Anyone know anything about this?

Post by **VulcanDriver** » 08 Oct 2007, 05:54

B-1B landed at RAF Fairford yesterday with only three engines installed:

Photos here:

http://tinyurl.com/337ln8

John

Savage · Post by **Savage** » 08 Oct 2007, 06:44

The engine bay looks too orderly to have been an engine loss in flight, looks like a three engined ferry flight to me.

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 08 Oct 2007, 13:48

Agreed, otherwise you'd have all the fire/rescue vehicles awaiting its arrival and swarming over it after it landed.

Post by **VulcanDriver** » 13 Oct 2007, 06:53

I contacted the USAF Public Relations guys and received this reply yesterday:

The B-1 you are referring to damaged an engine while flying out of a
forward operating base in the US Central Command area of responsibility.
Incase you are wondering, the damage was not a result of enemy fire.

We'll be releasing more information about that aircraft and its journey
to Fairford over the next few weeks. I invite you to keep an eye on
www.af.mil for more information.

Again, I am sorry for the delayed response.

Maj. Thomas Crosson
Air Combat Command Public Affairs

SMOC · Post by **SMOC** » 28 Oct 2007, 16:07

From AF.mil:

Broken B-1B flown from Afghanistan for repairs

Staff report
Posted : Saturday Oct 27, 2007 6:36:31 EDT

How many airmen does it take to get a broken B-1B Lancer bomber out of Afghanistan?

Hundreds, from veteran pilots who flew the crippled bomber to maintainers who pulled out the damaged engine.

On Aug. 26 a B-1B bomber made an emergency landing at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan after the jet’s No. 4 engine caught fire.

While investigators set about to discover what went wrong, teams from Air Force Materiel Command were summoned to figure how to get the $238 million bomber out of Afghanistan and to a friendlier location where the aircraft could be repaired.

Among the Materiel Command units summoned were:

* 419th Flight Test Squadron, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where aircrews had background on flying a B-1B with three engines and other difficult circumstances.

* 10th Flight Test Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., which conducts functional check flights on B-1Bs following depot level maintenance. The squadron also has operational risk management experts.

* 555th Aircraft Sustainment Squadron, Tinker, where engineers provided technical analysis needed for damage assessment and repair.

* 654th Combat Logistics Support Squadron, Tinker, whose members have expertise in aircraft battle damage repair.

* Directorate of Air, Space and Information Operations, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, which looked at past cases involving B-1B flights with three engines and evaluated the risks.

“We discussed potential hazards and mitigating conditions with Tinker engineers and aircrews from the 10th and 419th before approving the recommendation for a one-time flight movement for this B-1,” Dr. Dave Jerome, deputy director of the command’s Air, Space and Information Operations, said in an Air Force statement.

The plan to fly the B-1B on three engines out of Kandahar finally got a green light. The jet took off on Oct. 2 for a one-stop flight that eventually landed the bomber at RAF Fairford in England, where Air Force teams are working to make the plane fully airworthy.

ronniegj · Post by **ronniegj** » 29 Oct 2007, 00:04

Great update on this post. Glad you remembered and made the update.

Ron

GZR_Sactargets · Post by **GZR_Sactargets** » 29 Oct 2007, 15:36

Rescuing a Damaged Bone: Air Force Materiel Command personnel from various units united to figure out how to get a B-1B bomber damaged by a fire in its No. 4 engine during a mission over Afghanistan to a safe environment for repairs. John Scaggs reports that ultimately eight enlisted mechanics from the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, which provides repair and depot work on B-1s, deployed to Southwest Asia. On-site maintenance crews had removed the engine, leaving the OK-ALC crew to ready the bomber for flight with only three engines, "a dicey proposition." Air Force Reservists from the 10th Flight Test Squadron at Tinker AFB, Okla., used a simulator at Dyess AFB, Tex., to prepare themselves for the flight and joined with Air Combat Command aircrew members, since the departure point was in a war zone, and flew the bomber in two legs to a standby airfield, RAF Fairford, England, where engineers and mechanics are considering whether they can fully repair the bomber at Fairford

From Air Force Daily report-29 Oct 07