The U.S. Air Force is sending the hulk of a B-1B Bone bomber from the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University in Kansas. Researchers there will 3D scan the entire airframe to create a highly detailed "digital twin" model to help identify areas of the aircraft that suffer high levels of fatigue and otherwise collect data that could help predict future maintenance needs among the B-1Bs still in service. Structural fatigue, in particular, has long plagued the Bones and has become an increasingly more acute issue after years of heavy use in combat, leading now to serious restrictions on how and how much the bombers can fly during both training and actual operations. This is something The War Zone was first to report on in detail earlier this year.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) announced on Apr. 23, 2020, that the remains of the retired B-1B, identified by the serial number 85-0092, were headed to the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) by truck. It took a month to remove the tail and horizontal and vertical stabilizers from the rest of the airframe. Air Force personnel then loaded the 130-foot long fuselage onto a pair trailers in preparation for the 1,000-mile journey from Arizona to Kansas. Separate trailers carried the tail and stabilizers. The U.S. military already routinely works with NIAR to conduct stress testing of various aircraft.

USAF Air Force personnel stand on top of one of the wings from B-1B, serial number 85-0092, during the airframe's disassembly at the boneyard at Davis Monthan Air Force Base ahead of its trip to the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University

"We are taking a real aircraft from the Boneyard, and it will fly again in a digital format," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Lay, the service's B-1 Program Manager, said in a statement. The service reportedly picked 85-0092 because it had flown a particularly high number of flight hours beyond its planned service life before its retirement nearly in 2002. This particular B-1B, which had carried the nickname "Apocalypse," last served with the 128th Bomb Squadron at Robins Air Force Base. That squadron, part of the Georgia Air National Guard, gave up all of its bombers in 2002 and subsequently transformed into the 128th Airborne Command and Control Squadron flying the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft.

USAF A morale patch from when B-1B, serial number 85-0092, served with the 128th Bomb Squadron.