Originally posted by racerzeke
Supposedly out of Andersen AFB... Both pilots ejected and little detail. Bye bye 2 billion dollars

Big deal about the bomber. The main thing is the crew escaped with no injuries.

I agree with you there. Just curious is this the first B-2 ever lost? And CNN just said it was during take off and they have video of smoke, just did a quick 15 second update.

*splat*

Did you hear that? That was the sound of the fecal matter meeting the fan with regards to military budgeting. The crash is not a tragedy since the crew got out fine, but this is a lot of money that just went boom. If it were an F-15 or an F-16 nobody would be all that worried, but a B-2 is a serious loss. There's probably going to be an inquiry, and if there is a common fault in the aircraft there's going to be some serious problems with the way money is spent.

Big deal about the b2....that's a 1.2 billion dollar piece of machinery son, and prior post said one went down at Anderson earlier today, this does not bode well.

aye first B2 lost at Aderson AFB in Guam - since they cut the numbers so much - they can`t be replaced so now theres 20.


hopefully Mr Gates will get his **** out of the F35 and see what buying only a handful of a type when more are needed and actually order more F22.

No matter how you look at it the B-2 has one HELL of a safety record. 21 airframes, repeatedly flying 44+ hour missions, flying since 1989 and this is the first crash. Almost 20 years of flight without a single accident. Thank god the crew was able to eject.

Originally posted by jerico65

Originally posted by racerzeke
Supposedly out of Andersen AFB... Both pilots ejected and little detail. Bye bye 2 billion dollars

Big deal about the bomber. The main thing is the crew escaped with no injuries.

Lol.. big deal? You realize the B-2 Bomber is the single most expensive airplane in existence?

Unless you include the Space Shuttle as an airplane, I don't.

I recall hearing a price tag upward of a billion dollars, two billion dollars per bomber? Lol, I saw this headline on CNN and had a great laugh about it, I bet the Air Force is turning in their beds right now having nightmares about this. You don't crash the most expensive plane on Earth!

And considering the F-117 Stealth "Fighter" wing, which is also a bomber of a smaller, more precise scale, is on executive order from the highest ups only, like the President or the Secretary of Defense, I can only wonder what kind of tight wraps the B-2's are under. Considering you can buy at least a full squadron of Stealth Fighter Bombers, with full trained pilots for each, for the pricetag of a single B-2 bomber, I can only begin to imagine what sorts of .. executive orders that plane is under.

In fact, why were they flying it to begin with? "Training mission?" I don't think they really let you train in those things .. I mean, you go up with a qualified expert flying instructor for that craft, and you take the secondary, subordinate, backseat driver role, as he superior chooses when to allow your controls to activate and allow you to attempt the maneuvers, or perhaps theyre always active and its just the discipline factor, "dont touch crap til i tell yah private, this thing cost over a billion dollars, you got that?!!!"

Undoubtably one of the biggest losses financially of a military craft malfunction and crash. I bet the crash site was swarming with special ops, securing every single crumb of debris .. "top secret tech mang!"

[edit on 2/23/2008 by runetang]

You HAVE to train. I don't care what kind of plane you are flying. If you don't train, you die when you go into combat. ALL planes in the military are under "executive orders". They only go attack someone when the President orders them to. It's up to the military to decide WHAT units they use, whether they be F-117, B-2, F-22, F-15 or what. They fly B-2s all the time, and have been for almost 20 years counting the test flights. They were doing 24 hour operations during Iraqi Freedom, and over Serbia in the 90s.

In fact, why were they flying it to begin with? "Training mission?" I don't think they really let you train in those things

What? You think the first time you get to fly a B-2 is when you are going to war in it?

if it was pilot error i will bet you that he will NEVER fly again

airplane failure is a real possibilty 0 hmmm since its been flying 44+ hour missions , could the airframe be worn out?

I don't think it's worn out, but I can see a maintenance failure, or something that looked to be ok, but failed under stress.

From reading the articles, I'm gonna have to go with Gohomeitis as the cause of the crash. They were leaving on their last flight from Guam, in a cell of 4, after a 4 month deployment. Someone slipped up and was thinking about being home again, and missed something (just my opinion so far), and we lost the bird.

2 very very good things that came out of this for the USAF:

1. Crash was over secure American territory.
   
2. Pilots survived.
   

Apart from the fact that the thing crashed, this could have been the best possible way to lose the plane.

I can imagine if it happened some where over international waters, or worse yet.. over deserted islands in no man's land.
If any 'curious' parties had a whiff of the crash before US damage control teams had arrived on site, wow.. it would've been a B grade Tom Clancy thriller in motion!

The B-2 doesn't use antigravity. It happened because it's an airplane made and flown by people. Accidents happen.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
The B-2 doesn't use antigravity. It happened because it's an airplane made and flown by people. Accidents happen.

I have seen myself the B-2 in this mode.
On each wing I saw 2 green plasma coronas.
After hanging in the air for 2 minutes it disappeared within 5 seconds behind the horizon, without making sound.