| B-2
Spirit at the 2005 Edwards AFB Airshow |
| It was disappointing
when we heard over the radio scanner on Saturday that the B-2 Spirit display
had been cancelled because of mechanical problems, especially since I'd
heard that the Edwards show is one of the very few places where it's possible
to see the B-2 banking at close range. To be honest, we'd been
hearing its engines behind us for quite some time and we could see people
working on it, so it didn't come as a total surprise when the cancellation
came through. However, shortly afterwards there was the B-2
taxying out for its performance, and it turns out that the only problem
had been a broken motor shaft for the crew entry ladder! In
this photo, not only can you see the "stealth bomber", but on the other
side of the field in the static display area you can see the F-117 "stealth
fighter", which really should be the A-117 "stealth strike plane", especially
now that a true stealth fighter in the form of the F-22 Raptor is in service. |
 |
| Here's the extraordinary
beast on its takeoff run; with no vertical tail it looks completely other-worldly,
but it actually flies much like any other more conventional aircraft.
This one is called "The Spirit of New York", and is based here at Edwards
rather than at Whiteman air force base in Missouri, which is the only operational
base for them in the continental United States. You can see
that they've put the Edwards "ED" tail code on the landing gear door, since
there's no tail to put it on! |
 |
| The
unusual scoops on top of the engine pods are auxiliary air intakes which
are needed to get extra air flow into the engines at low speeds.
They're rather similar to the auxiliary intakes on top of Russian fighters,
but the purpose is different, the Russians using theirs to reduce the probability
of damage from ingesting foreign objects on the runway during takeoff.
This particular aircraft is the only flight test B-2, and it's unusual
in another way, too - the stenciling on the undercarriage doors was screwed
up and so the letters lean the opposite way to all other B-2s. |
 |
| With
no tail the stealth bomber relies on the control surfaces along the rear
of the wing to minimize side-to-side yawing motion; you can see one of
those control surfaces deployed here. During a mission these
control surfaces would make the aircraft more visible to radar, so it's
thought that yaw is then eliminated by the onboard computer systems applying
differing thrusts from the engines on either side. The funny
looking "beaver tail" at the tail end of the aircraft is called the GLAS
or "gust load alleviation surface", an on-board computer uses it to smooth
out the ride when sensors at the front of the plane detect vertical gusts. |
 |
| The
four non-afterburning engines are buried within the wing. Apart
from everything else, this makes the aircraft very quiet, it just whispers
past you even at low altitude. |
 |
 |
The B-2 might look
futuristic, but the basic design isn't new at all, the same manufacturer
Northrop did two very similar designs just after world war two, the propeller
driven B-35 shown on the left and the jet driven B-49 on the right. |
|
|
| The B-35 and B-49
never entered service, but they did provide the inspiration for the B-2,
which has exactly the same 172 foot wingspan as its predecessors. |
|
| As I mentioned,
Edwards is just about the only airshow in the world where you'll actually
see a B-2 doing a banking pass at a public display. The air
force's preference for very tame demonstrations is largely due to the high
cost of each aircraft - somewhere between $2.2 and $2.4 billion apiece,
making it by far the most expensive plane in the world. This
price tag is primarily due to the small number built, only 21 rather than
the 132 which were originally planned. It's fortunate that
any entered service at all, the cost of the programme and the reduced need
for it in a post cold war era could have meant that it never got into operation
- where would we aviation enthusiasts have been if that had happened!
Still, it's sobering to think that this plane is actually worth about twice
its weight in gold, a pretty penny if ever there was one! |
 |
| In this closeup
view you can see an auxiliary inlet below and just in front of each of
the engine inlets which removes the turbulent boundary layer air flow before
it enters the engine. The removed air is then remixed with
the exhaust gases to reduce the temperature signature from the engines
and so decrease the stealth bomber's visibility to infra-red tracking equipment. |
 |
| That
large windshield just begs to have a Hawaiian hula dancer doll rocking
around behind it! As you can imagine, the downward view is
not good, but a sophisticated radar system makes up for that.
The windows are very large, which makes the aircraft appear somewhat smaller
than it actually is. A metal mesh is built into the windows
to decrease radar penetration, similar to the mesh in a domestic microwave
oven which serves a similar purpose - preventing electromagnetic radiation
from escaping. |
 |
The previous banking shots were taken from the crowd side, but this one
was taken from the south side of Edwards, as were all of the runway shots.
The dark spot to the left of the cabin is a glass port for the astro-inertial
navigation system, which locks onto stars to determine location.
At high altitude this system works even in daytime, and is similar to a
system which was used on the SR-71 Blackbird. All B-2s now
incorporate GPS receivers to make naviation even more precise, but the
astro-navigation system is retained because it can't be jammed.
The "D" shape on the cabin roof behind the cockpit houses the aerial-refuelling
receptacle, which gives the B-2 a range limited only by the endurance of
its crew. |
Here's something else you won't see at a regular B-2 display - a pass with
the two bomb bay doors open. You can just make out the zig-zag
panels at the front and rear of the doors which bounce radar energy away.
Still, with the doors open the plane is more visible on radar, so the bombing
systems are designed to minimize the amount of time they stay like this.
This shot also shows one of the bright red navigation beacons lit up under
the wing, allowing the aircraft to operate safely in regular airspace;
in combat these beacons are withdrawn to make the plane stealthier. |
| The B-2 was first
used in combat in March of 1999 over Serbia, and was later deployed during
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. On some of these missions
the B-2 left Missouri, bombed the target, flew to the US base on the small
island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and then a new crew was put
on board to immediately fly a return mission back to Missouri. |
 |
The old and the new flying together during the mass flyby at the end of
the show, a 1990s B-2 Spirit with a 1950s B-52 Stratofortress.
Despite its unrivalled ability to penetrate heavily monitored and defended
airspace, the B-2 is actually inferior to the B-52 in a number of ways,
especially in its bomb carrying ability - the B-2 can only take 40,000
pounds (18 tonnes) of weapons compared to the B-52's 70,000 pounds (32
tonnes).
However, the Spirit has excellent range - 6500 miles (12000 kilometers)
without refuelling, and it was sometimes flown on round trip bombing missions
over Iraq from Missouri. These missions took over 30 hours,
and apparently one flight of 50 hours was done, which certainly would have
required in-flight refuelling. There are only two crew members
and not many amenities on board, though apparently a chemical toilet and
roll-up mattress are usually taken, and there are even reports of fold-up
deck chairs being carried. |
| This pass with lowered
undercarriage is another thing you won't see at other public airshows. |
 |
| Flying wings are
very efficient aerodynamically, with much less drag than ordinary aircraft.
The B-2 likes to get into the air and is a little reluctant to come down,
so the crews actually put some effort into forcing the plane on a downward
trajectory when landing, much like naval aviators flying onto aircraft
carriers. |
 |
| This angle shows
off the unusual air intakes, which are mounted far back on top of the wing
and have an unusual angled shape, all in order to reduce the radar cross
section of the plane. Jet turbine compressor blades have a
nasty tendency to "twinkle" on radar screens as they spin, so the air duct
is "S" shaped so the blades aren't visible from any angle.
On the F-117 Nighthawk the compressor blades are hidden by metal mesh at
the front of the intakes, but this isn't an ideal solution since it impedes
the airflow. |
 |
| There is no drag
chute, but one of the B-2's design criteria was the ability to operate
from any airfield useable by a 727 airliner, so the rudders are used as
air brakes to slow the aircraft down. This design feature was
also used on Northrop's earlier flying wing bombers, and it's referred
to as a "rudderon" or "deceleron" because the same panels which are deflected
apart to decelerate the plane are also moved in tandem to act as rudders
or ailerons. |
 |
Check
out the Highlights of the 2005 Edwards
AFB Air Show, the F-22 Raptor display at
the 2005 Edwards AFB Air Show, or the F-117
Nighthawk display at the 2002 Royal International Air Tattoo.
|
