How big is a B-2 bomber?

The B-2 is 69 feet long, 17 feet high and has a wingspan of 172 feet, half the length of a football field.

How many nukes can a B-2 carry?

The bomber can drop conventional and thermonuclear weapons, such as up to eighty 500-pound class (230 kg) Mk 82 JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400-pound (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only acknowledged aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

How many B-2 bombers does the US have?

The U.S. Air Force bought 21 B-2 stealth bombers from Northrop Grumman in the 1980s and 1990s at a price of more than $2 billion apiece, if you count development costs. One crashed on Guam in 2008, leaving 20 in the active fleet.

How many people fit in a B-2?

The B-2 has a crew of two pilots, a pilot in the left seat and mission commander in the right, compared to the B-1B's crew of four and the B-52's crew of five.

Is the B-21 bigger than the B-2?

The B-21 resembles the B-2 but is a bit smaller, with a lower profile over the wing and a slightly bigger belly under it. Most of its important capabilities remain classified.

The Unbelievable Power of The B-2 Bomber

Has a B-2 ever been shot down?

The aircraft was destroyed, a total loss estimated at US$1.4 billion. This is equivalent to $1.76 billion in 2021. According to the Air Force Times, a private-industry magazine, no munitions were on board.

Why the B-2 is such a badass plane?

While the B-2 bomber was initially designed for deep penetration into the Soviet Union to drop nuclear gravity bombs, it was additionally configured in the mid-1990s to include a conventional bomb-drop capability of 20 tons—a combat load heavier than either the B-1 or the legendary B-52 bomber could carry.

Does the B-2 have a toilet?

The B-2 actually has a bed, a toilet, and a microwave aboard so creature comforts are covered for pilots who need a break. But these features come with a price. The B-2 is the most expensive bomber in history. $929 Million per aircraft.

Is the B-2 hard to fly?

— Flying missions in the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber can be grueling. Most missions last well over a day, and some pilots regularly top 35, sometimes 40 hours cooped up in the cockpit as they fly around the world. To get that done, B-2 wings require more than pilots.

Can B-2 bomber be detected?

The B-2 has two major defenses against radar detection. The first element is the plane's radar-absorbent surface. The radio waves used in radar are electromagnetic energy, just like light waves.

Do B-52 bombers have bathrooms?

The B-52 has a toilet, but it's comically bare bones. The C-17 has a commercial aircraft style lavatory. The B-1 Bomber and B-2 bombers both have toilets likely similar to the B-52′s bare bones style.

What is the most advanced bomber in the world?

"The B-21 is carefully designed to be the most maintainable bomber ever built." As a dual-capable penetrating strike stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider is capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions.

Where does US keep B-2 bombers?

The B-2 bomber fleet has remained stationed at Whiteman AFB since Dec. 17, 1993. It has the capability of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions.

Can the B-2 carry cruise missiles?

The B-2 has for decades been the only bomber class in the world without a cruise missile strike capability, which is at the core of the utility of such aircraft in the three fleets which operate them - those of China, the United States and Russia.

Why is the B-2 bomber so expensive?

Because the B-2 bomber is worth its weight in gold and does its job more cost effectively than its other 3rd-Gen counterparts such as the B-1B Lancer or F-15C, by utilizing stealth aerodynamics and advanced avionics which cost more to build. How long is the B-52 expected to remain in service?

What plane can drop a nuke?

Deployed tactical nuclear weapons are now restricted to various modifications to the B-61 gravity, or free-fall, bomb. US aircraft capable of delivering this weapon are the A-4, A-6, A-7, AV-8B, F-4, F-15, F-16, F-18, F-111, and presumably the F-117 stealth fighter.

Why can't the B2 bomber fly in rain?

The report said that the skin of the plane cannot handle the heat or the damp or the rain. That skin, made of thermoplastics and composites transparent to radar, is supposed to help give the bomber its much-touted radar-evading ''stealthy'' qualities.

How long does it take to become a B-2 pilot?

B-2 pilot training, once administered by flight-test and contractor pilots, now is carried out by USAF instructor pilots at Whiteman. “The training program is about six months [long], which is typical of bombers,” reported Col. James F. Whitney, Jr., chief of the 509th Formal Training Unit.

Does the B-2 have a bed?

B-2: Pilots and Future

Despite flying more than 40-hour missions, pilots have no bed and no refrigerator, just two seats in a small cockpit and a small area behind them about the same width as the seat.

How long can a B-2 stay in the air?

4 – Beast Mode: Longest Aerial Combat Mission in History

The aircraft's performance is even more impressive in that the B-2 made a quick pit stop for a 45-minute crew and service change with engines still running. It then flew back to Missouri for another 30-hour flight for a total of more than 70 consecutive hours.

What is the B-2 motto?

No other aircraft on the planet can do what the B-2 can do. The motto here at Whiteman is "anytime, anywhere." That speaks to the stealth aircraft's ability to fly anywhere in the world from the security of sleepy mid-Missouri and destroy anything it targets, no matter how well protected.

What is the scariest fighter plane?

What is better than the b2 bomber?

The B-21 Raider boasts literally decades' worth of advancement in its approach to stealth, onboard avionics, and material sciences as compared to the B-2.