AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 65ROCKWELL’S MACH 2 MONGREL
1982 was a memorable year for
Farnborough, with the variety of
aircraft types from 15 countries
generally agreed to be ‘the best so
far’. The star was a Rockwell B-1A
making its first appearance in Europe.
The fact that this Mach 2 bomber
was not to be seen in the flying
display mattered not a jot. It was
there as the centrepiece of the static,
an example of the very latest US
hardware and a gesture of support
to NATO at the height of the Cold
War. The B-1A had a chequered
history. Designed as a supersonic
bomber for Strategic Air Command,
its development was cancelled in June
1977 by the Carter administration,
leading to the mothballing of the
four prototypes. The programme was
reinstated in 1981 and the prototypes
brought out of storage to support
development of the only marginally
supersonic — but stealthier and with
better payload — B-1B variant that
would be ordered into production for
the USAF.
I always metaphorically take my
hat off to aircrew who stand by their
aircraft in the static display and
answer questions, however inane,
from trade visitors and membersof the public. As an aside, this is
something the Russians proved, over
several years at Farnborough, to be
very bad at. Question: “Why is your
aircraft not flying today?” Answer,
“Because the air and ground crew
have all gone shopping to London”.
Anyway, in September 1982, I
got talking to ‘Doug’ Benefield,
Rockwell’s cigar-smoking chief test
pilot, who had flown this prototype
B-1A across the Atlantic. We
conversed for some time in front of
the aircraft, marked 76-0174, before
he posed me a question: “Can you see
anything strange with this aircraft?”
I looked. I thought. I couldn’t. He
then told me that it was a hybrid; the
tailplane of one prototype had been
grafted to the airframe of another
and, as a result, the serial on the
fin and that on the data block were
different. That’s a story — no, surely,
a fact, bearing in mind its pedigree —
that I’ve never seen referred to, before
or since.
Sadly, Benefield would die in
the crash of the second B-1A less
than two years later, this despite
the aircraft (but not the production
B-1B) being equipped with a rocket-
powered crew escape capsule.MIXED FORTUNES
The 1986 show included a couple of military types that
looked to the future — or, at least, to the future as it was
envisaged at the time, more than 30 years ago. The far-
from-attractive Nimrod AEW3, which had previously
appeared at the 1980, 1982 and 1984 events, made a
fleeting appearance in the flying display, without landing
at Farnborough. By this time, this all-British BAe/GEC
programme to produce an early warning aircraft for the
RAF, based on the maritime patrol Nimrod airframe
and with fore and aft radar scanners, was in serious
trouble. Sensing a sales opportunity, Boeing brought
an E-3A Sentry to the show, having proposed this 707
derivative as a no-risk, off-the-shelf alternative. History
records that the AEW3 would never again appear atFarnborough, being cancelled later in 1986, while the
Sentry still serves today with the RAF.
A better outcome was to be enjoyed by the BAe EAP,
a British-built technology demonstrator for the fighter
programme that would eventually crystallise as the
Eurofighter Typhoon. Flown in the display by Chris Yeo,
it demonstrated sparkling performance and a degree of
agility previously only seen with the likes of the General
Dynamics F-16. The EAP would achieve its purpose
admirably in its 259 test flights, yet it would still be more
than 15 years before the Typhoon entered squadron
service. International co-operation (Eurofighter brings
together four nations) offers many advantages, but
speedy decision-making is not one of them.The late ‘Doug’ Benefield,
Rockwell chief test pilot,
with the B-1A that he flew
to the 1982 display.
DENIS J. C ALVERTMAIN PICTURE:
Nimrod AEW3
XZ286 made the
ill-fated variant’s
debut in 1980.
DENIS J. C ALVERTINSET:
Chris Yeo blasts
skywards in 1986’s
star turn, the BAe
EAP (Experimental
Aircraft
Programme).
DENIS J. C ALVERT54-56,61-66_AM_Farnborough_July18_cc C.indd 65 04/06/2018 13:51