B-2 stealth bomber crashes

[AirDOGGe]

HAGATNA, Guam —

A board of military officers will investigate Saturday's crash of a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which forced two pilots to eject to safety before the aricraft fell from the sky shortly after takeoff at Guam's Andersen Air Force Base.

The crash occurred about 10:30 a.m. local time, the Air Force said. One of the pilots remained hospitalized in stable condition as of Saturday evening, according to Pacific Air Command public affairs in Hawaii.

There were no munitions on board at the time and there was no damage to nearby buildings, the Air Force said. Yesterday's crash was the first for the B-2 bomber since it was unveiled in 1988, according to the military.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Well there goes roughly 1/5 of the B2s built. At least no one was killed.

Will

[FuryFan]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Well there goes roughly 1/5 of the B2s built. At least no one was killed.

Will

Not to nit pic your math, but that would mean there have only been 5 B-2's built.........don't think that's true.

[race9]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Actually more like 1/21, since this is the only crash of a B-2, and there were 21 built.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Not to nit pic your math, but that would mean there have only been 5 B-2's built.........don't think that's true.

Ya gotta point there, I actually kinda stole that number from a news cast that was on TV as I posted it. It didn't dawn on me that the number didn't make sense. I think I'll go take my foot out of my mouth now.....

Will

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Ya gotta point there, I actually kinda stole that number from a news cast that was on TV as I posted it. It didn't dawn on me that the number didn't make sense. I think I'll go take my foot out of my mouth now.....

LOL Will.. don't feel bad, you've just been bitten by the same crowd that reports "his engine fell off" when someone tells them "I lost the engine"...

They have bosses, bosses who hire young, good looking folks who, unfortunately, have on-camera skills.. and often, little else....

[h34race]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Don't thay cost about 1.5 Milion a coppy or was it 2.5 ?? looks like the 117 and the B2 are 1&1 I still remember the wing falling off the 117 during an air show any word of why it crashed? I am sure it is all G2 clasiffied

[AERRACE]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Reported cost per B-2 is $1 BILLION plus. The F-117 mentioned was
departing the airshow site when the wing failed. The last report I saw
stated that the post crash investigation discovered that 3 wing atatch bolts were missing, probably overlooked when the wings were re-attatched at the end of a recent major overhaul.

Frank

[AirDOGGe]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

LOL Will.. don't feel bad, you've just been bitten by the same crowd that reports "his engine fell off" when someone tells them "I lost the engine"...

They have bosses, bosses who hire young, good looking folks who, unfortunately, have on-camera skills.. and often, little else....

But, if it's on the news, then it HAS to be correct, right? Right?

Heh-heh. Reminds me of the time CNN claimed that the space shuttle could travel 18 times THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Just a LITTLE off the mark there perhaps?

[Bill Marsh]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ............................................... Oh, i was just waiting for my transmission to catch up with the real world, over



bm

[RAD2LTR]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

I'm over it. I think that was the first time in years I have made a stupid public blunder like that. The last one was better. 2nd day as a DJ for a small radio station, I pulled the mic down while on air and in doing so dumped the entire library of CDs in the booth on top of me (including the shelf with the mic attached). Multiple 4 letter expletives stated out loud, I then closed the mic...... That went over really well.

18 times the speed of light. Now thats something I'd like to see.

Will

[Mluvara]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Sorry, I can't resist....

On one project I was on, a former air force pilot asked me if I knew what B1B and B2B really stood for. I obviously repeated the B1 Bomber and B2 Bomber. He looked at me and said "nope".

Obviously there's many jokes in industry about the cost of our military hardware. I guess the old saying goes around that whenever there was an engineering change (no matter how large or small) to the B1 Bomber, it meant "Bring 1 Billion". For the B2, Bring 2 Billion...

Michael

[RVator1822]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

The issue of what these aircraft cost really ticks me off. The media did everything they could to kill the program and they constantly repeated the term "Two Billion Dollar Bomber". They got this number by dividing the total program cost by the number of aircraft built. The truth is they spent $30B advancing the state-of-the-art so they could build it and $10B to build 20 aircraft--they spent around $500M for each aircraft. The original plan was for 132 aircraft and if they had stuck with it, the cost per copy would have been around half that. Anyone have a price for a new 747?

The composite airframe has an enormous lifespan. Actually, nobody knows for sure how long it can last since it can't corrode and unless you want supersonic capability, you're just not going to get anything better. I personally think they should have built 250 of them at least.

Everything they learned building the B-2 has gone into the development of every future low observable aircraft now being built; that first $30B was well spent.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Looks like they finally reported what brought it down...


FIRE DOWNS STEALTH BOMBER

David A. Fulghum/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report


"One of the pilots of the B-2 stealth bomber that crashed Feb. 23 reported a fire at takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, which was followed quickly by loss of control of the bomber, according to a senior Air Combat Command (ACC) official.

The stealth bomber rolled uncontrollably to the right and fell between the taxiway and the ramp at 10:45 a.m. Guam time just after passing the control tower. It was attempting a takeoff toward the seaward end of the runway. The two pilots ejected with one being hospitalized. A dark plume of smoke arose from the crash site and civilians outside the base reported a second explosion about 30 minutes after the initial impact."

[race9]

Re: B-2 stealth bomber crashes

Hm. Sounds like a computer failure.