AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 291 / 308

Plate 291 of 308 · Cold War · Stealth strategic bomber

Northrop B-2A Spirit

B-2A 88-0329 ‘Spirit of Missouri’, painted as B-2A 88-0329, ‘Spirit of Missouri’, the first B-2 delivered to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, in December 1993, flown by the 325th Bomb Squadron ‘Alley Oop’ and photographed taking off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam: a two-seat stealth strategic bomber built as a pure flying wing with no fin or tailplane, its leading edges swept at about 35 degrees and a sawtooth ‘double-W’ trailing edge, a blended central body with a raised cockpit hump, four General Electric F118 turbofans buried in the wing under two domed humps with serrated intakes on top and recessed exhaust troughs ahead of the trailing edge, elevons and a central beavertail surface, split drag rudders at the wingtips and a tricycle undercarriage with large gear doors: overall dark grey low-observable finish with patchy repairs and light grey dashed hatch and walkway outlines, ‘AF 88 0329’ on the upper body, the Air Combat Command shield and a red rescue arrow by the cockpit, ‘WM’, ‘325 BS’, ‘SPIRIT OF MISSOURI’ and the chequered ‘Alley Oop’ band on the main gear doors and ‘0329’ on the nose gear doors, with the auxiliary inlet doors open, as photographed (no B-2 is in a UK museum; shape from a Wikimedia Commons three-view checked against photographs, with its heights scaled to the published 5.18 m; the port-side markings are mirrored from the starboard side, the cockpit windows and badge are simplified and the small stencils are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as B-2A 88-0329, ‘Spirit of Missouri’, the first B-2 delivered to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, in December 1993, flown by the 325th Bomb Squadron ‘Alley Oop’ and photographed taking off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam: a two-seat stealth strategic bomber built as a pure flying wing with no fin or tailplane, its leading edges swept at about 35 degrees and a sawtooth ‘double-W’ trailing edge, a blended central body with a raised cockpit hump, four General Electric F118 turbofans buried in the wing under two domed humps with serrated intakes on top and recessed exhaust troughs ahead of the trailing edge, elevons and a central beavertail surface, split drag rudders at the wingtips and a tricycle undercarriage with large gear doors: overall dark grey low-observable finish with patchy repairs and light grey dashed hatch and walkway outlines, ‘AF 88 0329’ on the upper body, the Air Combat Command shield and a red rescue arrow by the cockpit, ‘WM’, ‘325 BS’, ‘SPIRIT OF MISSOURI’ and the chequered ‘Alley Oop’ band on the main gear doors and ‘0329’ on the nose gear doors, with the auxiliary inlet doors open, as photographed (no B-2 is in a UK museum; shape from a Wikimedia Commons three-view checked against photographs, with its heights scaled to the published 5.18 m; the port-side markings are mirrored from the starboard side, the cockpit windows and badge are simplified and the small stencils are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.4 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (B-2A); engine, crew and dimensions are for the B-2A 88-0329 ‘Spirit of Missouri’ modelled here.

History

The B-2A Spirit

In 1981 the US Air Force chose Northrop to build its Advanced Technology Bomber, a long-range aircraft meant to slip through Soviet air defences unseen by radar. Northrop went back to the idea that Jack Northrop had pursued in the 1940s with the XB-35 and YB-49: a flying wing with no fuselage or tail. Every edge of the new bomber’s outline was set parallel to one of two directions, so that radar energy bounced away in a few narrow spikes, and its four engines were buried in the wing with their intakes on top, hidden from radar below. Much of the skin was made of radar-absorbent composites, and the whole project was kept secret until the aircraft was rolled out at Palmdale on 22 November 1988.

The first B-2 flew from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base on 17 July 1989. By then the Soviet Union was falling apart, and with each aircraft costing around two billion dollars once development was counted in, the planned fleet of 132 was cut to just 21. The first operational B-2 reached the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, in December 1993. Each is named ‘Spirit of’ a US state or of a theme such as ‘Spirit of America’.

The B-2 went to war over Kosovo in 1999, flying non-stop round trips of about 30 hours from Missouri. In 2001 B-2s flew missions of more than 40 hours to Afghanistan, and they later struck targets in Iraq and Libya; in June 2025 they dropped the first 30,000 lb GBU-57 bunker-busters in combat, on Iran’s nuclear sites. One B-2, Spirit of Kansas, was lost in a take-off crash on Guam in 2008, and its successor, the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, first flew in 2023. B-2s often deploy to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. None is in a UK museum.

This airframe

B-2A 88-0329 ‘Spirit of Missouri’

88-0329The airframe modelled

88-0329, Spirit of Missouri, was the first B-2 delivered to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, arriving on 17 December 1993, ninety years to the day after the Wright brothers’ first flight. It has served there ever since, flying from Whiteman and from forward bases such as Andersen on Guam. The model shows it on the ground with its gear down, as photographed taking off from Andersen: overall dark grey with patchy repairs and light grey dashed outlines around hatches and walkways, ‘AF 88 0329’ on the upper body, the Air Combat Command shield and a red rescue arrow by the cockpit, and ‘WM’, ‘325 BS’, ‘SPIRIT OF MISSOURI’ and the chequered ‘Alley Oop’ band of the 325th Bomb Squadron on the main gear doors. The auxiliary inlet doors on top of the engines are open, as on the ground. Its shape comes from a Wikimedia Commons three-view checked against photographs; the port-side markings are mirrored from the starboard side and the cockpit windows are simplified.

Where to see one

Not on charge

Still in service. The National Museum of the US Air Force shows a B-2 test airframe, and B-2s visit RAF Fairford on deployment.

All 308 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.