Crashing Through the Envelope

Over the Mojave Desert, a B-1 dives to a fiery end

The purpose of test flights is to flirt with what pilots call the outer edge of the envelope, to push a plane to the limits of its capability and see what it can do. That is what one of the prototypes of the sleek plane was attempting over the Mojave Desert near Edwards Air Force Base in California last week when it plunged to the ground in a fiery crash. It was the first serious accident in 418 test flights of B-1 prototypes since 1974.

Two of the crew survived, but T.D. ("Doug") Benefield, 55, the chief test pilot for Rockwell International Corp., which builds the B1, died. Benefield, a 29-year veteran of skirting the outer edge, had a cigar-chomping confidence that put him in the Right Stuff league with Chuck Yeager. The prototype, known as the B-1 A, was one of four built and one of two still flying.

Investigators say it will take a month to determine the cause of the crash. The plane was flying slowly at 3,000 ft. Officials say it may have banked sharply to avoid a military observation plane that was filming part of the test flight.

The B-1 A was designed in the early 1970s as a successor to the B-52, which is now considered lumbering and vulnerable to sophisticated Soviet radar. Indeed, the chief attribute of the redesigned B-1B is that it can fly low to the ground, making it only one one-hundredth as detectable by radar as the B-52. As designed, the four-engine, needle-nosed B-1B is built to carry nuclear bombs and launch cruise missiles. It can fly long distances at high altitudes and supersonic speeds (750 m.p.h. or more). But once the plane nears enemy territory, it can dive down to an altitude of about 500 ft. and hop through enemy terrain toward its target. Its wings are mobile, sweeping back during high speeds but extending outward during landings and at low speeds to increase lift.

Despite these advantages, however, some on Capitol Hill balked at the projected price tag of $100 million per plane.

Even before the first prototype of the B-1 flew in 1974, critics charged that the advent of cruise missiles had made manned bombers less important. In addition, cruise missiles capable of being launched from the B-52 extended the effectiveness of that 32-year-old bomber. In 1977 President Carter canceled the B-1 project.

Reagan dramatically reversed Carter's decision in 1981 and hustled the B-1 into production. But now B-1 opponents have a new complaint: they claim the plane will soon be outdated by the Stealth bomber, with its new radar-evading technology and design, due to become operational in the early 1990s.

A divided Congress has tried to keep a rein on the B-1 by limiting the total purchase order to $20.5 billion in 1981 dollars for 100 aircraft. From fiscal 1982 through fiscal 1984, Congress budgeted more than $11 billion for 18 planes. For fiscal 1985, which begins Oct. 1, the Administration is requesting funding to buy 34 more.

The crackup of the prototype was embarrassing for the Administration, which has touted the program as a linchpin of its strategic modernization program. This week Secretary of the Air Force Verne Orr is scheduled to unveil the production model of the plane, B-1B, at Rockwell's Palmdale, Calif., assembly plant. The accident is not expected to slow the B-1 program. Said Democratic Congressman Thomas Downey of New York, a B-1 critic: "I don't think this crash will have any impact unless B1s start falling out of the sky like hail." More critical to the continuation of the program will be the outcome of the November election: while Reagan strongly supports the B-1 program, Mondale has vowed to cancel it.