Added: Feb 18, 2007
From: zeoul001
Duration: 2:3
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is a multi-role stealth heavy bomber, capable of deploying both conventional and nuclear weapons. It is operated exclusively by the United States Air Force. Its development was a milestone in the modernization program of the U.S. Department of Defense. The B-2's second-generation stealth technology is intended to aid the aircraft's penetration role in order to survive extremely dense anti-aircraft defenses otherwise considered impenetrable by combat aircraft.The B-2 started life as a black project known as the High Altitude Penetrating Bomber (HAPB), then became the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB), and later became the B-2 Spirit. An estimated US$23 billion were secretly spent for research and development on the B-2 in the 1980s. An additional expense was caused by changing its role in 1985 from a high-altitude bomber to a low-altitude bomber, which required a major redesign.The first B-2 was publicly displayed on 22 November 1988, when it was rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, where it was built. Its first public flight was on 17 July 1989. The B-2 Combined Test Force, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, is responsible for flight testing the engineering, manufacturing and development aircraft.The original procurement of 135 aircraft was later reduced to 75 in the late 1980s. In his 1992 State of the Union Address, President George H.W. Bush announced total B-2 production would be limited to 20 aircraft (later increased to 21 by refurbishing a test aircraft).This reduction was largely a result of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which effectively rendered void the Spirit's primary mission.The cost of the B-2 program in 1994 dollars was reported at $727 million per plane, however the total cost of the program with development, spares, and facilities averaged over $2.1 billion per plane as of 1997 according to the B-2 program office.The first operational aircraft, christened Spirit of Missouri, was delivered on December 17, 1993. The B-2 fleet is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Depot maintenance for the B-2 is accomplished by United States Air Force contractor support and managed at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.Originally designed to employ nuclear weapons, modern usage has shifted towards a flexible role with conventional and nuclear capability.The prime contractor, responsible for overall system design and integration, is Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems Sector. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon), General Electric Aircraft Engines and Vought Aircraft Industries, are members of the aircraft contractor team. Another contractor, responsible for aircrew training devices (weapon system trainer and mission trainer) is Link Simulation & Training, a division of L-3 Communications formerly Hughes Training Inc. (HTI).Link Division, formerly known as CAE - Link Flight Simulation Corp. Link Simulation & Training is responsible for developing and integrating all aircrew and maintenance training programs. * Crew: 2 * Length: 69 ft (20.9 m) * Wingspan: 172 ft (52.12 m) * Height: 17 ft (5.1 m) * Wing area: 5,000 ft² (460 m²) * Empty weight: 158,000 lb (71.7 t) * Loaded weight: 336,500 lb (152.6 t) * Max takeoff weight: 376,000 lb (171.0 t) * Powerplant: 4× General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofans, 17,300 lbf (77 kN) each * Maximum speed: 410 knots (764 km/h, 475 mph) * Range: 5,600 nm (10,400 km, 6,500 mi) * Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m) * Wing loading: 67.3 lb/ft² (329 kg/m²) * Thrust/weight: 0.205
Channel: Autos
Tags: 747 a380 airbus airplane b-2 boeing bomber fighter grumman jet mig-35 northrop russian sky spirit su-27 sukhoi usaf war
Rating: 4.52 (48 ratings) Views: 46814' favoriteCount='85 Comments: 25
mahdiya Says:
Aug 18, 2008 - Gosh....how do all those bombs fit in a 'flat' jet like that!!!huh...?? Finding Osama bin Laden?! And spoiling all the fun on waging war with Iran cause the 'axe of evil' is gone?!Don't you know the New World Order game yet?!
sabatatata Says:
Aug 20, 2008 - WOW!!!! I hope we are joing in nato some days...it looks wonderful!!!!
mikeandamina Says:
Aug 23, 2008 - this is to airaide eagleThere is an advantage that the b-2 has over the the lancer and it is that it doesent take alot of fuel with the ability to be a fast light weight plane wth better manoeverablity anlike the lancer moving at very high speeds it would not beable to turn on its own very well, and i dont get what you mean about low observability i mean the lancer is like 2 times larger than the b-2 and i also think i can see and observe and a large plane coming overhead
mikeandamina Says:
Aug 23, 2008 - arraide the b-2 can fly for long distances and can fly for 22 hours without refueling, its desighn was much better with stealth than speed and thats what a STEALTH bomber is sapose to have not high speed collusion course with a mountain, its wing desighn also gives it the best manouverablity for short turns if needed or some other things and also remember the more weight will cost the lancer less speed so dont think it can maintain and infinite amount of time in the air cause it cant
NinoSerbia Says:
Aug 28, 2008 - Americans stoled the design from germans back in World War II. Just search for "Horten Ho 229"
mikeandamina Says:
Aug 28, 2008 - hey airraideeagle the b-2 has up to date stealth technology which enables it to get past the most suffistoceted defenses and it cant be tracked by scencors so its more stealthy than the lancer also the b-2 can go 22 hours without refueling for longer distance and its ability to not be tracked is more usefull, also with its desigh and the desighn of the wings its manouverablility is much better than the lancers and also it looks cooler, and ur thing about it being slow... its actualy not.
WakingMajority Says:
Aug 30, 2008 - There are 2 models to this plane. There is the one that they show to the public. Then there is the one that takes off from Ohio, bombs Baghdad, and lands back in Ohio in just a few hours. Top secret propulsion system, cats out of the bag. Electrogravitics and Magnetohydrodynamics.
alexsachtleben Says:
Sep 1, 2008 - 400-500 mph for a plane is kind of slow but it doesnt matter
alexsachtleben Says:
Sep 1, 2008 - the b2 is way bigger than the b1 lancer what the fuck at=re u smoing
554687858 Says:
Sep 12, 2008 - Actually, it's a 40 hr. round trip and the pilots are doing it on meth. Don't believe me? Read the 'ghost soldiers' by Hampton Sides and find out just how long the US military has used meth. Nothing top secret about it. Just Electrocrankomagspeedonamics.
WakingMajority Says:
Sep 12, 2008 - I have read it. Loved the part about the CIA putting and smuggling drugs in the bodies of dead GIs who died in Vietnam. God bless the CIA.And last time I checked. Meth doesn't make a plane exceed Mach10 like this thing can.
554687858 Says:
Sep 13, 2008 - Can't argue the point - my subject knowledge subject is limited. Still an airplane exceeding 8000 MPH just doesn't ring true. Assuming the mechanics are there (and anything short of a ramjet is unlikely), how do you keep the skin of the aircraft from melting? I suppose you could fly above the atmosphere but then the problem is of exit and reentry - the time needed for these maneuvers. This would certainly take more than a few hours. Unless you used a heat shield - a different problem in itself.
554687858 Says:
Sep 13, 2008 - As to the Book 'Ghost Soldiers' by Hampton Sides, Are you sure we're talking about the same book? The one I read was about a hand-picked group from the 6th Army Ranger Battalion who went into the Philippines in 1945 and rescued the remaining survivors from the Bataan death march. The Rangers were given meth to enable them to carry out their mission. I don't recall any mention of Vietnam or the CIA. May be wrong, but I believe the story was exclusively about this great rescue. A must read.
52051 Says:
Sep 20, 2008 - b-2 is a slow plane with underpower engines,Its power/weight ratio is only 0.2, the same as many civil planes such as Boeing 737, its speed is at the same level of WW2 era planes.Its an overpriced, subsonic bomber, its payload is lower than B-1B, and its ferry range is also lower than B-1B or B-52, without stealth its nothing and it is not really "stealth" against all radar frequence/wavelength,for instance phase-arrary radars and meter-wave radar will be its big problem.
BmoneyRnow Says:
Oct 5, 2008 - out of date, overpriced peace of shart
CoolDojo9000 Says:
Oct 17, 2008 - What it required is to forget about stealth: Make a hypersonic, ultra high altitude bomber with insane range.
paisitaboy Says:
Oct 24, 2008 - yo maneje uno de esos jajajajajaja
kjb86 Says:
Nov 14, 2008 - no the hydrogen bomb is the most beautiful
kjb86 Says:
Nov 14, 2008 - i believe the song is "riders of doom"
spagetti001 Says:
Nov 23, 2008 - do you think that the B-2 was the first plane with that curious form???WRONG!!B-2 is just a cheap copy of Horten Ho-229 made by the Horten brothers in 1944 for Germany,but that plane was never deployed,because of the bomber-strikes of the AAF.
maulhaianne Says:
Nov 24, 2008 - the reason why were now experiencing global economic breakdown is because of agressive militaryzation of US. imagine they build those weapons of destruction instead of useing thier funds for development and welfare of citizens and also tothere world.they must fight poverty instead of doing that because its the root of all chaos in the world.
Dogmeat7 Says:
Nov 27, 2008 - um dude. we do have Welfare lol. hell we spend more money on Education then anyone else in the world lol. we give more money to help programs then anyone else i nthe world....now stfu.
MooShoe89 Says:
Dec 2, 2008 - actually if your going to compare the b-2 to anything it should be the yb-49. both were developed by northrop and they even have the same wingspan, 172 feet. the ho-229 was much smaller, 55 feet and was intended to be a fighter not a bomber (yay history channel). the b-2 is nothing like anything before it and its definitely not a "cheap copy."
spagetti001 Says:
Dec 3, 2008 - only the V-3 version of Ho-229 was a simple fighter,V-4 and V-5 were night fighters,V-6 and V-8 were super-fast BOMBERS with a maximum speed of 900 km/h!!(remember,is still ww2)btw,there was another version built with 6 motors,wich could easily reach the United States from the coast on France.and istnt it strange,that the only people who got these planes after the war,were the americans??Howewer,its a shame that they needed more than 50 years to create their own little copy version...
airraideagle Says:
Aug 17, 2008 - B-2 can only carry 40,000 or 50,000 lbs of weapons, far less than the B-1B Lancer that can carry 135,000 lbs.B-2 is slow plus it only has an unrefueled range of about 6,000 miles, less than the B-1B (7,000 miles) or B-52 (8,000+ miles).B-2 engines only output 17,000lbs of thrust. It should have had of those 8 engines instead of 4, or, 4 very powerful engines of 30,000.B-2's only asset is low observability and soon that advantage will be gone.