The B-2 is built for penetration. It will be a while before a Soviet long-range is good enough to detect it.

On Stealthy Wings

BY JEFFREY P. RHODES AERONAUTICS EDITOR

HE Air Force has removed limited to 500 invited guests (includ- T some of the secrecy that had ing thirteen members of Congress), veiled the Northrop B-2 Stealth approximately 2,000 employees of bomber. In ceremonies at Palmdale, Northrop and its subcontractors Calif., on November 22, the rollout who work at Air Force Plant 42 of the B-2 gave the public its first (many of whom had not seen the look at the flying wing, which has completed ), and sixty rep- been in development for nearly ten resentatives from the media. Two years. hundred plant and Air Force securi- Air Force Secretary Edward C. ty guards, some tending police dogs Aldridge, Jr., one of the principal around the , were present. speakers at the ceremony, said that The ceremonies were beamed live the B-2 "represents a stabilizing via satellite TV to other Northrop and system in time of crisis and [is] an subcontractor plants, as well as to essential component of our strategic several Air Force organizations that nuclear force as we progress down have already played, or will play, a the path of nuclear arms reduc- part in the B-2's development. tions" and that the bomber "would Fifteenth Air Force band played promote deterrence." an original composition titled The Secretary explained that the "Stealth Fanfare" as the gray-and- aircraft will begin flying soon and black airplane was towed out of its that, since "we are not just going to hangar. Guests were kept almost fly [the B-2] at night or in remote lo- 200 feet away and were not allowed cations," the supersecret bomber to see the aft end of the B-2. The aft would have been seen anyway. An- end incorporates features that mask other, unspoken, reason for the roll- the plane's infrared (or heat) sig- out was to show Congress and the nature and help it avoid detection by public what they're getting for their enemy radar. money. Security was tight, as many de- Knowns and Unknowns tails about the program are still clas- "This aircraft combines all the sified. Attendance at the rollout was best attributes of a penetrating

AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1989 43 bomber—long range, efficient The B-2, which looks something Beams that do find the B-2 will be cruise, heavy payload, all-altitude like a manta ray, has a wingspan of absorbed by the aircraft's structure penetration capability, accurate de- approximately 172 feet. It is roughly of what is believed to be carbon livery, and reliability and maintain- sixty-nine feet long and seventeen fiber or other composite materials. ability," said Air Force Chief of feet high. "The airplane is not invisible," Staff Gen. Larry D. Welch, who The B-2's wingspan, interesting- noted Secretary Aldridge. "It's just was also one of the speakers at the ly, is the same as that of the Air that can't see it until it's at ceremony. "Added to that is the Force's first flying wings, the Nor- close range. And we don't antici- greatly enhanced effectiveness and throp XB-35 and YB-49. These air- pate the Soviets developing a [long- versatility provided by its Stealth craft, which first flew in 1946 and range radar] system in the near fu- characteristics." 1947, were regarded as ahead of ture that will be able to see it. The The B-2 will have a crew of only their time. Both encountered many B-2 has a very low [radar cross sec- two, but there are provisions for a problems in flight. Only a handful of tion] that will allow it to get to any third crew member if needed "for these planes was built, and both target it needs to." Those targets whatever reasons," said Secretary YB-49 prototypes eventually include mobile missiles and high- Aldridge. The cockpit is believed to crashed. The B-2 is longer (by six- value command and control cen- have flat-panel displays and is teen feet) than the earlier flying ters. thought to be controlled by fighter- wings. The airplane has an in-flight re- type sticks, rather than yokes or The B-2's four engines are Gener- fueling receptacle. The flying wing wheels. al Electric F118-GE-100s, nonafter- shape is very fuel-efficient, how- All weapons carriage will be inter- burning derivatives of the F110 used ever, so the B-2 will need less tanker

nal, with the stores attached to the in the Air Force's F-16 and the support than B-52s or B-lBs do. Ex- Boeing-built advanced applications Navy's F- 14A (Plus) and F- 14D air- perts have estimated the unrefueled rotary launcher. Elimination of ex- craft. The engine is in the 19,000- range of the B-2 at between 6,000 ternal carriage will greatly reduce pound-thrust class. The B-2 will be and 7,500 nautical miles. drag and will also improve the B-2's subsonic. The absence of a super- Although guests at the rollout ability to avoid radar detection. The sonic "footprint" will enhance its were prohibited from viewing the plane's primary payload will be nu- ability to slip into a target area un- B-2's aft end, Aviation Week maga- clear weapons (missiles and/or grav- noticed. zine enterprisingly obtained aerial ity bombs), but the B-2 will have a The B-2's main aids in avoiding photographs without the Air conventional capability. The weap- detection are its shape and the ma- Force's cooperation. These photos ons payload is classified, but is terials it is made of. Since the B-2 show the trailing edges of the saw- known to be less than the 134,000- has no sharp edges or vertical sur- toothed wing to be fitted with long pound designed payload of the faces exposed during flight, radar control surfaces that could act as B-1B. beams have nothing to bounce off. (elevator/ailerons) or flap- 44 AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1989 erons (flap/ailerons) for directional vanced Systems Co., LTV Aircraft ity. Crew chiefs and line mainte- and lift control. Products Group, and General Elec- nance troops were consulted about Asked if the plane made use of tric's Engine Group). access to components, and Air "fly-by-light," or fiber-optic control The other major subcontractors Force Logistics Command officials linkages, which are impervious to (Link Flight Simulation Corp., provided input on sustainability. electromagnetic interference, Sec- Hughes Radar Systems Group, and retary Aldridge replied with an em- Boeing Military Airplane Co.) and Eliminating Contrails phatic, "I'm not going to answer more than forty known subcontrac- The B-2 was originally conceived that." The B-2's huge main landing tors (see box, p. 46) were also in as a high-altitude bomber, and that gear doors may also function as an constant contact with Northrop. created the problem of eliminating empennage and provide some later- The network resulted in a ninety- contrails, which would give the air- al stability for the aircraft, especial- seven percent success rate for first- plane's position away to mankind's ly in crosswind takeoffs and land- time fit of tubing, fluid systems, and oldest sensor—the human eye. ings. mechanical systems. This com- At the rollout, though, Secretary pares with a sixty percent success Aldridge announced that "the con- The B-2 Program rate for a conventional design pro- trail problem has been solved, but "The B-2 is the first computer-age cess. Northrop invested more than I'm not going to tell you how." Two airplane," said Thomas V. Jones, $1 billion in the system, which in- possible solutions: a fuel additive, Northrop's chairman of the board cludes 400 terminals and thirty or a baffle system on the rear of and chief executive officer, "but the computer graphics rooms at the the aircraft that mixes cold air with airplane wasn't built by computers. company's 3,300,000-square-foot the hot engine exhaust to eliminate

The Northrop B-2 looks particularly sinister in this head-on shot, taken at the rollout ceremo- nies at Palmdale, Calif. The B-2's wingspan of approximately 172 feet is roughly thirteen feet shorter than that of a B-52. At sixty-nine feet long and seventeen feet high, the B-2 is about six feet longer than an F-15 and the same height as an FB-111.

And computers didn't replace peo- Pico Rivera, Calif., facility (where the formation of the telltale vapor ple. Computers brought people to- the B-2 was designed and engi- trails. gether and gave them the tools they neered) alone. Sometime around 1983, a reas- needed to make the most of their The avionics system has already sessment of the threats the B-2 individual skills and imagination." been tested for 44,000 hours. Engi- would encounter resulted in a re- Indeed, the B-2 is the first aircraft neering development testing took design (mostly in the carry-through to be designed and built with a another 16,000 hours, and the flight- structure, where the wing halves three-dimensional integrated data- control system has logged 9,000 meet in the center of the aircraft and base. This computer network elec- hours on the test bench. Strategic distribute aerodynamic loads) to tronically linked Northrop's engi- Air Command flight crews (the help the aircraft withstand the neering, tooling, and manufacturing eventual users) have accumulated stress of low-level flight. The re- segments with contractor logistics 6,000 hours in the B-2 simulator. design cost approximately $1 bil- support, the Air Force, and the ma- The airplane was also designed lion. ior subcontractors (Boeing Ad- for high reliability and maintainabil- John K. "Jack" Northrop, the de-

AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1989 45

Despite the public roll- ns out, many 8-2 detabs are Simo still classified. The b plane's two-person Bo by

cockpit was shrouded to during the ceremonies,

and guests were pre- AF pho US

vented from getting a — dose look at the air- craft's aft end, whose shape and materials help the 8-2 avoid de- tection. Evident in this picture are some of the many compound curves that help reduce the 13-2's radar signature.

signer who pioneered the flying- plane necessitated changes to the high-speed taxi tests and other final wing concept in the 1920s and built tooling and delayed development. checkouts. The aircraft was sched- the first practical flying wing (the "Costs for the program now will uled for its first flight about the time N-1M) in 1940, was given a specially be determined and given in the Janu- this article appears. It will make the arranged briefing on the B-2 before ary budget submissions to Con- short hop from Palmdale to Ed- he died in 1981 at the age of eighty- gress," noted Secretary Aldridge at wards AFB, where it will undergo a five. One of Mr. Northrop's sons, the rollout. "The [airplane's devel- full test program. It will be flown by John, his granddaughter, Janet Nor- opment and production] schedule is one Northrop and one Air Force pi- throp, and a grandson, Jere Johan- causing some revisions [to the esti- lot on that first flight. sing, were present at the rollout. mated costs]." The $36.6 billion The B-2 and the first five B-2As The first B-2's serial number cost estimate for 132 aircraft has will be assigned to the flight-test (82-1066) indicates that money to escalated by sixteen percent into program at Edwards, with five of build the aircraft was authorized in the neighborhood of $68.1 billion, or the aircraft eventually going to the FY '82. Construction was done on about $42.5 billion in 1981 dollars. operational fleet. A 171,000-square- "hard," or production, tooling, in- That figure works out to $516 mil- foot hangar and two additional stead of the "soft" prototype tool- lion per plane in current dollars. buildings have been built at the Air ing. This method resulted in a cost After the rollout, the B-2 was Force Flight Test Center to support savings, but the redesign of the air- scheduled to undergo engine and the B-2 test program. The first operational B-2s will be assigned to Whiteman AFB, Mo. It B-2 Industrial Team Currently home to the 351st Strate- gic Missile Wing, Whiteman will The 8-2 industrial team is headed by prime contractor Northrop Corp. Boeing eventually receive thirty-four B-2s, Advanced Systems Co., LTV Aircraft Products Group, and General Electric Engine Group are key members of the contractor team. Other major subcontractors in- which will be housed in individual clude Link Flight Simulation Corp., Boeing Military , and Hughes Radar hangars. Over the past two fiscal Systems Group. years, $144.3 million in construc- The Air Force has also declassified a partial list of other members of the B-2 tion has been authorized for the industrial team. They include Abex Corp., Adams-Russell Co. Inc., Allied Signal Corp., Arkwin Industries Inc., Bell Systems Engineering, Collins Defense Communi- base, which has no fixed-wing fly- cations, Continental Microwave and Tool Co., Eldec Corp., E-Systems Inc., Fairchild ing mission. The B-2's initial opera- Communications and Electronics Co., Fenwal Inc., G. E. Aircraft Control Systems tional capability is expected to be Department, G. E. Instrument Products Operation, Gull Inc., Hercules Inc., and reached by early 1993. Honeywell Inc. If the B-1B deployment schedule Others are Kaman, Kearfott Guidance and Navigation Corp., Lockheed Corp., McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co., Miltope Co., Moog Inc., 0EA Inc., Parker-Hannifin is an accurate guide, the B-2s will Corp., PDA Engineering, Raychem Corp., Raytheon Corp., Resdel Engineering likely be assigned to wings at four Corp., Rockwell International Corp., Rosemount Inc., Sanders Associates Inc., other bases, not yet identified. The Smith Industries Aerospace and Defense Systems Inc., Sundstrand Corp., Teledyne, primary depot facility for the new TRW Inc., Unisys Corp., United Aircraft Products Inc., United Technologies Corp., Vaga Industries, Vickers Inc., and Whittaker Corp. bombers will be the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB, Okla. • 46 AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1989