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B-1B Bomber Goes Inverted At Edwards AFB Air Show

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One particularly highlight at the air show stood out. A B-1B Bone went inverted and followed through with a roll after an airshow flyby as part of their routine. (avgeekery.com) More...

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bingobanner
Russ Brown 10
I was there when Tex Johnson rolled the first 707 in a Fly by at the Gold Cup hydroplane race in Seattle in 1955. No pieces came off.
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RECOR10
RECOR10 18
I remember kinda vividly in the '80 (I was young young)...my father worked at Rockwell. There was a big gathering of some sort and a video of the B1 was on a movie screen..heart beat sound pounding in the background, guys in astronaut suits walking to an airplane with the music from 2001: A Space Oddysey come in...it was every bit as cool as watching the Space Shuttle Columbia launch in 1981...you know, back when the United States had dreams of something more than rainbow unicorns.
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jbermo
jbermo 4
Son of a %$&^%$. I missed the %^#$ air show this year! Edwards is a fantastic airshow and is held every other October (but it skipped a few due to COVID).
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ChiefShirt
Jack DeForrest 3
And there was no press release for this one until the day before the show! It said the gates to the base closed when they reached 50k attendees. Maybe another year!
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srobak
srobak 4
This is not new news. They do this all the time, and have for decades. The B1 is a highly capable aircraft and so are the pilots.
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TimDyck
Tim Dyck 1
I agree. Great planes need great pilots.
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lauramks
laura meeks 5
Thank You Bob Hallissy for the link. I flew with LTC Mark McGeehan on Guam back when he was a Major. He was a fantastic guy and so sad he died in the Crash at Fairchild. Mark was apparently hesitant to fly with Holland. Mark tried to eject but when you see the video, he ejects into the fireball.
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nk4091
Neil Klapthor 5
I knew Mark McGeehan and Bud Holland when we were all Captains at Barksdale AFB. Mark was one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet and what Holland did with his "hot dogging" and making that BUFF crash just makes me sick. Mark had presented complaints about Holland from numerous crewmembers to the higher ups but to no avail. A real tragedy.
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srobak
srobak 3
A real tragedy for sure, but as explained in the book "Darker Shades of Blue" - not one single document of complaint against him could be found. He was purposefully put on the exhibition short list, and often requested or given orders to conduct flyovers and demonstrations at everything from military academy graduations to football games to dignitary visits and almost nonstop airshows - and for years.

Yes, he killed those on board by his hot dogging, but anyone further up the chain of command could have plucked him out of the sky at any time over the course of many years. Instead they showcased him. This was a grand failure of leadership.
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ChiefShirt
Jack DeForrest 2
Leadership mistook skill for foolishness it seems. The tragedy ended the CV's career too and he was one hell of a gentleman where I knew him at Dyess shortly before.
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n555cf
rbt schaffer 2
For the price of that thing, the autopilot should be able to do a 1G barrel roll. Maybe it was the angle of the camera, but it appeared a bit of hesitation as it went inverted. Bob Hoover might have spilled his tea.
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dbarnesmsn
dbarnesmsn 3
This stunt reminds me of when LtCol Bud Holland crashed a B-52H at Fairchild AFB practicing for an airshow. Oh and there's the KC-135 crash practicing for an airshow ...
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tims
Tim Slater 6
Bud Holland is actually famous as the poster child for modern CRM...and what not to do. Many airlines use this presentation as an analysis chain for poor command. This was NOT what the B1 did at Edwards.
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 4
famous? dragging his crew into death ? NAH
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tims
Tim Slater 13
Famous as in more than a few 121 air carrier's CRM program use him as an example of repeated poor judgement and a failure of the system to stop him. Perhaps I should have said "infamous"
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srobak
srobak 6
The 52 was not designed for what Holland did. The B1 was designed for these kinds of maneuvers. No need to munge or confuse the two.
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gbcotten
greg cotten 0
What is the tactical reason for a heavy bomber to fly inverted? Some sort of silly Southern Hemisphere math?
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srobak
srobak 3
Evasion.
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 3
Not even close.
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N107Sugar
N107Sugar 2
I’d love to know what the B1’s design engineers think of this. Why do so these bomber pilots have fighter pilot envy?
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srobak
srobak 4
Pretty sure the engineers designed with this function in mind. Who said anything about envy? You know lots of non-fighter aircraft are capable of inversion, right? The B1 is a highly capable aircraft - as are the pilots. They have been doing this as SOP in the B1 for decades.
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Bobh528FA
Bob Hallissy 3
Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjwvVc6rBIR/
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RAYGIB
RAY GIBOULEAU 1
Thank you!
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sparkie624
sparkie624 1
Very interesting.. Would love to seen a Video of it. Did not show up on the Link.
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petercraddy
Peter Craddy 2
Further down the page
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edwardjo
Joseph Edwards 1
NICCCEEEEEEE
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md69
Martin Dennett 1
Only 67 years after we Brits did it in an aircraft that handled like a fighter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffJ0WX1Xct0
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gomedoc
Jon Schwartz -2
hope they got the pronouns correct...
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srobak
srobak 1
That's the Navy.
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BrentElliott
Brent Elliott 0
Granted, it was certainly a "1-G" roll at least, and I'm sure the AF still has a strong tool accountability program like they used to, but I'd think the Air Crew would be nervous as he!! with the potential for a FOD incident to occur going upside down.
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srobak
srobak 1
Not at all. This is SOP.
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CAH747
CLARENCE HELLER -3
Any rated pilot can roll an aircraft. If I was his commander I would have grounded him. Bomber NO, Transport NO, trainer YES, fighter HELL YES!
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srobak
srobak 2
Good thing smarter people than you are COs. FITFO: It.Was.Designed.To.Do.This.
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