Yikes!!! At $1.2 billion dollars each, that's like losing 1/4 of a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier. FOXNews.com - B-2 Bomber Crashes on Guam; Pilots Safe - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News Thankfully the pilots are safe. :mellow:
bound to happen sooner or later....i guess the real question is... has there ever been an aircraft of any kind that has never crashed?(not counting testing or being shot down) i know we had some pretty sophisticated aircraft with remarkable reliability out there. i would have to check on it, but what about the SR-71 Blackbird?
Quite a few more than that. About a third of them have been lost to crashes. I was stunned when I read the statistics.
so was i. those things cost a bundle too... in fact, probably pretty close to the same amount of money
The cost in 1966 was estimated at $34,000,000.00 USD. Adjusted for inflation that would be around $250,000,000.00-$300,000,000.00 USD today. It cost between $150-$250 million per year to maintain them. The B2 costs between $800 million or as much as $2.5 billion, depending on who you ask. There were 21 B-2s. Now there are 20 about a 5% reduction. In terms of money, that's equivalent to 20 F-15s, 24 F-16s or 10 F-22s. This aircraft was designed in the 80's and is already nearing it's 20th birthday, first flight 07-17-1989 and has flown missions over 50 hours. Wildkow p.s. The cost for a pilot? Priceless, thank goodness they are ok. :usa2:
Gbee42, if there is a cause identified, I don't think we will be the first to learn of it. I did read that the B2 fleet is going to take a week off at least, which is perhaps something less drastic than a stand-down. So, do such aircraft have black boxes? (flight data recorders)
