Never got to fly in one of these, the only bomber that can do barrel rolls. But I got to sit in one on the ramp at Dyess outside Abilene in the 1980s and interview the crews who even then were calling it the Bone, for B-One. This was when the MSM was chewing on the Air Force over the B-1B’s various avionics problems. Nobody’s carping about them today. They are the premier bombing platform for Afghanistan and Iraq, sending the B-52s and B-2s home to sit and wait for something to do, as David Noland details in the current issue of Air&Space Magazine.
UPDATE: An onboard fire in a B-1B landing at a base in Quatar on April 4 was the fifth aircraft fire in one of the bombers since 1990. This time, the crew escaped unharmed.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
I’ve got two B-1 moments. I got to watch them do touch and gos out at Dyess from the base grounds back in the mid-90s when I was selling to the .mils.
Later on in the 90s, I was at Opening Day for the Rangers, and one did a fly-over. It was humbling and prideful at the same time. Everyone at the game sat there with their mouth hanging open for a good half-minute after it was gone from sight.
It is an awe-inspiring plane, not least for the sweep-wing design.
Its speed of about 900 mph, plus the noise of its four big turbofan engines with their afterburners, certainly do make it impressive in a flyover.