US lays out $2.2 billion to get B-1 bomber going
| Dayton, Ohio
The controversial $20 billion B-1 bomber program is flying again.
The US Air Force Wednesday spent the first $2.2 billion of a $20.5 billion congressional authorization for building 100 of the strategic nuclear bombers. That first $2 billion will buy a model and the first plane.
The first $200 million plane is to be delivered in late 1985.
The B-1 project was killed during the Carter administration, but revived by President Reagan. The Air Force now bills the plane as the "new, improved" B-1B model.
