Watch A B-1B Refuel And Thank The Tanker With A Gorgeous Burner Break
Swing-wings, a sleek and flowing fuselage, and four big GE-F101 turbofans pointing out the back: the B-1B's silhouette is ominous to say the least. That silhouette is exactly what a tanker crew saw after refueling the "Bone" from their KC-135R Stratotanker, as seen in the video below.
Another cool part is seeing all the little pilot and fly-by-wire inputs on the control surfaces that allow the B-1 to stay in close formation with the tanker. Often times, when the B-1s are loaded down with munitions as well as fuel during combat, they have to engage two of the jet's four afterburners to a certain degree in order to remain in place behind the tanker, as you can see in this awesome image from our good friend Jaye Morton:
You can see what the view looks like from the B-1's point of view during aerial refueling in this awesome video shot by a Foxtrot Alpha reader and B-1B pilot.
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