B-2 Spirit "Stealth Bomber"
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If you think the
shape of the B-2 is very futuristic, you're mistaken.
The manufacturer, Northrop, had been experimenting with so-called "flying
wing" designs since the 1930s, mostly because the owner of the company,
the legendary John Northrop, was fascinated by them.
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In fact Northrop
had already produced two flying wing bombers long before the B-2.
The B-35, pictured above, was a propeller driven flying wing with a range
of 7500 miles - even greater than the B-2! It first flew in
June of 1946, less than a year after the end of World War Two.
A later jet propelled variant, the B-49, overcame some of the difficulties
associated with the B-35's eight contra-rotating propellers, but had less
range.
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Unfortunately, the
B-35 and B-49 both lacked the B-2's sophisticated onboard stabilization
system made possible by digital computers, making it difficult to set up
a straight and level bombing run. In addition, it was almost
impossible to fit the early bulky atomic bombs into the aircraft's bomb
bays.
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However the final
straw was some extraordinary maneuvouring hatched by a high-ranking Air
Force officer, who wanted Northrop to merge his company with Convair.
Northrop refused, and the Air Force ordered that the dozen of so B-49s
which had been delivered be summarily and unceremoniously destroyed, ending
Northrop's dreams of a flying wing bomber. However, one remnant
of his early work remains - the one third scale N9M flying wing which was
first flown near the end of world war two, and has since been restored
and put back
in the air during the annual Chino airshow in California.
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Devastated and fearful
of a continuing vendetta against the company he'd founded, he departed
and divested himself of all his ownership interests in it.
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So it's absolutely
no accident that the B-2 shares the B-35's wingspan of exactly 172 feet!
The Northrop engineers wanted to pay homage to the man who had first shown
the practicality of the design.
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Shortly before the
B-2 made its debut in 1988, Jack Northrop was given a private viewing of
the new aircraft, which was the fulfilment of his ideas.
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Surprisingly, for
such a technologically sophisticated aircraft, the B-2 was made public
seven or eight months before its first flight in July of 1989.
This is in contrast to the F-117 "stealth fighter" which was delivered
in 1982 but wasn't displayed publicly until April 1990 (the F-117 had been
officially announced in November of 1988, the same month that the far more
sophisticated B-2 was displayed).
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