Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

Something I found. Thought i'd share it with you guys.

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From where do you get these sattillite images man, their super!

Try the keyword "terraserver". This picture has been sitting on my computer for a long time can't seem to remember where I got it.

awesome...

Is this the reason the USAF won't put any on static display at an airshow? I heard somewhere that they don't want anyone to know where the jets are for certain, other than being based at Whiteman. Can anyone confirm this?

The B-2 isn't seen anywhere that the DoD hasn't approved of, if you catch my meanin'. I'm unaware a such a "no static display" policy but I can only speculate that the restriction is a product of a post-9/11 posture. A parked B-2 at a public event would be one inviting target. It'd be a HUGE PR coup for a terror group to claim credit for damaging or, God forbid, destroying a US national asset right in our own backyard and also taking out a few thousand infidels for good measure. Evil or Very Mad

Link, thanks for the reply! I don't know why I hadn't though of that!!! I know how many vendors' trucks and such are on the ramp at an airshow, and it would only take one... I remember an incident back a few years at Miramar where a driver in a box truck thought he could make it UNDER the wing on a Bone. Turns out he didn't have enough clearance and the rivets left some REALLY nasty scratches on the bottom Shocked

and a team had to be dispatched to make sure the jet was still structurally sound Evil or Very Mad

. I'd hate to imagine what a truck like that, traveling at a good clip with or without explosives could do to a B-2! That much jet fuel and all composite construction would certainly make a mess! I don't blame anyone for not wanting these on the ground anywhere they're not COMPLETELY secure, especially with that price tag!!!

Well I think any static jet is defueled before the show but yeah....just the structural damage from a collision like that, especially on a B-2, would be a huge and expensive PITA! When I saw the "Spirit of Arizona" at the Tucson Aviation Days show in '98 the jet had a 75-foot cordon area and armed guards were posted at a very minimum.

Link, I've heard it the other way around - that the jets are topped off with fuel so that water doesn't condense in the tanks overnight. That's the reason a BUFF navigator gave me for fuel venting overboard on the tarmac - they filled the tanks in the evening and the fuel expanded in the heat of the day and vented overboard. Any ideas as to how we got these two different notions?

So you got to see a B-2 on the ground, huh? Very cool Cool

! I'm surprised there weren't soldiers in machine gun equipped Hummers! You're really lucky! I just hope I never see this type of incident on the evening news!

I got to be up close and almost personal with the “Spirit of Arizona” at Davis Monthan AFB Tucson, Arizona in 2000. With a fly over from another, can't remember which one off the top of my head Doh

but will dig out my pic's and see if I can catch the name. Talk about an awesome looking bird.

Correction: it was 1998, March 20,1998 for the Naming Ceremony.

I saw a B-2 do a flyover at an airshow at Pease ANGB in 2000, that was impressive, he a couple of passes and banked the wings generating a lot of "Ohhhs" and "Ahhs". Pease used to house the 509th when Pease was active back in the day, so it was the least the big-wigs could do to let a B-2 flyover for a look-see. Applause

And as well as the aformentioned security concerns with B-2's on static displays, there are only 21 of them, and I imagine that because of training and TDY assignments the Air Force doesnt have the time for one to be on display for a few days.

Country wrote:

Correction: it was 1998, March 20,1998 for the Naming Ceremony.

Yeah....I was at that same event! Got to shake hands with Gen Dick Hawley. I think he was CC/ACC at the time. The flyover was done by Spirit of Missouri, IIRC.

That was what I thought, but I wanted to make sure, I hate having to correct something when I'm wrong.
Thank you. Thanks

That was something to see.

About five years ago both the B-2 and an F-117 were present at the national capital airshow here in Ottawa Canada. I saw the B-2 do a flyover, it wasnt on static display Sad

The F-117 was though and yes there were lots of armed guards posted around it. They looked like a SWAT team or something it was kinda wierd.

Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

B-2 at Whiteman