THIS N THAT

 The Air Force will roll out its newest bomber next year; the first photos were just released.  The B-21 Raider will cost upwards of $750 M each.  A total of 100 are scheduled for production.  It will at first compliment and then eventually replace the B-2 bombers now in service.  The B-21 is a long range strike bomber.  

Planning for this baby began in 2011.  It is said to be stealthy as stealth can be and many parts are highly classified.  Of course, it can deliver conventional as well as nuclear weapons if required.  To me, it looks like something we dreamed of sixty years ago.

While we're deep into bombers today, here is a big ol' "did you know?"  On July 13, 1950, a B-50D Superfortress was on a training flight near here.  The B-50D was a post-WWII version of the B-29 bomber we used to win that war.  This B-50D carried a Mark 4 nuclear bomb like one we dropped on Japan five years before.  This plane crashed just 4-1/2 miles north of Mason, Ohio.  The wreckage was just west of St Rt 741 and north of Hamilton road.  All 16 aboard died.  You never heard of it because the bomb did not have in it the physics to cause an explosion; the firing apparatus, if you will.  If it had, there might not be a Mason, Ohio.