20 years later the future of Airpower is still here

 

 Palmdale Ca. July 17th. The twentieth anniversary of the first flight of the B-2 stealth bomber. On hand was former chief test pilot Bruce Hinds recalling that first flight experience. It was about 104 degrees out that morning not unlike back then, while taxing out, He remarked “the plane was sinking into the hot asphalt”. Powering up heading down the runway for that first flight, thousands of on-lookers were holding their collective breath willing the craft to fly. It rolled down Runway 25 took off, "and - silence," he said. “With all the hours of simulation there is a lot of chatter Typically on a test mission, the pilots hear plenty of chatter coming from the control room, he said, but this time was quiet, because the automatic switch that operated the aircraft's antennas was off. After manually switching it on, chatter resumed”. He still had his doubts that at a tailless plane could maintain control, but fly it did for over two hours and touching down at nearby Edwards AFB.

 

 Stephanie Edwards of the KTLA channel 5 Rose Parade commented on all the e-mails they received this past January from viewers who thought they had pre-empted the annual fly over of the B-2 "what have you got against the military?" when in fact it was twenty minutes late due to the abnormally freezing temperatures that morning in Palmdale. "They were looking for this," she said. "These magnificent birds are our silent friends in the air."

"As always is the case when this plane flies over us, (co-host) Bob Edwards and I are silent - which is a miracle - and the people stand as one organism and is silent and we stand in awe and in tears," she said. "We are terribly moved by the 20-year history of this magnificent work."

 

Hundreds of the men and women that work on the B-2 program were on hand for the ceremony in unison wearing the anniversary T-shirts were like a family. Some have stayed with the program since the beginning. In front of them was the spirit of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Louisiana the newest member of the fleet. The on-lookers got a special treat; the Spirit o New York made a couple of low level passes over the complex heading out to a training mission.

 

Also at the ceremony was the B-2 Stealth Bike, the B-2 themed motorcycle that was featured on the 2009 season premiere of the reality cable TV series "American Chopper."

 

The B-2 Spirit is the most powerful airborne weapon system the world has ever known. The modifications continue at Plant 42 with the dedicated men and women of Northrop Grumman making it the leader for decades to come.

 

The B-2 fleet, the 509th Bomb Wing, a part of Air Force's Air Combat Command, flies and maintains the fleet from its home at Whiteman AFB, Mo.

 

On a personal note having been their twenty years ago myself watching the first flight -today I’m still in awe of this aircraft and it’s capabilities of flight.  Jack Northrop’s’ dream did come true and is still going strong. Although the flying wing concept was not new in 1989 the computing power for flight controls and the technology of stealth was at the forefront in making the world’s most advanced aircraft.