Air Missiles allowing it to be a missile truck - Improved structure, components, open architecture, avionics, and diagnostics allowing maintenance costs and time to be cut in half SUPER BONE 🖤 Super Bone sounds inappropriate and i apologize 😭

Cost/Benefit analysis. Can a society afford it? I would like my roads fix, safe cities, and nice parks/trails.

The production B-1B is subsonic. Why not make the A400 its own video? These videos need better plotlines.

What the he** does the Airbus maintenance program procedures have to do with the B1? Half the video was a commercial for Airbus. Just asking!

With that level of maintenance required, I wonder how many aircraft are ever available?

What a nightmare trying to maintain something that was manufactured 40 years ago. If you need 100 they should build 200

Bigger flying turkey than the f35..damn

Why is there an A400 in my B1 video, I’ve been hijacked

The bone!

No wonder the damn things are so expensive.

The engines with the Mx guys in the still pic used as the cover photo do not look like B-1 engines. The engines look too big.

Have a good day to.

Imagine a B1B super intercepter

Jimmy Carter was right to cancel the original B1 bomber. Congress saved it because they wanted the jobs in their states, but they changed the mission to a low level penetration missions, *which it has never really had to do in combat*. It was too expensive in its day, and they could only afford 100. It cost $61,000 an hour to fly the B1B. It was a huge mistake to build it and Carter was vilified for actively working against the program, but he was a military veteran and he knew this kind of plane had limited use. The Air Force has big dreams, and the F-35 is another aircraft that was way to expensive and should not have been built. It is $38,000 per flight hour, and currently, it is only running a bit over 50% availability. The Marine AV8B averaged over 90% during Desert Storm and Iraq. Congress likes pork. When the contractors promise to have some parts made in their states, they simply can't say no to a bad contract.

By the builders of the space shuttle

For all those bit**ing about the number of maintenance man hours needed for each hour of flight on a B-1, please tell me how many man hours of maintenance a B-777 or A-330 requires. Now describe the difference in those aircrafts missions and explain to me the reason there might be a higher maintenance burden on the B-1.

🤗👍

GE Engines are so much better than the P&W Engines, in my opinion. I could be wrong but, the P&W engines get thrust based on how much more heat the engine produces which causes more maintainance and causes there to obviously be less cooling capability for the aircrafts avions/radar and other hardware components and also will not be able to reach peak thrust performance for long periods of time because obviously tons of heat for long periods of time is bad for the engines and tye aircraft itself.

so in essence like the f35. a great white elephant

Crazy reason? GOOD reason you mean! Gekke reden? GOEDE reden zeker!

The reason is not at all crazy. However, saying it is could quite possibly be so....

We need to curtail military spending in lieu of trimmung the deficit in a planetary kinda way. We more ghan adequate weaponry for say, four or five budget cycles, with drone & robot tech. How else we gonna do it, other thancut SS & Nedicare, abd most if those folks need & deserve it,

AI created Video?

As I watch I'm wondering how much of this info is useful to China . They may already have the blueprint

The fuselage of the Rockwell B bomber is very similar to the fuselage of the Concorde airliner

Our enemies appreciate your valuable information about the limitations of our over priced hardware.

Feet???? Pounds???? What's this??? Start using metric system!!!

Well, what do you expect with an airframe made by a company known for automation with engines made by a company known for light bulbs (that always fail) ? Grumman builds the best bombers in the world & Pratt & Whitney makes the best engines in the world !

sup

As opposed to one hour on the Russian bombers.

Wearing squadron hoodies now!? Jealous

Heh speaking about A400 "maintenance technology" demonstrated by "hacker" screens with DJI ? "Repair solutions" - sounds like reasonably priced quality repair service ? Yeah right - of course fixing an aircraft takes just a few clicks on a tablet. "Complex machines need constant attention to perform at their peak" == "we must spend millions to keep it flying"

This tone of accusation is pointless.

Jimmy Carter did something right? Oh c'mon.

That can use only against weak countries. War against Russia will ends badly, like Germany lost the WW2 by fäncy toys. Too little and too hard to maintain.

変えないから、カレーパターン柄、

I love the comments from the wannabe engineers and who have ZERO IDEA what it costs to make an aircraft and especially a military jet.

Feet?! What is a feet in metric units? Please, please, please get a good citizen of the earth and adapt the metric system (before Myanmar was the second last)!

Is no one going to mention the terrible photoshop job of the people next to the engine in the video thumb nail? There is literally no way the VEN is almost 2.5 metres diameter. 😂😂😂

I'm seeing face diapers... Video ended for me as there is no evidence that face diapers do good.

An EMP would take out the avionics in these powerful aircraft.

Afourhundredlookslikeacseventeentome....

I hate to bitter about videos like this, but the money we spent funding this could've saved your Aunt, Grandfather, and so many other people in your family. North America is a geographically isolated nation and no other countries have a true blue water navy. No country has the capability of invading us, so why not spend the money on ourselves.

United states's lmfao

to that b1 bomber... a beautiful plane.... but - put in construction as real monster flying high with more than mach two... the carter administration took it as oblolete and canceled it - for more than one reason... and there was a real believe in the equal of powr... and there were ties to shrink the overkill capacities together with sowjetunion..... carter at the end with his efforts to make peace in middle east got to the most hated presidents..... had only one turn... if the by military industrial complex sponsert kongress people habe to decide.... they get all promises... and at first - how expensive is the use of the jet... and how many hours the teams on the ground need to get it in the air again... they always sold science fiction..... b1 is now the compromise... and every loss weights more than hundrets of bombers in second worldwar bomging german towns and facilities.... at the end a dilemma of the ongoing inflation.... time when tornado was ordered from eu international work... build in modules the resistance against in parliament was gigantic..... the last fighter jet - for german airforce... the piece price doubled over a couple of years... they were forced to buy the crap.... to the replacement of tornato and herkules - nato forces all countries to buy the shit... to sink the costs per piece.... Ursula von der leine involved in the project... always smiling and giggling state actor... the was captured with korruption.... creeds cannot get enough.... and the quality of the plane was horrifiing... and this at the end dempends more on the building modules everywhere in eu and usa... braindropping all over the place.... a project never getting finished.... in this oeconomic and environmental catastrophy.....

This is BS!

Just like to waste tax payers money on war stuff ,

jimmy carter was never right... about anything

Oh look, it's high treason week on You Tube. 😂😂😂