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B-2 down in Guam, Crew ejected safely.

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
... this is proof that nothing that costs $1.2 BILLION should EVER leave the ground unless it's going to space...
You mean like a 4-ship of F-22's?

As stated above, it is actually $2B+. At that price, I'm figuring that when you pull the ejection handles, the seat doesn't fire, but a video comes up on all your cockpit MFD's of the Wing Commander shaking his head and waving his finger side-to-side, saying, "No, no, no,... try harder."
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
I'm worried if they might have been plus'ed up though. Third man doesn't get an ejection seat but a folding chair behind the other two for augmented crew ops...
I'm not positive on this, but I don't believe they ever fly with an augmented crew. It was originally designed for a 3rd crew member, and when they pulled that station out of the design, it gave them the room for the famous barcalounger. However, the 2 pilots just trade off taking naps.
 

jitiola

Tengo La Camisa Negra!!!!
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332038,00.html

As always, the seat saved some lives. Good job on the crews part.

This recent accident raises a question though: Is the recent string of "bad luck" for the AF going to have any affect on the recent bickering AF brass was making about budgeting? I guess all these recent air incidents would solidify their arguments, eh?
 

bert

Enjoying the real world
pilot
Contributor
Not saying it is related to anything but this is an actual conversation between myself and a TDY B-2 driver at Andersen back in '98:

Him: "Hey, are you with that helicopter squadron?'

me: "yep"

Him: "I was watching one of your helo's and we couldn't figure out what it was doing: it would start in a hover, then dive down towards the deck, then start to take off, then go back and do it again. What is that?"

me: "Practicing single engine recoveries from an out of ground effect hover."

Him: "Oh. Well, it looked weird. We've never had an engine failure."

Then he walked off.
 

Single Seat

Average member
pilot
None
On the bright side, we should probably be thankful they only built 21 of them instead of the 165 wanted.

Which is why each unit is so expensive. The cost is for the program divided by the number of actual planes to roll off the assembly line.



On another note, WTF is going on? The Navy, USMC, and USAF have been chucking jets like they're going out of style lately.
 

mb1k

Yep. The clock says, "MAN TIME".
pilot
None
I'm not positive on this, but I don't believe they ever fly with an augmented crew. It was originally designed for a 3rd crew member, and when they pulled that station out of the design, it gave them the room for the famous barcalounger. However, the 2 pilots just trade off taking naps.

How you doing Huggy, I think you handled my U-2 package back in '06. If you're the same dude I never realized you were prior Navy?!?

To answer your question, yes. They did often (often is relative to the Buff) fly plus'd up. My friend is a B-2 driver and told me about the lawn chair, sleeping bag, and ice chest configurations for the floor behind the two main seats.

I turned down the possibility of cross flowing to Buffs once because I didn't like the whole "one man without an ejection seat" daily way of doing business that the old SAC heads live by...
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
So how do they work that?

Gentlemens agreement nobody punches, or "sucks to be the loser at magical(musical) chairs dude!" ?
 

mb1k

Yep. The clock says, "MAN TIME".
pilot
None
So how do they work that?

Gentlemens agreement nobody punches, or "sucks to be the loser at magical(musical) chairs dude!" ?

I don't even want to get into it ...it's sorta unspoken thing in the back of everyone's mind about who get's the jumpseat/IP seat in the Buff. It's one of those things that an outsider looks at and goes, "WTF?!?" and anyone inside the community just goes along day-in-and-day-out excepting the status quo.

I don't have the facts, but they did lose more than a few people when the others punched out and there was a man left behind. Another friend of mine punched out of a Bone during his very second flight in the school house. There was a person w/o an ejection seat during that one too. But he wasn't the only one that died. I can't remember all the details on that one, last time he told the story was years ago and we were drinking... took him almost a year to get back into the cockpit from that too. The SQ CC and OG were trying to write him off as mentally and emotionally damaged and too frail to fly. He spent a year ice skating uphill to fly again. He ended up being one of the saltiest B-1 pilots by the time he retired too. Much respected.
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
mb1k,
Thanks for clarifying the B-2 crewing. I didn't know they flew augmented.
That B-1 accident you're referring to: wasn't that the one that took big birds around '86-'89? If I remember right, there were six in the jet; 4 ejected ok.
 
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