1.2 Billio dollars worth of plane http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23302483

At least both pilots ejected safely.

How can anything cost 1.2 billion dollars to build? WTF is it made of?

that's just it.. they can't tell you what it's made of... but it came from Roswell New Mexico. Glad the pilots are alright. That's 3 planes down this week with 1 fatality.

Myth has it that one of our stealth fighters has enough wiring in it to wrap it around the world. I am sure Mythbusters may be able to prove me wrong though...

There are only twenty of these planes. I can't imagine there was much of an assembly line. Probably all hand assembled, so that adds a good bit of expense.

The parts this plane use is the same story. Only need so many parts, so cost is gonna be really high.

I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. The F117's computers made hundreds of corrections/changes per second to keep the thing in the air. If you are interested, a good book that talks about the developement of the F117 is "Skunk Works" by Ben E. Rich. The book covers the history of Lockheed's secret division and certain aircraft; U-2, A-12, SR-71 and the F-117.

Anything to the story that this B-2 was trying to take off from a treadmill when this occurred?

It was also 5% of the inventory lost.

Why do we need a 1.2BILLION dollar aircraft when our missle systems can do the job?

I would imagine the payload of the B2 would be cheaper than all the missiles that would have to do the same thing.

Actually, I have no idea...just figured maybe that would be an excuse.

Easy, the B2 can be used to deliver conventional weapons without the issues of changing between nuclear and conventional warheads.

Missiles are noisy, traceable to their origin....

Plausible deniability?

One reason these planes cost so much money??? bear with me for a minute, and I'll admit up front that my numbers may be off, but the gist of these stories is true.

In ther 60's there was a bomber program labeled the XB-70. The Pentagon wanted a supersonic bomber that could carry massive payloads. Billions of dollars in R&D went into the program and eventually two or three of the planes were produced. I think one of them crashed on a test flight, and one of them crashed in a fluke accident during a photo shoot, and the program was already way over budget. People in congress determined that we didn't need a supersonic bomber fleet after all, so they killed the program. When people did the math, each of the two or three planes cost well over a billion dollars in 1960's dollars. Damn.

Now, to the Stealth bomber. All sorts of R&D went into the program and cost lots of $$$. Initially, the military contracted to buy something like 90 of them with that R&D cost and tooling cost spread out, I think the original price tag was something like $500 million each. Then the congress slashed the order down to 50 or so, so the price went up. Then the congress slashed the order again, so the price went up again. Pretty soon, they were paying well over a billion dollars a plane, and only getting 20 of the things.

Our government doesn't seem to understand the concept of volume discounts, financial responsibility, resource management. But I don't have to tell you guys that.

Acutally, (I'm retired AF) they CAN'T do the same thing. Missiles can hit any target, virtually anywhere. But they have to be programmed where to go. Planes on the other hand can hit select targets as the need arises, and they can do it repeatedly. So if you send in a missile to take something out and it doesn't quite do the job, you then have to send in another missile. (Note the time delay.) Planes on the other hand, can do the same thing, but if one missile doesn't do the job well, they can just turn around and hit it again.

Plus, planes can carry bombs and get into places missiles can't with the same ease.

Want more? These are two different weapons for two different purposes.

-G