Coronet Bat was a 1995
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
exercise in which two
B-1B Lancers flew around the world non-stop, dropping practice bombs on ranges in Europe, Asia, and North America.
A group of four B-1Bs was assembled for the exercise: the lead primary aircraft, nicknamed "Hellion" (tail number 85-0057); the second primary aircraft, "Global Power" (tail number 85-0082); and two "airborne spares": "Bad to the B-one" and "Black Widow".
The group was commanded by Lt. Col. Doug Raaberg, pilot of "Hellion".
The rest of the aircrews included Capt.
Gerald Goodfellow
Gerald V. Goodfellow is a retired United States Air Force brigadier general, and the current Chief Executive Officer of thSmall Business Consulting Corporation Goodfellow was commissioned in 1989 through the University of New Mexico Air Force ROT ...
, Capt. Kevin Clotfelter, Capt. Rick Carver, Capt.
Chris Stewart, Capt. Steve Adams, Capt. Kevin Houdek and Capt. Steve Reeves.
The aircraft were loaded with
BDU-50 munitions: inert, concrete-filled 500-pound practice versions of the
Mark 82 bomb
The Mark 82 (Mk 82) is an unguided, low- drag general-purpose bomb, part of the United States Mark 80 series. The explosive filling is usually tritonal, though other compositions have sometimes been used.
Development and deployment
W ...
.
Around 3 a.m. on June 2, 1995, the four B-1Bs launched from
Dyess Air Force Base
Dyess Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located about southwest of downtown Abilene, Texas, and west of Fort Worth, Texas.
The host unit at Dyess is the 7th Bomb Wing assigned to the Global Strike Command Ei ...
, Texas, and headed east. One of the spare aircraft landed at
Langley Air Force Base
Langley Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Hampton, Virginia, adjacent to Newport News, Virginia, Newport News. It was one of List of airfields of the Training Section of the United States Army Air Service, thirty-two ...
, Virginia; the other at
Lajes Field
Lajes Field or Lajes Air Base (; pt, Base Aérea das Lajes), officially designated Air Base No. 4 (''Base Aérea Nº 4'', BA4) , is a multi-use airfield near Lajes and northeast of Angra do Heroísmo on Terceira Island in the Azores, Portug ...
in the Azores. The two primary aircraft continued on through the Strait of Gibraltar, across the Mediterranean Sea, over the Indian Ocean, north over the Pacific Ocean to the Aleutian Islands, then southeast to the west coast of the United States, and thence to a landing at Dyess.
En route, the aircraft dropped practice bombs on Italy's Pachino Range, the Torishima Range near Japan's
Kadena Air Base
(IATA: DNA, ICAO: RODN) is a highly strategic United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena and Chatan and the city of Okinawa, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is often referred to as the "Keystone of the Pacific" because of its highl ...
, and the
Utah Test and Training Range
The Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) is a Department of Defense military testing and training area located in Utah's West Desert, approximately west of Salt Lake City, Utah. UTTR is currently the largest contiguous block of over-land superson ...
.
The flight took 36 hours and 13 minutes, including six
air refuelings, making for an average speed of .
[https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Spy_pshUDTkJ:www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/KittyHawkChronology/kitty1995-2005.pdf+b-1b+raaberg&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiiM4B5S8_Z9rvAsvUlUOAq1UOfd5U6rKPEv-Id8D8z3NKtK9ot_4dzPOt2TzW4YP2nHR6nY81avnhDip4mH8Ns1vmoMU8zkTj0T3c6olvahCIuzaQolGzP6BA5Kbj0ivwGJTuK&sig=AHIEtbRW7o-3cQJlLA24avDl9YRLUe1VBQ ]
All eight crew members who completed the around-the-world flight were awarded the
Mackay Trophy
The Mackay Trophy is awarded yearly by the United States Air Force for the "most meritorious flight of the year" by an Air Force person, persons, or organization. The trophy is housed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museu ...
.
See also
*
Lucky Lady II
''Lucky Lady II'' is a United States Air Force Boeing B-50 Superfortress that became the first airplane to circle the world nonstop. Its 1949 journey, assisted by in-flight refueling, lasted 94 hours and 1 minute. The plane later suffered an ac ...
– the first non-stop around-the-world flight, 1949
*
Operation Power Flite
Operation Power Flite was a United States Air Force mission in which three Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses became the first jet aircraft to circle the world nonstop, when they made the journey in January 1957 in 45 hours and 19 minutes, using in-fl ...
– B-52 around-the-world simulated bombing mission, 1957
References
{{Reflist
1995 in aviation
1995 in military history
United States Air Force exercises