How do b2 pilots sleep?

Behind the two seats is a 6-foot flat space where pilots can set up a cot to sleep. Many just sleep on the floor.

Does 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 do B-2 pilots go to the bathroom?

Piddle packs contain absorbent material that soaks up liquid in the same way a nappy does. The urine becomes a gel-like substance and can be sealed in the piddle pack and hidden somewhere safe for the rest of the flight.

Does B-2 have sleeping quarters?

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 undetectable?

The B-2's low-observable, or "stealth", characteristics enable the undetected penetration of sophisticated anti-aircraft defenses and to attack even heavily defended targets.

Here's How B-2 Bomber Pilots Pull Off Grueling 33-Hour Flights

Can a B-2 be tracked on radar?

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.

Is it rare to see a b2 stealth bomber?

The sight of a B-2 bomber is a rare one—not just because of its stealth operation, but also because the military only has 20 in operation.

How hard is the B-2 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 the b2 bomber fly in the rain?

It ''must be sheltered or exposed only to the most benign environments -- low humidity, no precipitation, moderate temperatures,'' said the report by the General Accounting Office. The report said that the skin of the plane cannot handle the heat or the damp or the rain.

Where do B-2 pilots sleep?

Behind the two seats is a 6-foot flat space where pilots can set up a cot to sleep. Many just sleep on the floor.

Why do pilots dump fuel before landing?

The most common reason for aircraft to dump fuel is to keep them from landing above their maximum permitted weight. This will generally occur in instances when a flight needs to return to the airport shortly after departure.

Why is B-2 bomber so expensive?

If converted into gold, the B-2 bomber is three times more expensive than the same weight of gold. So why is the B-2 bomber so expensive? For two reasons, the first high-technology things which are integrated in this aircraft, which resulting in high R&D costs. Many of the aircraft technologies are very innovative.

Have b2s been used in combat?

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the B-2 has been used to drop non-nuclear bombs. Its first overseas deployment, to Guam, was in 1998, and it made its combat debut during the Kosovo War in 1999, and has since flown sorties in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.

Are B-2 bombers loud?

As with most planes, the B-2's noisiest component is its engine system. But unlike a passenger jet or B-52, the B-2's engines are buried inside the plane. This helps muffle the noise. The efficient aerodynamic design helps keep the B-2 quiet as well, because the engines can operate at lower power settings.

How much does a b2 bomber cost per hour?

A B-2 stealth bomber. One might think the B-52H Stratofortress, sixty years old and counting, would be the most expensive bomber to fly, but the GAO states it only costs $88,354 an hour.

How much can a B-2 carry?

The B-2, for instance, can carry 80 Mk. 82 500-pound bombs, almost as many as the B-1B's capacity of 84. The B-2 will also be able to carry a monster 4,700-pound “deep penetrator” to destroy deeply buried command-and-control bunkers and next year will be certified with the Joint Stand Off Weapon.

Has a b2 bomber ever crashed?

Air Force Finally Clears Crashed B-2 from Runway Amid Ongoing Safety Investigation | Military.com.

How long can a B-2 fly without refueling?

The B-2 can travel 6,000 nautical miles without refueling and 10,000 nautical miles with only one refueling. It can reach any point in the world within hours.

Can the B-2 go supersonic?

The bomber is flown by a crew of two, the pilot and the mission commander. Power is provided by four turbofan engines. In order to reduce infrared emissions and extend combat radius, there are no afterburners providing supersonic capability.

How often do B-2 pilots fly?

The answer is, about 50 times a year for each of the 20 B-2s in the Air Force inventory, for a total of 1,000 missions annually. That includes routine training flights (both long- and short-duration) and official exercises.

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.

What is the hardest airspace to fly in?

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. “Fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft,” Lloyd Austin said.

How many nukes can a B-2 carry?

The B-2 can carry up to sixteen B-61 or megaton-yield B-83 nuclear gravity bombs on the rotary launchers inside its two bomb bays.

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.