The Air Force has confirmed that a B-2 nuclear bomber caught fire after an emergency landing at the stealth aircraft’s home base of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Saturday. “A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit experienced an in-flight malfunction during routine operations today and was damaged on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base after it successfully completed an emergency landing,” the Air Force said in a statement to The Drive. “There were no personnel injuries. There was a fire associated with the aircraft after landing, and the base fire department extinguished the fire. The incident is under investigation.” Social media posts suggested the aircraft went off the runway and may have had landing gear problems.
The mishap occurred a week after the rollout of the B-21 Raider that will become the Air Force’s main nuclear strike aircraft and also during a high tempo operational period for the Spirit bombers. The Air Force has apparently been flying all available B-2s intensively in exercises based at Whiteman. A couple of weeks ago, the Air Force released a picture of a rare “elephant walk” of eight B-2s taxiing on the runway at the base.
“Successfully completed an emergency landing.” That contradicts the headline, “B2 Damaged In Emergency Landing,” especially if the report of a gear problem, or running off the runway proves to be true.
I generally understand “successful emergency landing” to mean the plane reached the runway under control and all occupants evacuated alive. It may or may not mean it stopped on the runway without damage.
Yeah, perfection is the enemy of the good. Sounds like a success to me. The nature of the aircraft involved means we likely will never know.
500 Million dollars plus riding on one plane. Too big an Egg. The USAF should avoid putting some many dollars on a single plane. With the adversary they have today money will have to be spent wisely.
Maybe Congress should have bought the original quantity instead of just 15% of the original fleet.
Individual Cost = Program Cost/Number of Units
100% Congresses fault, 0% Air Forces fault
A bit of research on the programs history might be in order before spewing.
I wouldn’t go 0% on Air Force. The generals may all be products of their environment, but they have responsibilities which I think they often dodge. It’s not like they couldn’t raise up and call BS on the procurement problems.
Completely correct. your second post Mr.”.”.