B-1B Bomber Breaks Down, Won’t Start at Paris Air Show
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PARIS — The supersonic B-1B bomber, the most sophisticated ever built for the U.S. Strategic Air Command, broke down at the Le Bourget Air Show on Monday, a spokesman for Rockwell International said.
The plane was due to leave for Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Tex., on Monday afternoon, but the air crew was unable to start it due to a malfunction of the power unit that starts the plane’s engines, the spokesman said.
Capt. Suzann Chapman, an Air Force spokeswoman in Washington, said the Air Force was sending a ground-based power unit to Paris, probably from West Germany.
She said the B-1B was scheduled to leave Paris this morning.
The bomber, which cost $20.5 billion to develop, can carry up to 57 tons of nuclear and conventional weapons. So far, 52 B-1B bombers have been delivered to the Air Force by Rockwell, and a total of 100 are due to be in service with the Strategic Air Command by next May.
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