In the history of aviation there’s never been a plane more groundbreaking than the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Capable of flying anywhere in the world undetected, the B-2 can arrive over its target, release precision munitions and escape confident in the fact that the bombs will hit their targets, and that the plane will return home safely. Revolutionary in design and capability, the B-2 represents the culmination of many disciplines and sciences, from aeronautics to stealth, to bombing itself. It also has a distinction unshared by any conventional aircraft – for the entirety of its service life the B-2 has never been detected, targeted, or engaged. The B-2 is flown exclusively by the United States Air Force and is the most sophisticated flying machine in existence. Its creation relied on one hundred years of bombing experience, the evolution of computers, radical jumps in engineering science, new approaches to aircraft design, and a new generation of weapons called smart bombs. Among the personalities involved were visionary american aircraft designer and an unrecognized Soviet physicist. The story of the stealth bomber begins during the first days of bombing.
