A really Completely satisfied Birthday the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber at present. On 17 July 1989, the B-2 Spirit took to the skies for the primary time. The flight took off from Palmdale Plant 42 and landed at Edwards Air Drive Base. The bomber was flown by B-2 Take a look at Pilot Bruce Hinds and the B-2 Take a look at Drive Commander Col. Richard Sofa. The primary flight was slightly over 2 hours. Your entire flight was flown with gear down.
Right here is the B-2 Spirit by the numbers:
Variety of years that the B-2 has been flying. The B-2 first took to the skies on 17 July 1989 for a take a look at flight.
Whole program value per plane. This quantity consists of growth, testing, engineering, and manufacturing.
Max takeoff weight of the B-2 Spirit Bomber in kilos.
Whole variety of bombers constructed (20 lively, 1 take a look at).
The wingspan of the B-2 is 20 toes longer than the Boeing 767 passenger jet (172 toes (B-2) vs. 152 toes (767)).
The B-2’s fight ceiling.
A B-2 can carry a payload of 20 tons.
Whole variety of main incidents.
23 February 2008: B-2 Spirit of Kansas crashed at Guam attributable to condensation within the plane’s Port Transducer Unit inflicting the air information laptop to obtain incorrect airspeed info.
February 2010: B-2 Spirit of Washington suffered extreme fireplace injury at Guam. It took over 2 years to restore the plane which is now again in service.
13-14 September 2021: B-2 Spirit of Georgia made an emergency touchdown at Whiteman AFB, veering off the runway attributable to worn touchdown gear springs and hydraulic microcracks that induced the gear to break down. Preliminary restore prices have been estimated at $10.1 million.
10 December 2022: A B-2 skilled an in-flight malfunction and made an emergency touchdown at Whiteman AFB. Nobody was injured, however a short fireplace occurred. All B-2s have been grounded till Might 2023, when the grounding was lifted with out clarification. In Might 2024, the Air Drive introduced plans to retire the B-2, calling repairs uneconomical.
The 12 months the B-2 made its fight debut throughout Operation Allied Drive. Two B-2s took off from Whiteman Air Drive Base in Missouri, flew over 31 hours to Kosovo, struck a number of targets, after which circled and flew straight house. Though the B-2 flew lower than 1% of all missions in the course of the first eight weeks, it was answerable for taking out a staggering 33% of the targets.
Variety of Mk-82 bombs that may be carried internally by the B-2 bomber.
Estimated radar cross-section (RCS) of the B-2 Bomber in m^2. By comparability, a B-52 is estimated to have a RCS of 100 m^2.
