B-2 Spirit. Made out of wood?

Originally posted by heelstone
Alien tech would not be wood based.

Yep, but US really doesnt have access to alien tech.
They did buy a German tank factory from Spain, but it cant build UFO:s, even though it is "alien"..

The stealth characteristics of of the B2's skin lie in the carbon-fiber material which is very non-reflective and the faceted nature of the construction (some one had stated prior that it took a very smooth surface, in fact, it takes a very faceted surface). The stealth comes from lack of reflection and lots of refraction.

If I had a car that cost 2 billion dollars....I'd park it in the garage.

Composites, that what it is made of (supposedly).

But i am still putting my money on the wood still..

It is possible to make a bomber out of wood. A famous example of this was the mosquito made in Canada during WWII.

But the B-2 is a bigger plane with a bigger payload and it flies higher and a lot faster.

Sorry but no wood can do.

I think that Lampy has a good point in that it is metal and ceramic whatever but the coating is designed to absorb the radio waves and may in itself be some kind of electrical circuit in itself. The effect may be an electrostatic charge which affects radar. This charge may also act slightly as a gravity disruptor also.

Now I'm guessing here but a lot of electrical power would be needed to do this and it probably has to do with the aircrafts airspeed eg. dyno of the turbines or other type of generator.

The Lancasters were made out of wood as well.

B2 has radar scramblers onboard.. :O
I cant remember where I read it tho.

I've actually seen an inflatable reconnaissance plane once, hehe....at an air show... Saw it again on an episode of Ripley's....

The B-2's are kept in special shelters because some of the RAM used is susceptable to the elements (rain, sand, light) and will degrade or fall off after a certain amount of exposure.

When this happens, technicians must re-apply the RAM and use other compounds to "fix" the spots where the RAM has fallen off. Some of the materials they use are sprayed on like paint. Others have the consistency of a stiff putty and are used to fill cracks, joints, or any other space where there are non-smooth surfaces.

Generally speaking, this procedure must be completed after every mission, hence the need for the portable body-shop.

Originally posted by Pyros
The B-2's are kept in special shelters because some of the RAM used is susceptable to the elements (rain, sand, light) and will degrade or fall off after a certain amount of exposure.

When this happens, technicians must re-apply the RAM and use other compounds to "fix" the spots where the RAM has fallen off. Some of the materials they use are sprayed on like paint. Others have the consistency of a stiff putty and are used to fill cracks, joints, or any other space where there are non-smooth surfaces.

Generally speaking, this procedure must be completed after every mission, hence the need for the portable body-shop.

I really do know this, but is it a good thing to make so sensitive war planes?

I think not.

Btw, Horten HO/GO-229 Flying wing Fighter Bomber had wooden structure, and it did fly 950Km/h.. (as fast or faster than B-2?) during ww2.

And the Moskito is Brittish design, it was just lincence build also in Canada.. and even USAAF used some of those as pathfinders.




This is Horten GO-229 flew in 1944.

In 1943, the Horten brothers started work on a twin-jet "flying wing" prototype, the Ho IX. This fighter-bomber was made to G�ring's general specification that all new aircraft should carry 1,000 kg of bombs, fly 1,000 km/h and have a "penetration depth" (one-third the total range) of 1,000 km. This "1,000/1,000/1,000" plane was to be made of wood, since it was lightweight and metal was in short supply. The wooden construction was supposed to have been covered in radar absorbing paint which would have rendered this plane virtually undetectable by radar.
In shape, the Go 229 was a pure wing with no tail or vertical control surfaces. Directional control was obtained by two brake flaps situated above and below each wingtip. The pilot achieved lateral and longitudinal control by moving outer and center-mounted surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing. For better visibility, the cockpit was located as far forward as possible. The centre section was thickened to house the cockpit and the two engines on either side of the cockpit. Two wooden main spars were skinned with plywood, and the wingtips and the central section were made of metal.

That from there -> httpd.chello.nl...

Very interesting. I see the wings have a fair degree of dihedral (about 6 or 7 degrees) which accouns for much of the plane's stability. I don't know how much dihedral the YB-35 and YB-49 had. I'll check.

Dihedral = degree by which wings' span angles up from horizontal.

[Edited on 19-9-2003 by Lampyridae]

from what I have heard I believe that the B2 is made from ceramic and titanium fiberplaster or something of the like. What makes the ship stealthy is:

--onboard computers that auto-guide AROUND radar waves.

--Special design that has internal welds and makes everything smooth with very little rough edges that radar picks up.

-- Internal exhaust filter so that there is no heat and smoke trails

And a fat lot of good it did the Germans too.

Wood???????
wood is cheaper then exotic metals, wood is a poor conductor of electromagetic waves(RADAR) since it does not block nor reflect radar waves, it acctually lets it pass through it allowing the EM waves to reflect off of internal components, which is even worse then the skin of the craft, so wood on a stealth aircraft exposed to the elements is a bad thing, and would not be used in the construction of the aircraft, on top of witch it would not drive up the cost of the aircraft since wood itself is very cheap compared to exotic metals. the reason why the B-2 is very expensive is because it did not reach its production run, the US originally planed to buy I think 126 B-2 aircraft, but a new government came to power so less then 20 was purchased, Northrop spent alot of money on R&D for the aircraft, and in order to recover it loses in the R&D spending, it adds it to the price of the aircraft. the B-2 wasn't a cheap aircraft in the firstplace but when the order was cut to 20, northrop drove up the cost of the aircraft, to prevent itself from going bankrupt, the same applies to the JSF program, if Lockheed dosen't get an order for 2000 aircraft then lockheed will jack the price per F-35 up to cover its debt

They had to develop 900 new materials for the B-2. Plus manufacturing techniques. No wonder it's so expensive. It's a white elephant, if you ask me, just like the B-1 and the Space Shuttle.

Originally posted by Lampyridae
They had to develop 900 new materials for the B-2. Plus manufacturing techniques.

No wonder it's so expensive. It's a white elephant, if you ask me, just like the B-1 and the Space Shuttle.

B-1 is a success when compared to these..

But anyhow.. the B-52 soldiers on..

I wouldnt call it a White Elephant. Its a capable aircraft that does the job well. It will be slugging on for quite a few years yet, so the cost isnt really relevant because its well spent.

Originally posted by WolfofWar

--onboard computers that auto-guide AROUND radar waves.

Im sorry, I dont understand this bit. Do you means the aircraft dodges them by manouvering around the radar, or do you mean the computer puts out some kind of "force field" that pushes the waves away from the A/C?

the computer picksup the radarwaves and than sets those figures around into a visuel picture of the battlefield with the radarpost on it and the reach of those. than the pilot can fly around the those radar post or if the overlap cross it where the radar signals are the weakest.

Originally posted by DeltaNine
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Im sorry, I dont understand this bit. Do you means the aircraft dodges them by manouvering around the radar, or do you mean the computer puts out some kind of "force field" that pushes the waves away from the A/C?

No I mean that the Computer system finds radar scanners and antennas on the ground looking for aircraft and manuever the plane so it avoids to radius of the radar completely. The biggest stealth aspect of the B2 is that it's computer can map out radar waves that are looking for planes and let the pilot swerve around them.

This my friends is called as RWR and ELINT.

Nothing special about them exept that these are (ELINT) in a attack craft..