Media Platforms Design TeamJune 1946Test pilot Max Stanley flies the XB-35, the distant grandfather of the B-2. It will take decades of engineering progress before flying wings are stable enough to fly in combat.November 1981Northrop Grumman wins a contract to research a flying-wing bomber. February 1982The Tacit Blue test airplane begins flights. The Air Force uses the data it generates to shape the B-2. July 1989The B-2 flies for the first time in the skies of California.April 1997The Air Force announces the B-2 is ready to drop conventional bombs.March 1999A pair of Spirit bombers strike Yugoslavia with satellite-guided bombs in the B-2’s combat debut.October 2001B-2s bomb Afghanistan, the first response to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.March 2003B-2 stealth bombers open the “shock and awe” campaign in Iraq, hitting the correct targets with 2000-pound bombs but failing to killSaddam Hussein. February 2006The Air Force declares its intention to field a new bomber in 2018. February 2008A B-2 crashes without fatalities in Guam after its airspeed sensors are befuddled by moisture. Says Technical Sgt. Thomas Anderson: “For us, it was like when Kennedy was shot.“April 2009Secretary of Defense Robert Gates cancels the 2018 bomber.March 2011Three B-2s from Missouri wipe out Libya’s air force on the ground in one evening. February 2012The Obama administration in its 2013 budget requests $6.3 billion to develop a new bomber, ready in 2025.January 2013The Pentagon confirms the B-2 can carry the GBU-57, a 30,000-pound bomb, which explodes after penetrating hundreds of feet of concrete. «< Penetration ModeMedia Platforms Design TeamHow It Will Work »>Media Platforms Design TeamJoe PappalardoJoe Pappalardo is a contributing writer at Popular Mechanics and author of the new book, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight.
