just after midnight

waiting to hear about a damage report - crew is safe

an expensive error

Bummer, glad the crew is ok.

Not a lot out there on this yet.

Link

https://www.thedrive.com/the-w...ncy-landing-incident

No fire and everyone safe. Sounds like it was a hard landing, possible fuselage damage.

With only 20 currently available (1 lost on Guam), I believe there's 3-5 for training and testing, leaving 15-16 available that are combat coded. That B-21 program can't come soon enough

So much I don't understand. If this was a training flight, was it one of the 3-5 available for training. Its what us old fools would think.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-w...after-landing-mishap

Left landing gear collapsed and the plane cart-wheeled into the grassy area adjacent to the runway.

That’s not gonna buff out.

So...not a crash.

Damn! Now stealth bombers are taking a knee.

I still chuckle that they assign "tail numbers" to tail-less aircraft in the fleet.

You'd think they'd change the nomenclature for that...

Glad to know there is no casualty

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-w...after-landing-mishap

Left landing gear collapsed and the plane cart-wheeled into the grassy area adjacent to the runway.

Looks like a skid rather than a cartwheel. Unless American cartwheels are different to ours over here.

Nope tac, a cartwheel is a cartwheel in both places. Korean Air in SFO was a cartwheel, this was not that. Looks expensive though. Hard to believe one of those costs the same as a destroyer. Ugh

Cartwheel is a very specific term, implying the aircraft flipped end over end (likely several times). A B-2 cartwheel would almost certainly result in a total loss and likely a very impressive explosion.

This looks more like a Ground Loop: (according to Wiki, In aviation, "a ground loop is a rapid rotation of a fixed-wing aircraft in the horizontal plane (yawing) while on the ground.") This typically occurs on landing or take-off, when the pilot fails to use proper rudder control, or a gear or wheel fails.

So, it lost a gear, and departed the runway due to increased drag on the wing without the functioning gear.

On a normal aircraft, this looks like it would be an easy fix. However, very little about the B-2 is 'normal.' Depending on any airframe damage/distortion, the aircraft may still be useful for 'regular' bombing missions, but may not be useful for 'stealthy' missions. Any small deviation from absolute perfection can seriously degrade the B-2's 'invisibility.' I'm sure they are working on it now, as these are ridiculously expensive aircraft. Even if it can't be fully 'stealthy' anymore due to damage from this incident, it would still be a useful aircraft for missions without sophisticated air defense networks (you don't need to be invisible to drop bombs on goat herders in A-stan, but you DO need to be invisible if you wish to nuke Beijing or Moscow. . . ).

quote:

Hard to believe one of those costs the same as a destroyer. Ugh

I used to wonder the same thing, until I read what they were really designed to do. Basically, after the first wave of a nuclear war hit, this thing would roam around the Soviet Union searching for and destroying mobile missile launchers. It has a LPI (Low Probability of Intercept) radar system, which (theoretically) would prevent it from being detected by enemy systems. So, this aircraft would roam over a hostile territory on full war footing, destroying the Soviet 2nd/3rd strike capability. Pretty impressive stuff, especially considering NO OTHER aircraft in the world would be capable of even trying something like this.

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:

Unless American cartwheels are different to ours over here.

Same terminology. Though, the US called this a 'Departure From Runway.' Very sterile and boring. I believe the Brit term would be "A Jolly Good Pranging.". .

so technically, it was a good landing because they walked away from it

it wasn't a great landing because the airplane will need repairs

quote:

Originally posted by Gibb:
I still chuckle that they assign "tail numbers" to tail-less aircraft in the fleet.

You'd think they'd change the nomenclature for that...

I didn't think you could still say "tail" in the Air Force?

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-w...after-landing-mishap

Left landing gear collapsed and the plane cart-wheeled into the grassy area adjacent to the runway.

Looks like a skid rather than a cartwheel. Unless American cartwheels are different to ours over here.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Nope tac, a cartwheel is a cartwheel in both places. Korean Air in SFO was a cartwheel, this was not that. Looks expensive though. Hard to believe one of those costs the same as a destroyer. Ugh

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
Cartwheel is a very specific term, implying the aircraft flipped end over end (likely several times). A B-2 cartwheel would almost certainly result in a total loss and likely a very impressive explosion.

This looks more like a Ground Loop: (according to Wiki, In aviation, "a ground loop is a rapid rotation of a fixed-wing aircraft in the horizontal plane (yawing) while on the ground.") This typically occurs on landing or take-off, when the pilot fails to use proper rudder control, or a gear or wheel fails.

So, it lost a gear, and departed the runway due to increased drag on the wing without the functioning gear.

Yup, cartwheel wasn't quite right as it implies it rotated on its side, pinwheel would've implied it rotated around a center-point, ground loop...sure, that sounds about right.

"Groundloop" generally applies to conventional gear (tailwheel) aircraft. A groundloop occurs when the tailwheel begins tracking outside the mains, and at some point passes the main gear in an arc, putting a heavy side load on the gear, and frequently damaging or ripping off the gear.

It's hard to groundloop a nose-gear aircraft.

That is too bad.

We are probably 30 miles west (as the crow flies) from Whiteman. We see these guys over the house fairly frequently. I think we are in the flight path from Whiteman to the bombing range at ft Riley.

We see AH-64's and A-10's as well.