$2 Billion Each - A Deep Dive Into the Incredible Engineering That Culminated the B-2 Stealth Bomber

Discover the origins of the flying wing, from John W. Dunne's early 1900s designs to today's space-age marvels. Explore how stability and innovation revolutionized aviation in this fascinating deep dive!

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[modular]

My Uncle was an Air Force General involved in the B-2 acquisition program. The reason why they cost 2 Billion a piece is this: Originally the Air Force went to Northrop and said "we want you to build us a stealth bomber. We'll order 100 of them and pay 500 million a piece for them." Northrop spent over a decade designing, building and testing the B-2 and when they were ready to start building the 100 aircraft the Air Force changed its mind and said "We only want 20". Northrop had to recoup all of the money they had spent over the previous decade so to do this they raised the price of each one from 500 million to 2 Billion. It was a smoke and mirrors thing. Congress wanted to cut the budget so the Air Force said "we'll only order 20". Even though they would still be spending 90% of what they originally planed on spending on the 100 it was still 10% less and on paper going from 100 to 20 looks like a big cut so congress was satisfied. That's the government for you.

[loopymind]

So with that price tag, it should be called the 2B

[Doomrider]

You missed one of my favorite heartwarming stories. Northrop lived long enough to see and hold the design model. He couldn't speak due to illness, so he wrote "Now I know why God kept me alive all these years."

[nagjrcjasonbower]

I’m a Commercially Licensed Pilot… YOU GOT WASHOUT RIGHT!!! WELL DONE!

[gwick]

Former USAF SAC member here. I love the FB 111. One of the coolest fighter/bombers ever made.

[John-gxh]

I see B2s once in a while. I was mowing the yard one day when I thought I heard a motorcycle starting up right behind me. I looked around and saw a B2 making a turn in low level flight over a field. Surprised me how loud, (and how close) it was.

[jamesleatherwood]

The fact that these aircraft leave from the center of the continental U.S. and hit targets anywhere in the world before returning to the center of the continental U.S. is absolutely insane!

[SuLokify]

Damn, it's wild that those spies weren't exposed by the polygraph tests. Did the administrator forget to cross check them with their star signs?

[joppekoers]

Please Simon for the love of god hire a sound engineer, the only thing keeping my ears from bleeding is your beautiful buttery smooth voice

[wavion]

I love these. The B-2's and the SR-71 are my favorites. At big Chiefs games they often do flyovers with 3 of these at the end of the anthem. I still get delighted like a little boy.

[shandon]

Literally looks exacly like what batman would fly

[eldoolittle]

For totally personal reasons, I need to push for a Jimmy Doolittle video. The Smithsonian has listed him alongside Earhart and Lindberg as one of the most important pioneers of flight.

[KM-rxop]

There are only two types of countries in this world. One who use metric, and one with stealth bombers.

[protatoplaysgames]

I'm a human pretending to be a bot pretending to be human.

[a.nonimus]

"D1 made only an 8 second flight, crashing into a wall; damaging the aircraft and slightly injuring the pilot... therefore it demonstrated it had stability"
Boy, those olden days folks sure had a weird way of gaging stability

[theswiv]

And famously piloted by John Travolta and Christian Slater in that mid 90s documentary

[rhubarb_runner]

I was able to walk around it at Edwards AFB the week after it flew its first flight - quite a thrill

[DeputatKaktus]

As you said: They rebuilt one of the Horten bombers as a mockup.

This was done at the literal Skunkworks. They put it on the pole and blasted it with the equivalent of WWII radar.
While not comparable to the performance of the B2 (the engine intakes lit up like the 4th of July), the reduction in the Horten’s overall radar cross section was sufficient to reduce advance warning times enough to make them a viable threat, had they been available in any numbers.

[Jayjay-qeum]

Meanwhile, the cost of the B-21 Raider was estimated at $700 million per aircraft. Air Force officials estimated that they would spend at least $203 billion over 30 years to develop, purchase, and operate a fleet of at least 100 B-21s.

[nagjrcjasonbower]

How many pounds (or kilos) of gold does $2B weigh?!!