American Workhorse!

Last week I had an opportunity to get up close to this B1. This one is here being worked on after a technical problem caused a fire in one of the engines before it landed in Iraq. It was not in a secure area so they quickly flew it out (with three engines) to this location. The chief engineer was telling us these planes are so big but they land so smoothly that in another incident a B1 landed with out it's gear down and the two pilots in the back did not have a clue. It takes four pilots to fly this plane. Pilot, co pilot, defensive engineer and offensive engineer. The cockpit was very very small for such a large plane. It can carry 24 smart bombs and that is where most of the room is. I was able to get my picture taken but you can't really see that much as I'm leaning back and the airman taking my picture had to lean back also but it's still a very close pictures as you'll notice all the wrinkles.