I found this photo in my archives and wanted to share it here. Little that I have done in my career in aerospace has made me prouder than to have been on the team that produced this magnificent aircraft.
I found this photo in my archives and wanted to share it here. Little that I have done in my career in aerospace has made me prouder than to have been on the team that produced this magnificent aircraft.
Outstanding! It’s always rewarding to have had some participation in a meaningful project, and that certainly is a grand result.
There were only 21 of the originally contracted 76 of B2 Spirit aircraft built. If your state didn’t have one of the spirit series named after it, then you have Bill Clinton to thank. The Clintons thought that defending America was ‘too expensive’ so the program was canceled. Neither Bill nor Hillary get the message that “Freedom costs a buck-o-five.”
Here are the Spirits in order of production:
Spirit of AMERICA
Spirit of ARIZONA
Spirit of NEW YORK
Spirit of INDIANA
Spirit of OHIO
Spirit of MISSISSIPPI
Spirit of TEXAS
Spirit of MISSOURI
Spirit of CALIFORNIA
Spirit of SOUTH CAROLINA
Spirit of WASHINGTON
Spirit of KANSAS
Spirit of NEBRASKA
Spirit of GEORGIA
Spirit of ALASKA
Spirit of HAWAII
Spirit of FLORIDA
Spirit of OKLAHOMA
Spirit of KITTY HAWK (North Carolina, I presume)
Spirit of PENNSYLVANIA
Spirit of LOUISIANA
I don’t consider the B-2 a defense weapon. It’s a strike bomber and the wars USA et al currently fight, are against technologically inferior enemies where the first strikes obliterated most of the radar facilities. There’s no practical use for the B-2 there and the Clintons realized that. The B-2 is one of those projects the weapon industry and military create to milk government funding’s when they (the money) could/should have been spent elsewhere, e.g. in health care (another milking project is the missile shield).
On the other hand. There’s a risk that the brute Putin (the election hasn’t changed anything) rule may shift the enemy pattern, thus making the B-2 relevant again. Lets not hope so; the lo-tech Arabs are more than enough.